this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2025
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[โ€“] Obi@sopuli.xyz 62 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I also think most people have no idea how much shit is owned by coke, so maybe they're leaving coke on the shelves but buying some other brands owned by them instead? Also yeah Europeans sure love their coke zero and it's gonna be tough getting everyone to stop, there's probably correlation between liking coke and not giving a shit about politics.

[โ€“] njm1314@lemmy.world 49 points 4 days ago (1 children)

When these companies reach certain sizes they're almost boycott proof. Simply insane how large they're allowed to become.

[โ€“] Taalnazi@lemmy.world 19 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

Coca Cola is owned by The Coca Cola Company, whose owner (or well, group with largest share) is Berkshire Hathaway Inc., owned by Warren Buffett (with his successor being Greg Abel). Ajit Jainil is a vice chairman, whose cousin was a co-CEO of the Deutsche Bank.

Coca Cola also sponsored Trump.

Duracell is one of the biggest part of Berkshire, but there's way more. Some holdings and subsidiaries have sub-holdings and subsidiaries!

It also has insurance companies which invest in policy premiums in some companies, up to many billions. Visa, Mastercard, Kraft Heinz, T-mobile, Mitsubishi, to name a few.

Companies are evil. Every single one that's big is one too many.

We should develop an app, downloadable from multiple app stores, to automatically scan a product and see if it's ultimately owned by a billionnaire and where some companies don't have workplace democracy. And the app should offer alternatives, from which you can order. Can someone on Lemmy here do it?

[โ€“] 0x0@lemmy.zip 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

scan a product and see if itโ€™s ultimately owned by a billionnaire

Unless you're in a thrift store or flea market, the answer is yes.

[โ€“] Taalnazi@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I dunno, I feel like it is possible for a company to be worker-owned with workplace democracy, where the highest-earning worker earns only one and a half times as much as the lowest earning, instead of hundreds of times more.

And even then, I think wages shouldn't be a thing at all - but instead that economies should be need-focused, rather than profit-focused.

It would be great if for example woodcutters delivered wood directly to farmers, farmers food directly to woodcutters, and truck drivers received goods directly from both, and so on.

No wages, just cooperation without monetisation.

[โ€“] 0x0@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 days ago

Works at the small scale, but as you grow, so does human greed.

[โ€“] Cordyceps_cereal@lemmynsfw.com 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

https://many.bio/nothanksboycott not exactly what you're talking about but still worthwhile

[โ€“] Taalnazi@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Oh hey, thanks! That's actually pretty useful. Saved.

It's exactly what I'm looking for, design-wise. If the app also had a customisation option for billionnaire companies without workplace democracy and the like...

There's also BuyFromEU, BuyEuropean AI (that one is closest to what I meant) and Boycat, now that I looked further.

Yeah it's really great. The creator, Ahmed Bashbash made it completely free and any donations he gives directly to Palestinian organisations to support those in need. He's also open to people volunteering to help with researching for bad brands etc. (I've no connection to him I just love the app and really hate genocide)

Would love a personalized warning list, to add companies (and automatically any owners/siblings) that flags products as I scan them.

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[โ€“] 0x0@lemmy.zip 34 points 4 days ago (4 children)

I do better by avoiding sodas altogether... it's sugar in a bottle, no thanks.

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[โ€“] twinnie@feddit.uk 25 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Itโ€™s hard to know whatโ€™s actually owned by Coca-Cola.

[โ€“] Typotyper@sh.itjust.works 16 points 4 days ago (2 children)
[โ€“] detren@sh.itjust.works 19 points 4 days ago

Thereโ€™s a lot more because Coca Cola owns brands that only operate within a single national market.

[โ€“] 0x0@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)
[โ€“] Taalnazi@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

A RECOMMENDATION: TURN UPSIDE DOWN IF IT'S A BAD PRODUCT.

Regional
No Thanks (Apple store) - Android store for Palestine stuff. Collects no data at all. This is the app I would first recommend. Scan product, see result.

Buy Beaver - Canadian-focused initiative. Lets you pick countries to support. Collects mail address and device ID, but nothing more.

Detrumpez Vous - focused on finding whether a product is American or not.

Supranational (European)
Buy From EU - find European alternatives. Not necessarily scanning, but useful. Collects mail/sms, but that's it.

Buy European AI - lets you take a picture of the product, find European alternatives & that of allies. Anonymously collects rough location & photo (the latter makes sense though).

General
There's Boycat, also as app, which is user-friendly, but their privacy policy states your data may be stored outside of your legal jurisdiction.

[โ€“] Typotyper@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 days ago

Depends where you are from, but the App Store and buy Canadian turned up this. There were several of them

https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/maple-scan-buy-canadian/id6741467577

[โ€“] IhaveCrabs111@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

Coke probably is. Not sure what else

[โ€“] vga@sopuli.xyz 22 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

I've stopped buying Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Plenty of locals make similar products.

Neither of those companies left Russian market even though they seemed to promise to do that. That should've been enough reason to avoid them.

Also, if it's a cold beverage with coffeine you want, making your own cold brew tea is trivial: just put some tea into a container and put it in the fridge for 12-24 hours. Then remove the tea leaves and consume within 3 days. Bagged tea doesn't taste as good but is obviously easier to filter out.

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[โ€“] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 17 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Unfortunately, my local and popular soft drink company had been bought by Coca Cola years ago. They made the drink taste bad now, which is literal enshitiffication. Not much for any remaining local alternatives to buy.

[โ€“] crumbguzzler5000@feddit.org 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Having this issue also, how not buy soft drink stands which are either owned by coca cola or PepsiCo is not as simple as it sounds

[โ€“] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 days ago

And if youโ€™re making your own, donโ€™t get a SodaStream because the factories are in occupied/stolen land in Palestine. DrinkMate is a better machine anyways.

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[โ€“] Tuuktuuk@sopuli.xyz 15 points 4 days ago (1 children)

This could be largely because Pepsi has been expanding in the Russia and many are boycotting it for that. So, if the combined market share of those has risen, then we are not doing so badly :)

[โ€“] Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

But isn't Pepsi only going there since coke never left and faced no consequences

[โ€“] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Coca-Cola suspended it's business in Russia in 2022. Pepsi never left Russia.

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[โ€“] dumnezero@piefed.social 14 points 3 days ago

Make Tap Water Great Again

[โ€“] KumaSudosa@feddit.dk 13 points 3 days ago

I suppose it may be time to expand the 30% tariff retaliation to anything owned by US companies.

[โ€“] McDropout@lemmy.world 13 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I wonder why fizzy sugary drink is now a necessity to drink.

I donโ€™t see the same conversation around chocolate milk or pineapple juice.

People in the comments need to take a step back.

[โ€“] tatann@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

I don't drink cola outside of parties where I drink it with (cheap) whisky (I wouldn't ruin good whisky with cola), which I admit is still very bad for health, but at least not frequent

The only other time I'm glad to have some cola is when I have "stomache troubles" ๐Ÿšฝ

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[โ€“] Harvey656@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Do better Europeans. Coke snitched on their own workers to ICE.

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[โ€“] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I think I wrote this recently elsewhere, but I just never drink nor desire soda. It just doesn't even occur to me as a thing to want. When I was a kid, we mostly drank water. It's kind of alienating to realize how many other people are seemingly fundamentally different on such a basic part of life like "drinking"

Same, my family weren't soda drinkers.

[โ€“] alexcleac@szmer.info 10 points 4 days ago

The saddest thing for me is that it is 90% impossible to drink gin-tonic without paying to Coca-Cola in Poland. For other 10%, the price of tonic is almost same as the price for gin :/

[โ€“] OddMinus1@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Haven't had a coca cola in about 10 years. I'm doing my part!

Coke free for a couple years. I'm doing my part

[โ€“] altphoto@lemmy.today 8 points 3 days ago

I'm glad I can choose to drink that. Other places like Mexico city where potable water is fully contaminated don't have that choice. Its usually Coca cola and other industrial beverage manufacturers the ones polluting the water or helping to reduce access to it...for obvious reasons$$$$.

[โ€“] tatann@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

I've only bought Breizh Cola for years, and will continue to shame my friends who still buy "Nazi Cola"

For my Romanian and surrounding siblings who are also struggling with their Coke addiction, Auchan holds Adria Cola in large plastic bottles, and I found it to be similar enough in terms of content of uppers, and different enough to be an interesting change. Made by European Drinks, may even be found in smaller local shops (it's pretty common in Transylvania, at least).

[โ€“] UncleArthur@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)

My local (and large) supermarket in the UK only stocks Coke, not even an own-brand cola. My local corner shop only stocks Coke. We live in the sticks and there isn't a lot of choice.

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[โ€“] MTK@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Huge international company: invents extremely addictive and delicious drink, pours billions into advertising campaigns and lobbies for decades.

The public: gets addicted as they literally grew up on it

The media: YoU nEeD tO dO bEtTeR!

Maybe the government can stop guzzling corporate assholes and start passing laws against advertising and lobbying for things that are massively detrimental to the public?

Like, I'm all for sugary drinks existing, but they should be banned from being pushed into our thoughts and definitely shouldn't be endorsed by any public institution.

[โ€“] GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk 5 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Unfortunately, they're the only commonly-available cola with just sugar (rather than artificial sweeteners).
I've done a two-pronged approach, of finding alternatives (Karma and Mate are nice), and getting ready to start making my own with a carbonate.
But commonly, you'll need to buy an entire 24 pack to even approach the pricing of Coca.

What I have found is making carbonated squash often hits the spot nicely.

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[โ€“] Sektor@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

If you are in Croatia try Cockta, it's local and it's not bad.

[โ€“] basxto@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 3 days ago

Thatโ€™s one of the companies who adapt their products to regional markets and produce locally.

The other thing is theyโ€™ve always had cooperations with fast food chains, restaurants etc, which pushes their products when itโ€™s the only cola you can get.

[โ€“] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Ah, yeah, i had a very bad stomach flu last year.

They call it "advertising" because "propaganda" had unsavory associations. Coca-cola is a master of prop- er, Advertising.

[โ€“] ximtor@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 days ago

I bet Norway consumes half of European demand in Coce Zero

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