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followers on Facebook and having
over 1.3 million views on their on-
line posts, organisers of Bye Buy Day
HK are confident their campaign can
raise public awareness that political
agenda can be influenced through
their consumption. “Many support-
ers told us they have started to mini-
mise their spending already. In par-
ticular, when we first held our booth
near Windsor in Causeway Bay dur-
ing the August 18 protest to promote
our campaign, many middle-aged
men and women expressed their sup-
port to us,” the representative of Bye
Buy Day HK says.
Embracing the concept of dollar
voting, the campaign does not urge
supporters to avoid consumption
completely but simply minimise un-
necessary purchases. Dollar voting
accentuates the power of consumers
to determine resources allocation of
business, which in turn also influenc-
es the rise and fall of business under
conscious selection of products from
companies based on certain crite-
ria. “All we’re calling for is a reason-
able, but not a radical change in their
spending patterns,” the representa-
tive emphasises.

Emergence of
“ethical businesses”
While some shops are snubbed,
shops supporting the anti-ELAB
movement see the fruit through the
boycott campaign - customers began
“We believe that consumers have the power to steer and shape our fu- to support these ‘ethical businesses’
ture economy or even the political system,” a representative of Bye Buy by consuming more. Hungry Dino, a
Day HK who declines to reveal his name explains. “People can choose to takeaway eatery established in early
support businesses that June, becomes one of the businesses
share their political opin- hailed by netizens as ‘ethical busi-
ions. This way, businesses We believe that con- ness’ after the shop owners decided to
will know that they need sumers have the power to give out free meals to protesters. The
to have conscience and owners, however, did not expect their
align themselves with steer and shape our fu- own political stance would receive
people’s view in order to ture economy or even the any public attention,
prosper.” Tim Law Kin-sun and Tracy Tang
Reaching over 27,000 political system. So-lan, the co-founders of Hungry