Page 34 - 153 varsity ebook

32 / Lifestyle

01-02: People gathering
at Festival Walk for a
Shop Boycott Event on
September; 29
03-05: Memo stickers
posted by customers
inside Hungry Dino. 01

Dino, decided to distribute free rice balls and
sell prepaid rice ball coupons during anti-
ELAB protests in late July. Since then, they
have sold over 10,000 prepaid rice ball cou-
pons and gave away around 7,500 coupons.
Being honoured as an “ethical owner”, Law
finds the phenomenon surprising as he has no
intention to make use of his political stand to
boost his business.
He is thankful but at the
same time questions the
power of the shop boycott
movement. “Consumers
can never support all the 04
‘ethical businesses’. These
small-scale ‘ethical businesses’ But would anyone continue to support these businesses after two
will be eliminated by the mar- Tim Law Kin-sun years just because they had spoken out for the movement back
ket trend while pro-govern-
ment businesses may still survive in the mar- then?” Law questions.
ket,” says Law.
So far Hungry Dino still fails to make ends Shop boycott in reality
meet since its opening. Despite the fact that Altering consumption pattern is not as easy as it sounds. For Miss
the launch of the business coincided with the Sin, a university student, who declines to reveal her full name, living
critical time of anti-ELAB movement, Law in a community surrounded by MTR malls means she is confined
does not want to attribute the loss solely to the to join the boycott campaign due to geographical restrictions. She
government as economy decline and misman- is forced to do shopping at chain stores. “To be honest, most of the
agement of his own can also be the reasons. enterprises and firms in Hong Kong are pro-government, and it is dif-
He believes the turnover rate will be similar ficult to avoid all purchases from all of them,” the boycotter of MTR
whether he has expressed any political view related shops says.
or not. Sin points out many people are still shopping at stores that
Although Law agrees that the boycott cam- should be boycotted. She believes unity among the mass to engage
paign can give consumers a sense of contri- in the campaign is vital to keep the action going. Even though she
bution to the movement, he is afraid that the has doubts regarding the impact of the boycott movement, she still
campaign will not be able to bring changes hopes her actions can influence others in the future.
to their consumption habits in the long run. Recognising the potential limits of the boycott movement, yet,
“Many restaurants and shops showed their Sin still supports the campaign. “Shop boycotting is already a meth-
support for the Umbrella Movement [in 2014]. od to express our political views at the lowest cost,’ the 19-year-old