Corporations you love/corporations you hate
 

I love: Google, Red Hat, Logitech

I hate: GM, AT&T, Comcast

I used to hate but am now indifferent: Verizon, Microsoft

You?

I forgot

Hate: Clear Channel

love: Google, Whole Foods, Boiron, J.Crew, Target
hate: Walmart, Monsanto, Cargill, Merck, SmithKline, Ebay

edit/add: love Lush, hate Ikea

Love: Trader Joe's, Whole Foods. Both have found a viable niche in the overcrowded grocery market (quirky house brands / high-end and organics), both offer good products that are hard to find elsewhere, and both have employees who genuinely look like they know what they're talking about AND enjoy being there. Shit, if I could get paid anything close to what I make where I work now, I'd consider looking into jobs with one or the other. (Hint: I can't.)

Hate: Safeway. They took two perfectly good grocery chains (Genuardi's and Zagara's) and fucked them both up.

Love: IKEA. A good idea (decent few-frills furniture and housewares, DIY to keep costs down, done with a little style) that's held up well over the years. Nearly impossible to leave with an empty cart.

Hate: Best Buy. A big pile of electronics and housewares with the worst customer service known to mankind.

Love: Rockstar Games/Take Two. They continue to respond to criticism of their games' content by making the next ones push the taste envelope even harder. This is a good thing.

Hate: Electronic Arts. Once a great company, now a corporate predator coasting on name recognition.

(here we go.....)
Hate:
:rattat: Walmart
Nike
GAP
Nestle
Clear Channel
the murdoch empire/newscorp
Monsanto
$major_oil_company
CanWest
RIAA members
Associated (owner of the racist, facist Evening Standard & Daily Mail)
EA

Love:
Apple
Bodyshop

Indifferent:
McDonalds

LOVE LOVE LOVE:
Target
Trader Joe's
Red Bull

HATE HATE HATE:
STARBUCKS
Disney
STARBUCKS
Walmart
STARBUCKS

Goddamn it, how did I forget them?

Once upon a time, Banana Republic was a really nifty and quirky clothing outlet. They sold clothes normal people would want to wear AND oddities from around the world. I mean, L.L. Bean sells leather bomber jackets. Banana Republic sold bomber jackets AND silk aviator's scarves AND lambskin flight helmets. It was fun just walking around the store.

Then the Gap bought them out, subjected the chain to a massive dose of their Bland-ogrifier Ray, and turned them into Yuppie Central. EEEEECCCCH.

To this day, I have a sweater from the _old_ Banana Republic that I'd love to replace with a bigger size, but since the chain's demise I've never found one quite like it. (The Poet's Sweater was a THICK fisherman's sweater made from flecked cotton, not wool. About as warm and cozy as a sweater could get, but soft enough to wear over a T-shirt.) I've tried every store and online site I could find, no dice. I may have to take up knitting.

I hate proctor and gamble for ruining Iams and Eukanuba pet foods by reformulating them using cheaper ingredients and for the animal testing they do.

I loathe Microsoft, mainly because I feel powerless to use anything else, and they seem to deliberately engineer their products to fail. Their customer service reps read from scripts in a call center in Bangladesh and appear to have never actually used the software. But I can't bring myself to switch to something less "convenient." Furthermore, I'm afraid if I switch to Linux, MS will find out and send jackbooted thugs to beat me up in my sleep. I'm such a sheep, and Bill Gates is the demonic shepherd.

Starbucks sells the most overrated coffee in the world. It has that weird burnt aftertaste that everyone equates with "quality" when it's just burnt. IMO :blush: That people will pay 5 bucks for 8 ounces of water that has been dripped through burnt beans amazes me.

AT&T has screwed up my phone bill for 6 months running. But I pay a flat rate for unlimited long distance (that is, once I make my monthly call to remind them of the fact, and get my bill fixed).

I've never had anything but great customer service from:
eMachines (cheap computers, but knowledgeable staff - who'da thunk it)
Remington (excellent firearms, and if one breaks, they fall all over themselves fixing it)
Cabela's (no-questions-asked return policy, the best store in the world)
McDonalds (the food sucks, but I have never ever had any McDonalds kid be an asshole to me, or fail to say "thank you, come again." I wonder if they are brainwashed, or just get caned if they step out of line, but it works).
Progressive Insurance (had to get it for the SR-22 coverage, but as it turns out, they do a better job than most, and really do tell you if someone else is cheaper.)

Love:
Pixar
Target
Central Market (Texas' version of Whole Foods, except cleaner, and with a much greater variety of products. Oh, and not staffed by dirty hippies.)
Apple
Sonic

Hate:
EA
Disney
Whole Foods
Applebee's
Burger King

Indifferent:
Starbucks
Microsoft
Wal-Mart

Hate:
All banks
All insurance companies
McDonalds
D-Link

Love:
Just Us Coffee
Asus
Lush
Ikea

Love/Hate:
Tim Hortons
Microsoft

I can't imagine a cleaner store than the Whole Foods here in town. And if by "dirty hippies" you mean "a preponderance of really pretty girls" then I agree. :)

I know I'm supposed to hate Disney, but after visiting Disney World in February and having such a wonderful time with my kid, I jsut can't bring myself to do it.

I love Target, hate Wal-Mart. Totally agree with Noodle on the Starbucks thing. Their coffee tastes burnt and nasty. I'll take 7-11 coffee over Starbucks any time, as well as a breakfast bar and a pack of smokes for what I would pay at Starbucks.

Walmart's made it to England?

Love:
My employer
Dell
McDonalds
Central Market
Larry's Market
PBS
Hewlett-Packard
Cadillac
Local Credit Union
Vonage
Leatherman
REI
yeah, Google, too

New! Blarg Online Services
New! Uwajamaya


Hate:
(new and improved) Republican Party
Wal-Mart
News Corp (words fail me :rar: :bitching: )
Local Firestone/Goodyear car "repair" shops
Qwest
MBNA
Comcast Cable
ChoicePoint
FoxNews (I know, redundant)

love:
Target
<that's pretty much it>

hate:
walmart
hp
compaq
qwest
verizon
household bank
WB
safeway