Amazon, the worldwide e-commerce company, faces a week-long “economic blackout” with consumers urged to boycott the retail giant and some of its biggest subsidiaries.

The Amazon boycott is about “sending a message loud enough to shake up the system” and rattle the company, Schwarz said Thursday on his Instagram account. “Amazon is one of the biggest, wealthiest, most powerful corporations in the world,” he said in a video. “It crushes small businesses. It exploits its workers.

Advocacy group The People’s Union USA is calling on Americans to abstain from making purchases from Amazon’s main site as well as the other companies it owns, including Amazon Alexa, IMDb, Prime Video, Ring, Twitch, Whole Foods, and Zappos.

John Schwarz, the leader of the protest, told his 370,000 Instagram followers that the boycott would begin on Friday and run until March 14.

Schwarz told CNET that the objective of the “calculated strike” is simple: for Amazon to record a dip in sales.

In a post on Tuesday, Schwarz described how to “hit” Amazon the hardest and take a stand against its impact on small businesses and treatment of workers after the company reported a 10% year-on-year increase in net sales in Q4 2024 to almost $188 billion last month.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DG4kRxFtRJs/https://www.instagram.com/p/DG4kRxFtRJs/

Schwarz founded the self-described “movement of the people” last month, which in itself has raised more than $120,000 on GoFundMe to pay for costs such as registering as a legal entity.

The People’s Union USA said its mission, according to its website, is to “take back control of our economy, government and future of our country.” Schwarz added in his bio section, “The system is designed to keep all of us trapped. That is why I started this organization.”

Last week, consumers had a 24-hour economic blackout on February 28th, one of several boycotts planned by groups of consumers or activists to protest what they called corporate greed, companies that had rolled back their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, and President Donald Trump's efforts to eliminate federal DEI programs since taking office.

On February 28th, those groups encouraged consumers to not spend any money anywhere for one day. They were also encouraged to buy from local and Black-owned businesses.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DGmKnMXpIzn/https://www.instagram.com/p/DGmKnMXpIzn/

The February 28 economic blackout called on consumers to avoid all unnecessary purchases, either in-person or online, from midnight Thursday through midnight Friday.

The People's Union USA website read, "No Amazon, No Walmart, No Best Buy! Nowhere!"

It further urged participants not to spend money on fast food, major retailers, or gas and to avoid using credit or debit cards to make nonessential purchases.

The blackout made an exception for buying "essentials of absolutely necessary" — like medicine, food, or emergency supplies — but urged consumers to make those purchases at small, local businesses. These included weeklong blackouts against specific retailers, including Amazon, Nestle, and Walmart.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DGnoP7-xhgD/https://www.instagram.com/p/DGnoP7-xhgD/

John Schwarz had told USA TODAY that he started the “bold” idea because the time was right and people were frustrated with what he calls corporate greed and other frustrations.

The one-day action had since been expanded by The People's Union, the organization Schwarz started. It included boycotts of various companies and retailers during different time periods, including Amazon (March 7-14), Nestle (March 21-28), and Walmart (April 7-14), and a second broader one-day economic blackout on April 18.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DGzc5M9NkYL/https://www.instagram.com/p/DGzc5M9NkYL/

As the group’s website read, the economic blackout was "about solidarity and sending a clear message: we have the power."

Schwarz echoed the sentiment in an Instagram video posted last week, saying the blackout was meant to push back against the notion that Americans had "no choice" but to accept the economic system. He said, "For our entire lives, they have told us we have no choice ... that we have to accept these insane prices, the corporate greed, the billionaire tax breaks, all while we struggle to just to get by." He added, "For one day, we are going to finally turn the tables."

https://www.instagram.com/p/DGyhIoNJTDT/https://www.instagram.com/p/DGyhIoNJTDT/

Schwarz’s boycott call last week gained strength online because it has captured the visceral public anger with the American economy, corporations, and politics.

However, the “economic blackout” effort is relatively uncoordinated and nebulous.

Experts on consumer boycotts and corporate strategy are dubious that it will make a dent in the bottom lines of the massive companies that it targets, let alone the vast US economy.

According to Placer.ai, an analytics company that uses phone location data to track store visits, last week’s efforts didn’t make much of an impact on those corporations’ bottom lines. The firm said that “many retailers experienced year-over-year declines in weekly visits throughout February 2025” but attributed this to “post-holiday spending pullbacks, decreased consumer confidence, economic and tariff uncertainty, and unseasonably cold weather.”

As a result, Placer.ai said, the February 28 event’s “specific impact is difficult to isolate, as most retailers saw year-over-year declines in line with recent weekly trends.”

An analysis from digital retail consultancy company Momentum Commerce showed Amazon had slightly higher sales that day.