Boycotts in Jordan
As the days in Amman are getting cooler, I find increasingly pleasant to stroll around the city. Small shops, restaurants, and the occasional supermarket are complemented with street vendors and the unmistakable jingle of the pick-up trucks which deliver water and gas. But there is something missing. Something, I could not place my finger on until I was standing in front of a large commercial building with the logos of McDonalds and Starbucks outside. The building, I quickly noticed, was entirely empty. Still, it looked as if it has not been like this for long. I started to pay attention to large chains and discovered that almost all of them had closed. The only thing I could find was a small Carrefour close to where I live which was full of products but no customers in sight. I already had a suspicion what the cause of the closing of so many large chains might be, and it was confirmed in a conversation with a friend. He was born in Jordan, but his family is originally from Palestine, a story that he shares with many people who live in Amman. He explained to me that most of the large chains like McDonalds or Starbucks are being boycotted. McDonalds for instance gave out free meals for IDF soldiers in Israel. My friend also pointed out companies which I did not notice are being boycotted. Pepsi for instance was a widely available product until the end of 2023 where boycotts started to show their impact. Now you will struggle to find it anywhere in Jordan. Pepsi products have been replaced by Matrix, a Jordanian soft drink producer which brings us to the topic I want to discuss today. Boycotts in Jordan have been more effective than I ever thought they could be. By effective I do not mean that companies changed their behaviour because of them, for that Jordan is unfortunately too small of a market. Instead, I mean that Jordanians have done what is within their power. They boycotted companies tied to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land so consistently that they are forced to close shop in Jordan. Something like that would be unimaginable in Europe where boycotts tend to put a small dent into companies’ profits at most. As a consequence of boycotting some international companies, Jordanian consumers have sought alternative products, often Jordanian ones, such as Matrix soft drinks.

The Impact of Boycotts on Domestic Markets
There is a lot of theory that explores the ethical, political and economic dimensions of boycotts. Something that I could not find however is how boycotts affect domestic markets not of the boycotted country, but of the one that is doing the boycotting. I think that is a consequence of most of this research being conducted in countries which never experienced boycotts that were so effective that companies had to close shop. I do not want to get in a complex statistical analysis here, mainly because I do not have the skills or data for that, yet. Instead, I want to outline some key factors to consider when discussing the impact of boycotts on domestic markets using Jordan as a case study.

The first factor I already touched upon is the substitution of boycotted products with alternative ones.  The key question here is, if consumers switch to domestically produced goods or simply to another foreign producer. If the latter is the case, then there will hardly be any change in the domestic markets. If, people do switch to domestic brands, for example with Pepsi being substituted with Matrix, domestic demand for these goods increases. The likely impact of this development would be higher employment, profits which are invested in the domestic markets and higher taxes paid to the Jordanian government. All of these would be positive effects for Jordan. This effect points to two other factors, employment and profits as well as where they are invested. As McDonalds and Starbucks are closing a key question is if enough consumption shifts to other companies so that they employ the equivalent amount of those who lost their jobs at the boycotted companies. If that is not the case than the total disposable income in Jordan decreases which would have negative effects for its economy. The last factor is profits and investment. If boycotted goods are substituted with domestic ones, then profits will stay in the domestic market.  A rising demand for these goods will also create an incentive to invest these profits into the domestic market. This again would be coupled with additional employment. These factors are just the surface, and it is hard to guess how big the impact of boycotts on domestic markets is without data and statistical analysis. Still, I found it an interesting facete of boycotts and one that, in my opinion, deserves more attention.

Final Remarks
I want to conclude by pointing you to the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction movement (BDS). The movement originated in the BLM movement and is now mostly concerned with ending the support of companies which profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. In the recent past it has also been applied to environmental protection and climate justice.  Regardless of the cause, you will find plenty of information online, which explain how and why BDS works. Something that I particularly like is that websites and apps often provide short and clear outlines why they think a company should be boycotted and what this company should do if it wants boycotters to buy their products again. In addition, they let you take pictures or scan Barcodes of products in the supermarket to quickly find out if you should buy them or not. It is an easy way to make a small difference, and I invite you to become part of the movement.