Black Women In Virginia Flex Buying Power With Massive Costco ‘Buycott’

Members of the Black Women’s Roundtable organized the shopping venture at Costco, which has stood fast in maintaining diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

Over 100 Black women from across the United States gathered at Costco in Arlington, Virginia, to stage a “buycott” and show the power of Black buyers. On March 15, members of the Black Women’s Roundtable (BWR) supported a corporation, which has stood fast in maintaining diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. The act of collective action is the first from the BWR since President Trump took to signing multiple executive orders that aim to eliminate DEI initiatives in both the public and federal sectors earlier this year.

The BWR Costco buycott was led by Melanie L. Campbell, a civil rights leader who is president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable.

She told Afro News, “The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Black Women’s Roundtable values companies that value diversity, and Costco’s recent actions to preserve their diversity initiatives prove they care about all of their customers. Corporations and businesses should not ask for Black patrons while failing to support employees of color.”

The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation is a group that has continually shown its dedication to advocating for the rights of Black communities through empowerment initiatives and programs. Campbell and the NCBCP have continued to work to ensure “equal representation, civic engagement, economic empowerment, and the protection of voting rights for all.”

The BWR’s Costco buycott was a part of their Power National Summit, which focuses on teaching people strategies to empower Black women in overcoming systemic barriers in their everyday lives. It showed all companies who have pulled back on their DEI initiatives, and how much power Black people have in their pockets. As previously reported by Nielsen, in the United States, Black consumers hold around $2 trillion in spending power, and Black women have been hailed as having large impacts on trends of consumer behavior.

The BWR Costco buycott showed other corporations the scope of that power when they support Black consumers versus when they show that DEI initiatives don’t matter to them.

In February, civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton led a similar buy-in at a Costco in New Jersey.