Op-Ed: My lonely boycott hasn’t hurt In-N-Out Burger, but our small decisions do add up

In-N-Out Burger is the most popular fast-food restaurant in California, according to a data-tracking site. In-N-Out prints Bible verses on its packaging and is proud of its conservative politics, so I had long since decided to vote with my wallet, knowing full well that my actions had no appreciable impact on the chain’s bottom line. If I get a coffee at Blue Bottle, I’ve supported its majority owner, Nestle, itself a boycott target in the 1970s for pushing baby formula in poor countries that lacked enough clean water to mix it properly, to families that over-diluted a product they could not afford at the correct strength. As prognosticators start to handicap this year’s awards race, I’m mindful that there’s a bigger, fancier version of my kid’s grade-school burger truck at the Vanity Fair Oscars after-party every year, and the next day’s news feed is full of photos of celebrities in their party clothes, about to tuck into an In-N-Out. The ranks of these celebrities include people who are on record, loudly and publicly, for their progressive views, who support causes that are the antithesis of In-N-Out’s alignment with anti-vaccine, anti-LGBTQ politics.