Since I don’t drink alcoholic beverages, the brouhaha over Bud Lite is a spectator event. Likewise, the Target debacle. There aren’t any local Target stores, so it’s not where I normally shop. Anheuser-Bush and Target’s initial responses only made it worse by insulting their existing customers. And, as might be expected, a sizeable number of their customers decided to take their business elsewhere.

This, we are told, is a boycott. But boycotts have the implied purpose of forcing a company to make a policy change. That’s not necessarily the case here. I don’t do business with some companies due to their policies or insulting ads and doubt they care one whit. I just see no point in giving my money to those who insult me and my convictions. They are quite free to carry on carrying on, just as I’m quite free not to fund it. Boycotters care; I don’t.

I suspect most customers who’ve walked away from Anheuser-Buch and Target have done so for the same reason. Those who drink beer do so for refreshment. Those who shop discount stores do so for the prices. Politics is way down on that list, if it’s on it at all. Worse is demeaning customers who object to a helping of politics with their beer or clothes. That only sends them to competitors, as has happened with Anheuser-Bush and Target. A corporate apology would be nice, if people believed it, but doesn’t address the main thing: People don’t want politics when they shop, and people definitely don’t like being insulted. At this point the best Anheuser-Bush and Target can hope for is that most of their lost customers are boycotters. Boycotters might return; everyone else, not so much.

Politics? No, habit. People shop as much by habit as anything else, and this tendency increases as we grow older. That’s why brewers and retailers tend to focus their ads on younger shoppers, who aren’t as set in their ways. Once someone has a habit of buying a product or shopping at a retailer, they’ll continue to do so unless they have a reason to change. In most cases that’s price and availability, but it can also be other factors, such as what we’re witnessing with Bud Light and Target. That means when customers switch for something other than a boycott, they likely won’t switch back without a reason.

So far, neither Anheuser-Bush or Target have given customers a reason, most likely because they’ve forgotten what it is they sell. Are pale lagers really that different in taste? Why shop at Target if you can find what you want at good prices elsewhere? That they haven’t realized how they could quickly turn this around further illustrates that point. The moves Anheuser-Bush has made to win back customers shows that they don’t really understand why people buy beer. The situation is better for Target, for there are likely places where it’s the major retailer, but it could do likewise. So far it hasn’t.

Meanwhile, customers’ new buying patterns become more entrenched with each passing day. Worse for Anheuser-Bush and Target, they may find they like their competitors better. That doesn’t mean that both companies will go out of business, though that, too, is possible. Once a brand has lost its luster, it’s hard to regain it. Not being a customer of either, I can’t say that I care either way. Most likely neither do their former customers. What’s happened is done. If these companies want customers to return, they’ll have to relearn what it is they sell.

There are two lessons to learn from all this. The first is that it’s easy for businesses to mistake what customers want. The other is that once you go political, you’re guaranteed to lose customers. It’s easy to chortle “Go woke, go broke,” but it’s more than that. If you have customers across the political spectrum, you’ll alienate many of them the moment you go political, regardless of what that view is. And if most of your customers no longer feel comfortable doing business with you, they’ll go elsewhere. It’s just that simple.

Whether any company learns this is none of my concern. It’s their company; they can do with it as they please. Just not on my dime.