Wesfarmers doesn’t want people to buy GTA V…

…and I suddenly have the urge not to buy anything from any business owned by Wesfarmers.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about. recently Target and Kmart (two companies owned by Wesfarmers, an Australian corporation) caved in to a petition that wants Grand Theft Auto V pulled from shelves because of the depiction of violence against women. If you want more information, Google it and see for yourself, because I don’t even want to link to any of this based on the stupidity of it all.

For those of us who have actually played the game, we know very well that there are absolutely no scenarios that actively encourage you to harm women for any purpose. However, since there are males and female non-playable characters walking around in every part of the game, there is opportunity for the player to decide to punch or shoot any one of these characters if they choose based on the ability given to the player to basically do anything they want to do in the game. The outrage, of course, is the fact that you can harm any female character in the game, males, OF COURSE, seem to be fair game and these folks don’t seem to have a problem with that.

But that’s all I’ll talk about in terms of all that asshattery.

This entry isn’t about arguing against what certain people think or to convince them otherwise or to circle-jerk about what Grand Theft Auto ACTUALLY represents, etc, etc. People have a right to be offended, they can be as offended as they want and bitch and moan as much as they want. However, when it gets to this point, where a piece of media is pulled from the shelves based on pressure from a small group of people who don’t happen to like its content, clearly the companies in question want to service certain customers but not others.

This entry is about helping Wesfarmers in this matter and it’s actually quite simple. If Wesfarmers doesn’t want GTA V on their shelves, clearly they don’t want the kind of customers that buy such a game either. Therefore, the only sensible solution in all this is to BOYCOTT the businesses owned by Wesfarmers.

It’s the only logical solution.

A guide to boycotting Wesfarmers

The successful way to boycott any company is to identify what businesses and brands they own and buy from their competitors instead. So let’s identify all the businesses owned by Wesfarmers and suggest alternatives.

• Bunnings
  A popular home improvement retailer, but don’t worry, they have a competitor in Australia called “Masters” which is the same thing owned by a different company.
• Coles
  This includes all Coles branded supermarkets, all BiLo branded supermarkets, Coles Online @ coles.com.au and Coles Express. Additionally, the Coles Brand includes Coles Liquor which includes Liquorland, Vintage Cellars and First Choice Liquor. No problem here, there are plenty of other Supermarket chains out there such as Woolworths, etc.
• Kmart
  A popular retailer (including Kmart Tyre & Auto Service), the second Wesfarmers company to take GTA V off its shelves. There are plenty of other department store retailers to choose from including Big W.
• Officeworks
  A popular office supplies retailer, but don’t worry there are plenty of alternatives if you look. Big W is a good place to find office supplies along with other smaller stores in your area.
• Target
  A department store retailer (including Target Country) and where this whole GTA V thing started. There are plenty of other department stores to choose from, though Big W is probably the best alternative.

This is the list of the most obvious businesses owned by Wesfarmers, though there are plenty of businesses to consider which are harder to list. To make things easier, simply go to the Wesfarmers website and take a look at all the businesses they own and are associated with to know what to avoid.

As for other places you can buy video games down here in Australia, there are plenty of places including JB Hi=Fi and again, Big W. EB Games is also a good place to buy your games and they price-match too if you’re finding that Target or Kmart are selling a game for super-cheap.

Welp, that’s all from me about all this asshattery. I hope anyone who has stumbled onto this can successfully use this little guide to boycott the businesses under Wesfarmers if they choose.

After all, the moral of this story is that if you don’t like a thing, it’s your choice not to associate yourself with it and sensibly guide others not to associate with it either. I choose to not associate myself with Wesfarmers from now on, and you have that right too.

Now, whether you want to do this is up to you, I’m not going to do anything to force you against Wesfarmers based on whatever personal moral standing I have.

After all, that is the fair thing to do.