Consumer Ethics Discussion

Consumer ethics refers to the moral principles and standards that guide the behavior of individuals as they obtain, use, and dispose of goods and services. Simply defined as the moral principles that govern a consumer’s behavior. There are many unethical companies across the globe, with most of them being multinational companies, including Coca-Cola and Nescafe. However, between the two companies, I would not like to patronize Nescafe in that it is hugely associated with unethical conduct of conducting business (Mumtahana, 2021). This is bad for a company that has a corporate social responsibility of giving back to society and should be involved in providing communities with clean water as they have the means and power to do so. However, they disregard it and term it a minor issue, leaving the communities to drink dirty water, which is harmful to their health.

Another reason why I would not patronize Nescafe is that it is associated with human trafficking and child labor, which are against the human rights and child labor laws (Kumari & Muralidhara, 2021). Regardless of the end products of the company being prestigious, Nescafe seems to have developed a bad brand image, and this will go a long way to haunting the company, with many branches being closed in the future. Child trafficking is immoral as the company seeks to utilize the inability of the children to negotiate labor wages and thus, take advantage of the cheap labor provided by children. Finally, Nescafe has been ranked as one of the most corrupt corporations across the world (Smith, 2007), which means that it is not transparent in its dealings. This is detrimental to the company’s image and a bad reputation for its employees. Based on this, it is evident that Nescafe is unethical, and thus, I would not patronize it.

Reference

Kumari, S., & Muralidhara, G. V. (2021). Nestlé Under Fire Over Unhealthy Product Portfolio: Will the Company Emerge Unscathed?. IUP Journal of Business Strategy, 18(3), 38-61.

Mumtahana, M. (2021). Human resource management practices and employee job satisfaction of Nestle Bangladesh Limited.

Smith, D. S. (2007). Mr. Friederich G.(Fritz) Mahler, Nestlé Central and West African Region.