this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2025
446 points (98.3% liked)

Buy European

6730 readers
1692 users here now

Overview:

The community to discuss buying European goods and services.


Matrix Chat of this community


Rules:

  • Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. No direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments.

  • Do not use this community to promote Nationalism/Euronationalism. This community is for discussing European products/services and news related to that. For other topics the following might be of interest:

  • Include a disclaimer at the bottom of the post if you're affiliated with the recommendation.

  • No russian suggestions.

Feddit.uk's instance rules apply:

  • No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or xenophobia.
  • No incitement of violence or promotion of violent ideologies.
  • No harassment, dogpiling or doxxing of other users.
  • Do not share intentionally false or misleading information.
  • Do not spam or abuse network features.
  • Alt accounts are permitted, but all accounts must list each other in their bios.
  • No generative AI content.

Useful Websites

Benefits of Buying Local:

local investment, job creation, innovation, increased competition, more redundancy.

European Instances

Lemmy:

Friendica:

Matrix:


Related Communities:

Buy Local:

Continents:

European:

Buying and Selling:

Boycott:

Countries:

Companies:

Stop Publisher Kill Switch in Games Practice:


Banner credits: BYTEAlliance


founded 6 months ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[โ€“] JorisMeys@mstdn.social 1 points 6 days ago

@Sunshine Lemmy... I first thought it was a reddit post but it is not! A fedi reddit alternative? Yes please!

https://join-lemmy.org/

[โ€“] Obi@sopuli.xyz 69 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I also think most people have no idea how much shit is owned by coke, so maybe they're leaving coke on the shelves but buying some other brands owned by them instead? Also yeah Europeans sure love their coke zero and it's gonna be tough getting everyone to stop, there's probably correlation between liking coke and not giving a shit about politics.

[โ€“] njm1314@lemmy.world 51 points 1 week ago (1 children)

When these companies reach certain sizes they're almost boycott proof. Simply insane how large they're allowed to become.

[โ€“] Taalnazi@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Coca Cola is owned by The Coca Cola Company, whose owner (or well, group with largest share) is Berkshire Hathaway Inc., owned by Warren Buffett (with his successor being Greg Abel). Ajit Jainil is a vice chairman, whose cousin was a co-CEO of the Deutsche Bank.

Coca Cola also sponsored Trump.

Duracell is one of the biggest part of Berkshire, but there's way more. Some holdings and subsidiaries have sub-holdings and subsidiaries!

It also has insurance companies which invest in policy premiums in some companies, up to many billions. Visa, Mastercard, Kraft Heinz, T-mobile, Mitsubishi, to name a few.

Companies are evil. Every single one that's big is one too many.

We should develop an app, downloadable from multiple app stores, to automatically scan a product and see if it's ultimately owned by a billionnaire and where some companies don't have workplace democracy. And the app should offer alternatives, from which you can order. Can someone on Lemmy here do it?

[โ€“] 0x0@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

scan a product and see if itโ€™s ultimately owned by a billionnaire

Unless you're in a thrift store or flea market, the answer is yes.

[โ€“] Taalnazi@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I dunno, I feel like it is possible for a company to be worker-owned with workplace democracy, where the highest-earning worker earns only one and a half times as much as the lowest earning, instead of hundreds of times more.

And even then, I think wages shouldn't be a thing at all - but instead that economies should be need-focused, rather than profit-focused.

It would be great if for example woodcutters delivered wood directly to farmers, farmers food directly to woodcutters, and truck drivers received goods directly from both, and so on.

No wages, just cooperation without monetisation.

[โ€“] 0x0@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago

Works at the small scale, but as you grow, so does human greed.

[โ€“] Cordyceps_cereal@lemmynsfw.com 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

https://many.bio/nothanksboycott not exactly what you're talking about but still worthwhile

[โ€“] Taalnazi@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Oh hey, thanks! That's actually pretty useful. Saved.

It's exactly what I'm looking for, design-wise. If the app also had a customisation option for billionnaire companies without workplace democracy and the like...

There's also BuyFromEU, BuyEuropean AI (that one is closest to what I meant) and Boycat, now that I looked further.

Yeah it's really great. The creator, Ahmed Bashbash made it completely free and any donations he gives directly to Palestinian organisations to support those in need. He's also open to people volunteering to help with researching for bad brands etc. (I've no connection to him I just love the app and really hate genocide)

[โ€“] Droechai@piefed.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Would love a personalized warning list, to add companies (and automatically any owners/siblings) that flags products as I scan them.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[โ€“] 0x0@lemmy.zip 36 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I do better by avoiding sodas altogether... it's sugar in a bottle, no thanks.

load more comments (4 replies)
[โ€“] twinnie@feddit.uk 26 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Itโ€™s hard to know whatโ€™s actually owned by Coca-Cola.

[โ€“] Typotyper@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[โ€“] detren@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 week ago

Thereโ€™s a lot more because Coca Cola owns brands that only operate within a single national market.

[โ€“] 0x0@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[โ€“] Taalnazi@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

A RECOMMENDATION: TURN UPSIDE DOWN IF IT'S A BAD PRODUCT.

Regional
No Thanks (Apple store) - Android store for Palestine stuff. Collects no data at all. This is the app I would first recommend. Scan product, see result.

Buy Beaver - Canadian-focused initiative. Lets you pick countries to support. Collects mail address and device ID, but nothing more.

Detrumpez Vous - focused on finding whether a product is American or not.

Supranational (European)
Buy From EU - find European alternatives. Not necessarily scanning, but useful. Collects mail/sms, but that's it.

Buy European AI - lets you take a picture of the product, find European alternatives & that of allies. Anonymously collects rough location & photo (the latter makes sense though).

General
There's Boycat, also as app, which is user-friendly, but their privacy policy states your data may be stored outside of your legal jurisdiction.

[โ€“] Typotyper@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

Depends where you are from, but the App Store and buy Canadian turned up this. There were several of them

https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/maple-scan-buy-canadian/id6741467577

load more comments (1 replies)
[โ€“] RejZoR@lemmy.ml 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I mostly drink some local store branded Cola that's made by company from my country. It's cheap as fuck and actually tastes better than any big brand cola.

[โ€“] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[โ€“] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 5 points 1 week ago

Aldi here in Benelux has the "River" brand. That is what we buy.

Agrum soda is big here (grapefruit flavor).

They have very good tasting zero sugar drinks:

  • Ice Tea (uncarbonated, this is our absolute staple)
  • Cola
  • Agrumes

Then they have sugar versions of

  • Tonic
  • Green Tea (Lipton green knockoff)
  • Bitter lemon
  • Cola
  • Lemon Lime
  • 4 lemons
  • agrumes
  • orange (fanta)

Quite the range, massively cheaper per liter than name brands, and small cans except for the ice tea to help not drink too much.

load more comments (1 replies)
[โ€“] vga@sopuli.xyz 23 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

I've stopped buying Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Plenty of locals make similar products.

Neither of those companies left Russian market even though they seemed to promise to do that. That should've been enough reason to avoid them.

Also, if it's a cold beverage with coffeine you want, making your own cold brew tea is trivial: just put some tea into a container and put it in the fridge for 12-24 hours. Then remove the tea leaves and consume within 3 days. Bagged tea doesn't taste as good but is obviously easier to filter out.

[โ€“] reddig33@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Most any cold, nonalcoholic drink at a restaurant is going to be owned by Coca-Cola or Pepsi. Even the iced tea. Coke and Pepsi have started disguising their soda fountains with โ€œbespokeโ€ brands that use real sugar. For example, Stubborn Soda is owned by Pepsi. Coke recently bought Topo Chico. Pepsi owns โ€œBublyโ€ and bought out Soda Stream. Chances are you are drinking a Coke or Pepsi product without realizing it.

Snapple group in the US owns Keurig and Dr Pepper, so I guess you could drink that or 7-up if you wanted to avoid Coke or Pepsi.

[โ€“] vga@sopuli.xyz 1 points 6 days ago

Even the iced tea.

Yeah, that's why I suggested making it yourself instead. Besides, those shop iced teas almost always have a shitload of sugar.

load more comments (3 replies)
[โ€“] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Unfortunately, my local and popular soft drink company had been bought by Coca Cola years ago. They made the drink taste bad now, which is literal enshitiffication. Not much for any remaining local alternatives to buy.

[โ€“] crumbguzzler5000@feddit.org 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Having this issue also, how not buy soft drink stands which are either owned by coca cola or PepsiCo is not as simple as it sounds

[โ€“] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

And if youโ€™re making your own, donโ€™t get a SodaStream because the factories are in occupied/stolen land in Palestine. DrinkMate is a better machine anyways.

load more comments (1 replies)
[โ€“] Tuuktuuk@sopuli.xyz 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This could be largely because Pepsi has been expanding in the Russia and many are boycotting it for that. So, if the combined market share of those has risen, then we are not doing so badly :)

[โ€“] Jimmycakes@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

But isn't Pepsi only going there since coke never left and faced no consequences

[โ€“] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Coca-Cola suspended it's business in Russia in 2022. Pepsi never left Russia.

load more comments (1 replies)
[โ€“] dumnezero@piefed.social 14 points 1 week ago

Make Tap Water Great Again

[โ€“] Harvey656@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Do better Europeans. Coke snitched on their own workers to ICE.

load more comments (2 replies)
[โ€“] KumaSudosa@feddit.dk 13 points 1 week ago

I suppose it may be time to expand the 30% tariff retaliation to anything owned by US companies.

[โ€“] McDropout@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I wonder why fizzy sugary drink is now a necessity to drink.

I donโ€™t see the same conversation around chocolate milk or pineapple juice.

People in the comments need to take a step back.

load more comments (2 replies)
[โ€“] eugenia@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 week ago

My husband I stopped buying Coca-Cola. We now buy Vikos Cola, which is a local brand in Epirus, Greece.

[โ€“] alexcleac@szmer.info 10 points 1 week ago

The saddest thing for me is that it is 90% impossible to drink gin-tonic without paying to Coca-Cola in Poland. For other 10%, the price of tonic is almost same as the price for gin :/

[โ€“] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think I wrote this recently elsewhere, but I just never drink nor desire soda. It just doesn't even occur to me as a thing to want. When I was a kid, we mostly drank water. It's kind of alienating to realize how many other people are seemingly fundamentally different on such a basic part of life like "drinking"

load more comments (1 replies)
[โ€“] OddMinus1@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Haven't had a coca cola in about 10 years. I'm doing my part!

load more comments (1 replies)
[โ€“] altphoto@lemmy.today 8 points 1 week ago

I'm glad I can choose to drink that. Other places like Mexico city where potable water is fully contaminated don't have that choice. Its usually Coca cola and other industrial beverage manufacturers the ones polluting the water or helping to reduce access to it...for obvious reasons$$$$.

For my Romanian and surrounding siblings who are also struggling with their Coke addiction, Auchan holds Adria Cola in large plastic bottles, and I found it to be similar enough in terms of content of uppers, and different enough to be an interesting change. Made by European Drinks, may even be found in smaller local shops (it's pretty common in Transylvania, at least).

[โ€“] tatann@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

I've only bought Breizh Cola for years, and will continue to shame my friends who still buy "Nazi Cola"

[โ€“] MTK@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Huge international company: invents extremely addictive and delicious drink, pours billions into advertising campaigns and lobbies for decades.

The public: gets addicted as they literally grew up on it

The media: YoU nEeD tO dO bEtTeR!

Maybe the government can stop guzzling corporate assholes and start passing laws against advertising and lobbying for things that are massively detrimental to the public?

Like, I'm all for sugary drinks existing, but they should be banned from being pushed into our thoughts and definitely shouldn't be endorsed by any public institution.

[โ€“] UncleArthur@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

My local (and large) supermarket in the UK only stocks Coke, not even an own-brand cola. My local corner shop only stocks Coke. We live in the sticks and there isn't a lot of choice.

load more comments (2 replies)
[โ€“] GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk 5 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Unfortunately, they're the only commonly-available cola with just sugar (rather than artificial sweeteners).
I've done a two-pronged approach, of finding alternatives (Karma and Mate are nice), and getting ready to start making my own with a carbonate.
But commonly, you'll need to buy an entire 24 pack to even approach the pricing of Coca.

What I have found is making carbonated squash often hits the spot nicely.

load more comments (3 replies)

They call it "advertising" because "propaganda" had unsavory associations. Coca-cola is a master of prop- er, Advertising.

[โ€“] Sektor@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

If you are in Croatia try Cockta, it's local and it's not bad.

[โ€“] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Ah, yeah, i had a very bad stomach flu last year.

load more comments
view more: next โ€บ