Do your investments influence your shopping habits?

[Deleted User]

For example if you have invested in the Ftse 100 - Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsburys etc (I think they're all in it)...

Does this come into your mind when you are deciding where to shop? Eg you avoid Lidl and Aldi as they are privately held.

barnstar2077

Haha, no. I do think about my investments often though. News that would have been boring to me before is much more interesting to me now. Mainly because if it is in the mainstream media then it will influence the herd.

Thrugelmir

Not adverse to buying into a company that I come across either through personal or business use. First hand experience is often a good barometer. However I would never buy a share then decide to procure the companies services or products. Companies aren't just numbers on a piece of paper, they are people driven. Internal culture is a good indicator particularly with smaller companies.

quirkydeptless

I own a 1/4 of a billionth % of SSE, and am also a customer :think:

DairyQueen

I avoid shopping at Lidl and Aldi following my first experience with the latter (the salmon steaks were off), and neither of them offer online deliveries so a pain-in-the-butt for those of us who live in rural areas.

To answer the crux of your question...

I don't invest in individual shares - much too racy for me - and my portfolio is diversified across 1000s of companies so, nope, my investments make no difference to my shopping habits.

I do recall (back in the day) that my former father-in-law held shares in P&O simply to receive the shareholder benefit of reductions on their then ferry service to France.

I'm not sure if shareholder benefits still exist but some were a tasty incentive to those who could exploit them.

MovingForwards

I've a S&S ISA, which gets me shares in tobacco companies (I don't smoke), petrol companies (I buy supermarket petrol), pharmaceutical companies (I take whatever the chemist gets from their supplier) amongst other things.

No, it doesn't influence me.

[Deleted User]

MovingForwards wrote: »

I've a S&S ISA, which gets me shares in tobacco companies (I don't smoke), petrol companies (I buy supermarket petrol), pharmaceutical companies (I take whatever the chemist gets from their supplier) amongst other things.

No, it doesn't influence me.

Doesn't supermarket petrol come from BP and Shell?

tin586

This reminds me that I’ve never bothered with the Whitbread shareholder benefits card, which probably entitles me to a free egg or something at breakfast time when staying at a Premier Inn.
Now if they could get that Lenny Henry to serve it...

eskbanker

DairyQueen wrote: »

I'm not sure if shareholder benefits still exist but some were a tasty incentive to those who could exploit them.

Nothing like as widespread or generous as in the past but some perks are available:

https://www.share.com/investments-and-recommendations/share-tips-and-search/shareholder-perks
https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shareholder-perks

Thrugelmir

newbinvestor wrote: »

Doesn't supermarket petrol come from BP and Shell?

Tesco's used to be supplied by Esso.

londoninvestor

eskbanker wrote: »

Nothing like as widespread or generous as in the past but some perks are available:

https://www.share.com/investments-and-recommendations/share-tips-and-search/shareholder-perks
https://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shareholder-perks

HL wrote:

All shareholders holding Stanley Gibbons Group shares through Hargreaves Lansdown are entitled to a free annual subscription to the Gibbons Stamp monthly magazine.

And you only need one share which is about 2.5p!

A nice portal back into a past era.