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Boycott Of Trump-Friendly Businesses May Be Having An Effect

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Eating See's Candies in Ivanka Trump stilettos while taking an Uber home to watch The New Celebrity Apprentice would be activities targeted by a boycott of President Donald Trump and Trump-friendly businesses spearheaded by a San Francisco woman.

Dozens of businesses nationwide, including some based in the Bay Area, have made it onto Shannon Coulter's #GrabYourWallet list.

Coulter started the list during the run-up to the November presidential election when she launched a boycott of Ivanka Trump's clothing and shoe lines.

"We know how strong we are as consumers. We buy a lot of products from these stores. We buy a lot of clothing accessories, shoes, bags, you name it. And many of us are ready to flex that consumer power," Coulter told KPIX 5 shortly after launching the boycott.

But months after the election, the list has grown to not only include those businesses that sell Ivanka Trump products, but also Trump-owned businesses and the businesses of his advisors and supporters.

San Francisco-based Uber made the list because its CEO has said the company would cooperate with the Trump administration. The company's cooperation spurred a movement by users to delete the app in protest.

The New York Times reported that more than 200,000 customers deleted their Uber accounts.

And the boycotts may be working.

Uber's CEO Travis Kalanick announced Thursday his resignation from Trump's economic advisory council, which could lead to his company getting off the boycott list and regaining the users it lost.

Also on Thursday, Nordstrom's, which made the list for selling Ivanka Trump products no longer listed Ivanka Trump on their master list of brands and her brand page was blank.

Read Also: Nordstrom To Drop Ivanka Trump's Clothing, Accessories Line

Coulter's list includes all the advertisers of Celebrity Apprentice, of which Trump remains an executive producer.

South San Francisco-based See's Candies made the list because it was deemed to be further enriching Trump as a Celebrity Apprentice partner. But See's Candies maintains the partnership with the show was in 2015 -- before Trump's election -- and that it was for charity. That clarification could lead to the company getting off the boycott list.

At a National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday morning, Trump jokingly urged people to pray for the show's ratings and host Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Amazon has also made the list, largely because it continues to sell Trump family products, but Coulter notes that Amazon is still advertising on Breitbart News, the only news website to make the list because it "propagates fake news" and is a "hate speech site," the list states.

Steve Bannon, now the Assistant to the President and Trump's Chief Strategist, was formerly the executive chair of Breitbart News. On Saturday, Trump took the unprecedented step of naming Bannon as a permanent member of the National Security Council.

There's also a growing list by the group, Sleeping Giants, that is lauding more than 800 businesses that have vowed not to advertise on Breitbart News.

By Hannah Albarazi - Follow her on Twitter: @hannahalbarazi.

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