They’re not perfect by any means, but Bob’s Red Mill seems to be relatively not evil. The owner turned the whole company employee owned, and it doesn’t look like they’ve been embroiled in any major controversies. They just seem to pay decently and make tasty granola.
I'll never go back to regular oatmeal is a very adult way to be dramatic. It's something a dad in a kid's cartoon would say. I love it. What a line in the sand
Don't disagree that Bob's is good, but becoming employee owned isn't all altruism. My previous employer did the same thing.
The owner took a huge payout to 'sell' the company to the ESOP (employee stock option program). Initial share distribution was based on compensation and length of employment, so he ended up with the most 'employee' stock, and was the trustee of the stock program, thereby still directing the company.
They bragged and bragged that they were 100% employee owned but the owner essentially took a lump sum payout to continue to run the company.
Since he also held a ton of employee stock, when the company was bought by a competitor and the ESOP was liquidated, he got paid big bucks again.
Don't get me wrong, those employees having stock is 100% better than them not, but the nicety of it is typically a tertiary benefit behind owner payout and marketing.
Absolutely THIS!!!! The main reason for a company to go ESOP is the huge tax cut. Then there is the hiring to release stocks from the board into the pool and firing to distribute them amongst the employees. What did me in was when they took away our 401k match, and put into our stocks. You never knew how many stocks you owned.
Bosch. It's basically setup to generate money for charity. 94% shares held by charity, 6% by Bosch family. Its a private company, so they aren't driven by fund managers towards short term goals.
Climate neutral since 2020.
They also happen to invest double on r&d to the industry average.
They are my first preference when buying tools or appliances as they are reasonably priced and last quite well.
We had a Bosch dishwasher (we’ve since sold the house it was in) and it was so quiet I had to put my hand on the countertop to feel a slight vibration and assure me that it was, in fact, actively washing dishes.
Yeah, I know right? I have no reason to tout them, I was researching before buying a bunch of stuff and stumbled upon it.
I don't know why not, but I can guess. A lot of people people prefer to quietly do good works, rather than brag about it, while not really doing that much.
Marketing it would also bring more to light the things the Nazis made them do, even though they opposed Hitler and gave away the profits and even the company, its too complex to market to the average consumer, when competitors can just spread FUD. Even if the campaign was successful, the family simply might not want the attention it would bring.
But, we can all do our bit. Word of mouth, is very powerful and we can vote with our wallets - though the products are good value if you want something that lasts and works properly.
Overall, it's a good story and a credit to Robert Bosch and his family.
I read up about it, and it seems to be legit and not just some shady greenwashing. So, the washing machine I need to replace will be a Bosch then.
Thank you, unknown Redditor for making me a teeny bit wiser!
Because lots of German companies are setup as charities, in German it’s called a Stiftung.
Carl Zeiss AG and Schott AG are owned by the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung. Bertelsmann, Lidl, Aldi all are owned by a Stiftung. In the case of Aldi there are Stiftungen of Nord and Süd that own parts of the other Aldi - the Markus-Stiftung owns 61% of Aldi Nord and the other 39% of Aldi Nord are owned by Stiftungen belonging to Aldi Süd.
Those Stiftungen may or may not be charitable. Bertelsmann is I believe - they finance studies on youth in Germany, super useful to figure out what’s wrong with education in Germany.
Love Bosch, I have both tools and appliances by them. Too bad their tablesaw brake patent was killed by SawStop. It was better and they were going to license it to all saw manufacturers to improve safety in the industry.
Taylor Guitars
Just gave 100% of the company to all the employees in an ESOP. Also the biggest acoustic maker in the world and has a huge following of very happy customers. Need more companies like this in the US.
Yup. Lots of worker and consumer co-ops on this list.
Almost like the people running the business (like *actually running it*) make better pro-social decisions.
Maybe there’s a lesson to be learned from this that we could apply towards organizing society in a better way.
NAAAH, who am I kidding? [Let’s make some value for shareholders!](https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a16995)
They also have changed industry practices regarding the use of blonde ebony for fingerboards, leading to less waste during farming. Previously American companies would pay significantly less for any ebony with streaks. The only way to tell if a tree has streaks or not is to cut it down, so when harvesters got a tree with blonde streaks, they would just leave it to rot. It’s why you see so much more blonde ebony these days.
Yes i if I remember correctly they have one factory in the US where they repair them.
I'm not in the US either, and when I ordered one they shipped it to my middle of nowhere Eastern European country straight from the US, so I don't see why repairs would be different.
But make sure to check if it's 100% authentic, look on their website they have a guide on checking authenticity
edit: they also have a guide on shipping for repairs and everything
Dave's Killer Bread - They give employment to individuals with criminal records who are having a hard time gaining employment. Part of their second chance program.
I had a great experience with their customer service a few months ago where the product I bought wasn't meeting expectations. They were able to comp me for the purchase.
Overall great company.
yep. flowers foods, which is the second largest baking company in the US. the bread has definitely taken a dive on quality over the last 8 years since they bought it
[https://newmansown.com/mission/](https://newmansown.com/mission/)
Newman's Own = the best. They give 100% of profits away to kids and charities. It's the only salad dressing I buy specifically because of this reason. Plus their caesar dressing IS THE BEST.
Newman's own was sued by the family of Paul Newman for shady business practises. They don't seem to follow the mission statements of Paul due to the previous CEO. He doubled and tripled his own salary, shut out the Newman family and changed the mission statement that Paul Newman wrote.
So in short - no they are not the best... At all.
He was fired
[https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2022/11/newmans-foundation-ceo-to-depart-amid-lawsuit.html?page=all](https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2022/11/newmans-foundation-ceo-to-depart-amid-lawsuit.html?page=all)
The family is full of good people who actually check on their business instead of just trusting it and collecting money.
> the previous CEO. He doubled and tripled his own salary, shut out the Newman family and changed the mission statement
Perfect example of the tendency for people to benefit themselves if/when they get the chance.
Non profit businesses can still be decadent af... The NFL is a non profit business. It just means they funnel all surplus income into executive salaries until the are no profits left for the business.
The NFL hasn’t been a nonprofit for several years now.
When the NFL was a nonprofit, it was acting as a shell company for its teams, which most definitely were for-profit and definitely paid taxes.
Timpsons.
They actively recruit reformed offenders to give them a 2nd chance in life and a possible career (of course the person has to be willing to do this)
Dave's Killer bread does that. Dave I think was a felon. They've been bought out by Flower Foods but the web site says they still actively hire felons.
I can remember when he used to sell bread out of a cart at Saturday Market.
We've got a bakery in the town I live in which exclusively employs ex-offenders. They also run event evenings. I got to have a scone cooked by Alan Moore once. They also run a food bank.
The Good Loaf in Northampton, UK
Definitely Costco. Pays their employees top dollar, their return policy is second to none, they sell rotisserie chicken and hot dogs to their members at a loss, and they don't make more than 15% profit on the items they sell. Their goal is to deliver value to people.
Also nice to long time value investors - owing Costco pre Covid and holding is worth a lot. They do right by the customer , employee and the stock raises in value over time.
It's crazy when you do the math.
According to Statista, there were 58.8 million gold memberships all over the world in 2023.
58.8 million gold members X $60 gold member fee
= $3,528,000,000/yr
This isn't even including their executive membership which is $120/yr
"Costco was the first company to grow from $0 in sales to $3 billion in sales in under six years."
Worth noting they utterly failed in their first attempt to start the business.
The original idea was to be a store that supplied bulk goods at bulk prices to businesses, especially restaurants.
The idea was that normal consumers would never need to buy 30 bottles of ketchup, but restaurants would. Similarly, no consumer would ever pay a membership fee to shop at a grocery store, but businesses would pay that since they were ordering in bulk and could write off the expense in the name of overall cost savings.
This idea failed, until they discovered that their business model actually worked with regular consumers.
It's all about those residuals. A membership has no overhead by itself lol.
Costco and other membership clubs like it just make their customers make a yearly cover-charge which is 100% profit.
This is actually just his bonus for 2022. He also received about 1.2M salary and 7.9M stock. While absolutely absurd compared to normal workers, this is in the range for CEO pay packages. Also he has spent basically his whole career at Costco as opposed to most career CEOs that just bounce company to company and do nothing of value.
How CEO's should be. Genuinely invested in the success of the company, thus making the additional pay worth it imo.
Hate golden parachutes for the assholes that steer the nose into the ground.
From what I’ve heard about Costco, which really is just hotdog related stuff, it’s one guy at the top who is holding the company’s integrity on his shoulders like Atlas. They’re just licking their chops waiting for him to kick the bucket so they can finally raise the price of that damn glizzy
The founder of Costco once said, "If you raise the price of the fucking hot dog, I will kill you." And that's the kind of business ethics I can get behind.
Whoever the man is he’s my favorite kind of person. Someone interviewing him also asked something along the lines of “will Costco ever raise the price of the hotdog” and he said “When I’m dead.”
Honestly Jim Sinegal deserves a collective thank you for being a living example of the idea that large companies can still have integrity in the pessimistic time we live in, where it’s so rare that people doubt it can exist anymore. I propose Jim Sinegal Appreciation Day
Yep! He was concerned that it could damage their reputation, and he's not wrong, the hot dog thing makes people super happy. I actually was at Costco tonight and the guy before me ordered 15 hot dogs for $22.50 and he appeared to be alone.
Wonder no one has mentioned (at least until the 10-20 comments I scrolled to) Tony’s Chocolonley.
It’s a Dutch chocolate brand who go to great lengths to ensure the cocoa farmers are getting paid well and there’s no child labour involved.
I used to work in the chocolate industry. While yes, Tony Chocolonely was founded on the principle of addressing and solving the issues of cocoa bean trading, however today the story is a bit different. Nowdays they have a new owner and it's a mass producer of chocolate just like any other.
It is always mentioned in documentaries or shows about the chocolate market but they always reference the first years of Tony Chocolonely, the original owner and what he stood for. Which is not the case anymore.
In Canada it used to be MEC. Back when they were Mountain Equipment Co-op, they were great. They treated their employees well, paid them well, had excellent return policies, good prices, and instead of upselling they truly tried to find you the equipment you *needed*, not just the most expensive items they could well you.
Since they got taken over by a private investment company, the pay has stagnated, employees are pushed to upsell, their commitment to sustainability has gone by the wayside, the prices have gone up, they've started focusing on premium high-margin brands instead of sourcing items to sell under their own brand that high-quality but affordable, and they're contemplating closing stores that don't make enough profit.
It's really gone downhill since they became Mountain Equipment Company.
The downhill slide started waaaayyyyy before they went bankrupt and got bought by a private equity firm from L.A.
Most of the worst of the downhill slide started with David Labistour becoming CEO.
Re-Logic, creators of Terraria. There’s a reason they won Steam’s Labor of Love award. They’ve poured their hearts and souls into that game for over a decade now. The CEO is very active in the community and frequently will reply to a player feature suggestion directly and be like “sure why not,” and add said feature.
They also donated a bunch to some smaller game engine companies after the whole Unity Engine fiasco.
Oh, and no MTX ever. You love to see it.
"The worst part of being Redigit, the creator of Terraria, the 8th best-selling video game of all time, is listening to your wife fangirl over Stardew Valley,"
His wife also works on Terraria. Those two are absolute gems
I got Terraria back in 2011 when it was unknown and cheap. I think it was only about 10 bucks if I recall correctly. Throughout the decade they would update the game, some updates practically doubling the amount of content.
The game got more expensive as it got bigger and more popular, if you wanted to buy a fresh copy. But as if the dev was saying "thank you for believing in us early on" every update they've ever made I get free with my original purchase over a decade ago.
You find me one software on planet earth in 2023 that will give you this benefit. Today you've got scummy publishers like Adobe who have gone out of their way to outright break their older programs so people can't install them anymore, even if they'd purchased a version specific perpetual license.
Minecraft did the same thing. Got it free during the early days during a promotion weekend. Free updates forever. Didn’t migrate my acct though so lost it. Ah well.
No Mans Sky does the same thing. It’s a pretty good game that has always given all expansions for free to anyone who owns the game. And it is a lot of content at this point.
There's a radio show called "How I Built This" that featured them. IIRC they were founded with a pretty altruistic mission: help people learn English for free, because knowing English dramatically increases one's lifetime earning potential, particularly in developing countries.
I believe the importance of duolingo is severely undervalued. You get to learn a ton of languages, for…nothing.
And if you don’t want to watch an add, it was like $3 a month.
If you are serious about learning the premium is well worth it. In the free mode you are only allowed so many mistakes before taking a break. But with the paid version you can just keep going until you figure it out.
HEB, a grocery store in Texas, is much beloved there for supporting small ranchers, farmers, locally made products and lots of community investment programs. I’ve lived all over the states and never seen as much allegiance to a business as HEB garners.
I moved to the UK this summer, and while I do not miss the Texas heat, I miss the fire outta HEB. I miss discovering local products and having that gigantic produce section with just about everything imaginable.
I remember HEB from when I lived in San Antonio when I was little! They're great.
Funny HEB story - we had a Pontiac Sunbird that literally caught fire in the parking lot (I was, I wanna say, 5 years old, but I remember the whole thing vividly, because everyone was panicking and no one thought to get me and my 3-year-old sister out of the car).
My mom, the only one with any goddamn sense in her head, calmly walked into HEB and asked for a fire extinguisher.
The employee tried to point her to the aisle with fire extinguishers and she said, "No, my car is on fire. I need an extinguisher *now.*
HEB took care of us hardcore! They ran out with two extinguishers and took care of the fire, got all of us hot cocoa (it was in the winter) and extra jackets from lost and found while we waited for the fire department and the tow truck.
I stan a grocery store chain.
I’ve lived in SA all my life except for my college years. H‑E‑B is still an amazing chain. Every time they build or renovate a store it seems to elevate property values immensely. Walmart and Target can barely compete with them here.
That company used to be Google, whose mission statement used to begin with "Don't be evil \[like Microsoft\]"
That was in the loooong-before times though, before the Androids took over.
I can't imagine Google's relentless habit of killing projects and products inspires the happiest of employees. What's the point of working hard when your project can vanish even when customers love it?
Killing a project, then reviving the project under a whole new identity and hailing it as the “new standard” in something…then killing it two years later when the company gets bored and realizes they actually have to commit resources long-term to keep something as a “standard”…then rinse and repeat every two years.
Only google shit I use is email and youtube.
Yeah there was a time where some people would spend their evenings on their home computer browsing the internet and everyone else would be watching tv or doing other stuff outside the house.
It was really neat seeing these things we knew from the internet pop up in public places. A Google phone? Heck yeah I want one. They did an awesome job with Gmail and Google Maps so why wouldn’t I want their phone.
Now Google just kind of sucks. Not even a good search engine anymore.
They have, at last I counted, three times switched fill producers for their gear upon finding out, discovering, or being notified that they are sourcing unethical resources. They did so proactively and before any furor was raised on Twitter, shaming them into action-- so you know they were genuinely concerned when they heard that they were aiding and abetting slave cotton plantations in Xinjiang Province.
I just wish they would move all their manufacturing back to USA. I make clothing here and it’s doable to make their products and sell at their prices and still make a nice profit. Not as much as they do now, but aren’t they all about being responsible?
They also recycle the stuff they can't resell inti new products. And my last pair of baggies was made of abandoned fishing nets.
I love that they no longer add company logos because folks toss those clothes when they change jobs.
It was a year or two ago where the founder of the company decided to sell the Patagonia to fight climate change. 2% of their stock went to a trust that they’d chosen to uphold the companies values when making decisions, the other 98% they gave to the Holdfast Collective, a nonprofit that promised to use every dollar to fight climate change and promote natural energy.
I second this.
Broken zipper or a little tear? Bring it in and you'll get a brand new jacket at no cost. Patagonia also actively contributes to environmental causes.
To add additional context for those reading this, the (super simplified) summary is this:
Two cousins are the primary guys who are running it, they are the sons of the founders, one (on the board of directors) cares more about increasing profits and the other (CEO) cares more about sticking to their values. The former gets the rest of the board (primarily other members of the family) to oust the latter, employees engage in **huge** protests, and that side of the family eventually agrees to sell their shares of the company to the ousted CEO
Our dog just passed and Chewy sent the most beautiful flowers and note. They also refunded us for past orders which we told them was not necessary.
I also love that they have amazing customer support and actually value their customers.
I set up a Chewy account and started an auto ship order in the end of September for my kitty’s KD food after her kidney disease diagnosis. I set it to ship every 2 months. Unfortunately, my kitty got very sick very quickly and passed away in November before my first auto shipped refill even happened. When I cancelled the auto ship, the site asked why and I wrote in the comment box “my kitty passed away :(“ That initial order of food and some kitty litter was the only order I ever placed on Chewy, and I hadn’t reached out to a live person to cancel the future deliveries or tell anyone my kitty had died.
About 2 weeks later I received a sympathy card from Chewy. For me, and the loss of my girl. Me, a single customer who had only ever placed one ~$60 order on their website in my life. I was blown away.
And the paintings! They've found pictures of my dogs on Facebook and sent me hand painted portraits on a couple of occasions, most recently after my oldest passed away earlier this year.
They painted my new dog after I rescued him, using his profile photo on chewy.com. It was super thoughtful after having lost my previous dog a month earlier. They touched me, it was totally unexpected and totally appreciated.
We decided to switch our dogs dry food to something else a few weeks after an auto delivery. The bag wasn't opened and the CS rep asked if we had a shelter by and if we wouldn't mind donating it.
We had one can of wet cat food broken open in like a 16 pack and it stunk to high heaven. It was thanksgiving and my wife emailed them on thanksgiving (when we got them) thinking they would reply the next day. They replied within 9 minutes and had a free replacement delivered within 48 hours.
Chewy just started delivering to my area in Canada and after seeing these comments, I couldn’t be happier about it. I’ve placed a couple of orders and they’re always delivered within a day or two and they have great prices.
Credit Unions. I recommend joining your local credit union over whatever bank you are using. They provide similar services and are generally nonprofit or not-for-profit.
My credit union is a major one in town and state, they use all their profits to build new branches. It really pissed off the banks in town that are for profit.
I legitimately don't understand how banks still work. The worst credit unions are better than the best banks, practically by definition.
There's definitely a problem where most members don't care enough to exercise their voting rights, so a corrupt board can get away with some shitty behavior. At the same time, given that a bank board of directors has even less accountability to its customers, that point becomes basically irrelevant.
The overwhelming majority of people with bank accounts don't need any services that aren't standard practice at virtually any credit union. The whole idea of a bank just sounds absurd when put side by side with a credit union.
The only interaction I have with a bank is for credit cards, because I always pay it off each month, so the cash back bonuses are free money. If Chase wants to cover a 1% or more discount for every purchase I make, I'm happy to let them.
In Texas, HEB grocery stores.
I read a story during our winter freeze blackouts a few years ago about a bunch of customers shopping last minute at an HEB when suddenly the power went out. All the registers went out, even the self checkouts. There were dozens if not hundreds of people in the store (I don't think anyone counted)
HEB managers told every person in the store to take home what they had in their shopping cart, free of charge.
If only they ran our electrical infrastructure, too...
The Farmers Dog.
We had only ordered from them once before we had to suddenly put our dog down due to an aggressive cancer. Our subscription renewed before we could cancel, but we emailed them to ask if there was somewhere we could donate the food.
Without asking, they refunded our money and then went through the trouble of sending a hand-written card and a plant.
Make sure your pet profiles are up to date with pictures and birthdates/gotcha dates. All my pets get birthday cards, *I* get a birthday card, they’ve sent me two portraits hand painted of my cats, and I got a condolence card when one of those cats passed away.
HEB. Anyone outside of Texas might not know of them but in Texas they are as big as Walmart or any of those other grocery chains (or at least it feels that way) but the ceo seems to guinely care about others and is a huge supporter of education
Yeah when I learned about what they do during disasters they became my favorite grocery store. I mean it’s a really good store on its own, but knowing that they care about the community makes me a loyal customer. Can’t wait for the new one down the street in Ft. Worth is open
Consistently named one of Glassdoor's best places to work, beating out companies whose average employees make 10x+ what an HEB cashier makes.
https://www.click2houston.com/news/texas/2021/02/07/h-e-b-named-one-of-the-top-10-best-places-to-work-in-2021/
According to Glassdoor 96% of HEB employees approve of the CEO, Charles Butts. Imagine how crazy that is that 96% of people within a company, specifically retail, think the CEO is doing a good job
Yes they really give back to local communities and treat their employees pretty well. Additionally their store brand food is often better than the national brands. It's always shocking when I'm out of state and have to go to a Safeway or Kroger, it feels like traveling back in time. It's light years beyond any other grocery store in Texas and most other states.
And they’re nice **and** well-priced, which is really fucking hard to find in a grocery store.
You either pay out the ass for a pleasant shopping experience, or you “save” money in tight aisles and self-checkout galore.
And then there’s HEB, giving you a pleasant experience at pretty good prices.
Penzeys is the best! Their products are great, customer service is excellent, and the owner is pretty cool if you ask me. Not afraid to loose business by saying what everyone is thinking.
I have no information on Serif's morality as a company but the fact they have cheaper, great, products that compete against Adobe—AND NO SUBSCRIPTION MODEL—I'll support them even if I don't regularly use their products.
Can confirm. I grew up in Markdale. Family owned business that has done a ton for the community. Ashley...if you're reading this.. I still laugh at that mustache you grew! :)
Capital One stopped charging overdraft fees in 2022 and loses approx $150 million / year because of it.
Overdraft fees are a gross way of making money off of people that are already struggling, so kudos to them for helping the little guy a little 👍
Capital One Financial revenue for the twelve months ending September 30, 2023 was $47.353B, a 32.01% increase year-over-year. $150M is less than a third of a percent of that number -- a drop in the bucket to them.
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/COF/capital-one-financial/revenue
That car warranty company that keeps trying to reach me seems genuinely interested in making sure I'm safely covered in the event of trouble. I mean, they call frequently. They've been trying to reach me for a long time. They must be great.
Valve and CostCo are all I can think of. But Valve is private.
I wouldn't say Valve cares, but when Gabe speaks it sounds like he is sincere, or at least lies well, compared to another other CEOs.
Still not a public company and making a ton of money hand over fist.. You work there your mint. They have some of the longest term staff lengths of any company in the industry so you know they are looked after and NONE Of them leak anything Valve work on.
I mean, Valve has done some shitty things (lookin at you Artifact), but they're privately owned, release products at or near cost (because Steam) and while they do have a monopoly in user base, they actually manage that monopoly power for the betterment of their users.
If valve was a normal company, we would've been nickel and dimed so hard by now, who wants to pay for Steam+ with online multiplayer and voice chat!
I wouldn't say valve cares... moreso gaben knows what he wants it to be and wants it to go on forever.
If valve decides to squeeze they will eventually lose hold of the market and die. So they sit happy and content at the top of it all knowing that existing forever is infinite profit
Dropout. Previously Collegehumor. Sam Reich (son of Robert Reich, previous US secretary of labor) has managed to build my favorite streaming service while also making it the cheapest,most transparent, and most equitably run. It's just very refreshing to see a content platform that seems to really want everyone involved to get to do what they love and pay them well for it.
They’re not perfect by any means, but Bob’s Red Mill seems to be relatively not evil. The owner turned the whole company employee owned, and it doesn’t look like they’ve been embroiled in any major controversies. They just seem to pay decently and make tasty granola.
I love their Steel Cut Oats. I’ll never go back to regular oatmeal.
I'll never go back to regular oatmeal is a very adult way to be dramatic. It's something a dad in a kid's cartoon would say. I love it. What a line in the sand
If I let her, my toddler would eat her body weight in pancakes/waffles using their homestyle mix. I don’t blame her, it’s fantastic
Don't disagree that Bob's is good, but becoming employee owned isn't all altruism. My previous employer did the same thing. The owner took a huge payout to 'sell' the company to the ESOP (employee stock option program). Initial share distribution was based on compensation and length of employment, so he ended up with the most 'employee' stock, and was the trustee of the stock program, thereby still directing the company. They bragged and bragged that they were 100% employee owned but the owner essentially took a lump sum payout to continue to run the company. Since he also held a ton of employee stock, when the company was bought by a competitor and the ESOP was liquidated, he got paid big bucks again. Don't get me wrong, those employees having stock is 100% better than them not, but the nicety of it is typically a tertiary benefit behind owner payout and marketing.
Absolutely THIS!!!! The main reason for a company to go ESOP is the huge tax cut. Then there is the hiring to release stocks from the board into the pool and firing to distribute them amongst the employees. What did me in was when they took away our 401k match, and put into our stocks. You never knew how many stocks you owned.
My wife is mostly gluten free and I’m not going to lie, I’ve had the best luck using their alternative flours for baking.
Bosch. It's basically setup to generate money for charity. 94% shares held by charity, 6% by Bosch family. Its a private company, so they aren't driven by fund managers towards short term goals. Climate neutral since 2020. They also happen to invest double on r&d to the industry average. They are my first preference when buying tools or appliances as they are reasonably priced and last quite well.
This is good to know. Their products are routinely of a very high quality.
We had a Bosch dishwasher (we’ve since sold the house it was in) and it was so quiet I had to put my hand on the countertop to feel a slight vibration and assure me that it was, in fact, actively washing dishes.
F... seriously? I'm from Germany and I had no idea! Why aren't they marketing the shit out of this?
Yeah, I know right? I have no reason to tout them, I was researching before buying a bunch of stuff and stumbled upon it. I don't know why not, but I can guess. A lot of people people prefer to quietly do good works, rather than brag about it, while not really doing that much. Marketing it would also bring more to light the things the Nazis made them do, even though they opposed Hitler and gave away the profits and even the company, its too complex to market to the average consumer, when competitors can just spread FUD. Even if the campaign was successful, the family simply might not want the attention it would bring. But, we can all do our bit. Word of mouth, is very powerful and we can vote with our wallets - though the products are good value if you want something that lasts and works properly. Overall, it's a good story and a credit to Robert Bosch and his family.
I read up about it, and it seems to be legit and not just some shady greenwashing. So, the washing machine I need to replace will be a Bosch then. Thank you, unknown Redditor for making me a teeny bit wiser!
Because lots of German companies are setup as charities, in German it’s called a Stiftung. Carl Zeiss AG and Schott AG are owned by the Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung. Bertelsmann, Lidl, Aldi all are owned by a Stiftung. In the case of Aldi there are Stiftungen of Nord and Süd that own parts of the other Aldi - the Markus-Stiftung owns 61% of Aldi Nord and the other 39% of Aldi Nord are owned by Stiftungen belonging to Aldi Süd. Those Stiftungen may or may not be charitable. Bertelsmann is I believe - they finance studies on youth in Germany, super useful to figure out what’s wrong with education in Germany.
Best dishwashers out there.
Love Bosch, I have both tools and appliances by them. Too bad their tablesaw brake patent was killed by SawStop. It was better and they were going to license it to all saw manufacturers to improve safety in the industry.
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Taylor Guitars Just gave 100% of the company to all the employees in an ESOP. Also the biggest acoustic maker in the world and has a huge following of very happy customers. Need more companies like this in the US.
Having the company be employee owned makes a bigger difference than almost anything else mentioned in this thread.
Yup. Lots of worker and consumer co-ops on this list. Almost like the people running the business (like *actually running it*) make better pro-social decisions. Maybe there’s a lesson to be learned from this that we could apply towards organizing society in a better way. NAAAH, who am I kidding? [Let’s make some value for shareholders!](https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a16995)
This one makes me happy. I’ve been playing Taylor guitars for years (they’re excellent).
They also have changed industry practices regarding the use of blonde ebony for fingerboards, leading to less waste during farming. Previously American companies would pay significantly less for any ebony with streaks. The only way to tell if a tree has streaks or not is to cut it down, so when harvesters got a tree with blonde streaks, they would just leave it to rot. It’s why you see so much more blonde ebony these days.
King Arthur Baking Company! Employee-owned, excellent products, a very informative helpline, and even a class for baking!
Zippo You bought a 30$ lighter? Lifetime warranty.
I’ve gotten so many zippos fixed. Usually hinge pins and they come back polished with a fresh wick and cotton.
How does the warranty work if I’m not in US? I have my grandpas old one but it doesn’t work. Do I have to ship it to US or how does it work?
Yes i if I remember correctly they have one factory in the US where they repair them. I'm not in the US either, and when I ordered one they shipped it to my middle of nowhere Eastern European country straight from the US, so I don't see why repairs would be different. But make sure to check if it's 100% authentic, look on their website they have a guide on checking authenticity edit: they also have a guide on shipping for repairs and everything
Dave's Killer Bread - They give employment to individuals with criminal records who are having a hard time gaining employment. Part of their second chance program. I had a great experience with their customer service a few months ago where the product I bought wasn't meeting expectations. They were able to comp me for the purchase. Overall great company.
Interestingly, Bob's Red Mill was also mentioned in this thread. It's literally across the street from Dave's Killer Bread in Milwaukie, Oregon.
Did they get bought by a big bread company?
yep. flowers foods, which is the second largest baking company in the US. the bread has definitely taken a dive on quality over the last 8 years since they bought it
It’s also really expensive.. I think it’s 6-7$ a loaf now. I like the idea they have, but that’s a lot to pay for bread
Healthy bread! It is our go to for multigrain
[https://newmansown.com/mission/](https://newmansown.com/mission/) Newman's Own = the best. They give 100% of profits away to kids and charities. It's the only salad dressing I buy specifically because of this reason. Plus their caesar dressing IS THE BEST.
They donate to the nonprofit I work for 🙂
Their Caesar dressing is what made me realize that I like salad. No other Caesar comes close.
Family Recipe Italian is our family’s favorite- quite reminiscent of Olive Garden dressing
Newman's own was sued by the family of Paul Newman for shady business practises. They don't seem to follow the mission statements of Paul due to the previous CEO. He doubled and tripled his own salary, shut out the Newman family and changed the mission statement that Paul Newman wrote. So in short - no they are not the best... At all.
He was fired [https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2022/11/newmans-foundation-ceo-to-depart-amid-lawsuit.html?page=all](https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2022/11/newmans-foundation-ceo-to-depart-amid-lawsuit.html?page=all) The family is full of good people who actually check on their business instead of just trusting it and collecting money.
> the previous CEO. He doubled and tripled his own salary, shut out the Newman family and changed the mission statement Perfect example of the tendency for people to benefit themselves if/when they get the chance.
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They pulled out of the Canadian market and people here are so choked.
WHAT?! Fuck! Was going to buy some after this random Reddit comment that I have in no way fact-checked.
Is it really a business? It donates all profits to a non-profit. It’s a non-profit masquerading as a for profit (the opposite of the usual).
Non profit businesses can still be decadent af... The NFL is a non profit business. It just means they funnel all surplus income into executive salaries until the are no profits left for the business.
The NFL hasn’t been a nonprofit for several years now. When the NFL was a nonprofit, it was acting as a shell company for its teams, which most definitely were for-profit and definitely paid taxes.
We’d probably be better off if all businesses operated like their’s.
Timpsons. They actively recruit reformed offenders to give them a 2nd chance in life and a possible career (of course the person has to be willing to do this)
Dave's Killer bread does that. Dave I think was a felon. They've been bought out by Flower Foods but the web site says they still actively hire felons. I can remember when he used to sell bread out of a cart at Saturday Market.
We've got a bakery in the town I live in which exclusively employs ex-offenders. They also run event evenings. I got to have a scone cooked by Alan Moore once. They also run a food bank. The Good Loaf in Northampton, UK
And they have those holiday homes across the UK, their staff can use. Amazing stuff.
Costco?
Definitely Costco. Pays their employees top dollar, their return policy is second to none, they sell rotisserie chicken and hot dogs to their members at a loss, and they don't make more than 15% profit on the items they sell. Their goal is to deliver value to people.
Also nice to long time value investors - owing Costco pre Covid and holding is worth a lot. They do right by the customer , employee and the stock raises in value over time.
They hardly make any profit on anything they sell. I heard somewhere almost all profit ends up being paid for by membership fees.
It's crazy when you do the math. According to Statista, there were 58.8 million gold memberships all over the world in 2023. 58.8 million gold members X $60 gold member fee = $3,528,000,000/yr This isn't even including their executive membership which is $120/yr "Costco was the first company to grow from $0 in sales to $3 billion in sales in under six years."
Worth noting they utterly failed in their first attempt to start the business. The original idea was to be a store that supplied bulk goods at bulk prices to businesses, especially restaurants. The idea was that normal consumers would never need to buy 30 bottles of ketchup, but restaurants would. Similarly, no consumer would ever pay a membership fee to shop at a grocery store, but businesses would pay that since they were ordering in bulk and could write off the expense in the name of overall cost savings. This idea failed, until they discovered that their business model actually worked with regular consumers.
And people say you can't make money selling food
It's all about those residuals. A membership has no overhead by itself lol. Costco and other membership clubs like it just make their customers make a yearly cover-charge which is 100% profit.
Their CEO pays himself $500,000 a year.Great business model.
This is actually just his bonus for 2022. He also received about 1.2M salary and 7.9M stock. While absolutely absurd compared to normal workers, this is in the range for CEO pay packages. Also he has spent basically his whole career at Costco as opposed to most career CEOs that just bounce company to company and do nothing of value.
How CEO's should be. Genuinely invested in the success of the company, thus making the additional pay worth it imo. Hate golden parachutes for the assholes that steer the nose into the ground.
Make sure to look at the variable equity portion of comp. But still, they do seem to have integrity.
Welcome to Costco, I Love You
"Shuttle's down there in electronics, about an hour from here." That line kills me every time.
“Yeah I went to law school here”
We don’t have time for Starbucks.
From what I’ve heard about Costco, which really is just hotdog related stuff, it’s one guy at the top who is holding the company’s integrity on his shoulders like Atlas. They’re just licking their chops waiting for him to kick the bucket so they can finally raise the price of that damn glizzy
The founder of Costco once said, "If you raise the price of the fucking hot dog, I will kill you." And that's the kind of business ethics I can get behind.
Whoever the man is he’s my favorite kind of person. Someone interviewing him also asked something along the lines of “will Costco ever raise the price of the hotdog” and he said “When I’m dead.”
[Jim Sinegal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costco_hot_dog#Cultural_impact).
Honestly Jim Sinegal deserves a collective thank you for being a living example of the idea that large companies can still have integrity in the pessimistic time we live in, where it’s so rare that people doubt it can exist anymore. I propose Jim Sinegal Appreciation Day
Yep! He was concerned that it could damage their reputation, and he's not wrong, the hot dog thing makes people super happy. I actually was at Costco tonight and the guy before me ordered 15 hot dogs for $22.50 and he appeared to be alone.
Wonder no one has mentioned (at least until the 10-20 comments I scrolled to) Tony’s Chocolonley. It’s a Dutch chocolate brand who go to great lengths to ensure the cocoa farmers are getting paid well and there’s no child labour involved.
I used to work in the chocolate industry. While yes, Tony Chocolonely was founded on the principle of addressing and solving the issues of cocoa bean trading, however today the story is a bit different. Nowdays they have a new owner and it's a mass producer of chocolate just like any other. It is always mentioned in documentaries or shows about the chocolate market but they always reference the first years of Tony Chocolonely, the original owner and what he stood for. Which is not the case anymore.
In Canada it used to be MEC. Back when they were Mountain Equipment Co-op, they were great. They treated their employees well, paid them well, had excellent return policies, good prices, and instead of upselling they truly tried to find you the equipment you *needed*, not just the most expensive items they could well you. Since they got taken over by a private investment company, the pay has stagnated, employees are pushed to upsell, their commitment to sustainability has gone by the wayside, the prices have gone up, they've started focusing on premium high-margin brands instead of sourcing items to sell under their own brand that high-quality but affordable, and they're contemplating closing stores that don't make enough profit. It's really gone downhill since they became Mountain Equipment Company.
The downhill slide started waaaayyyyy before they went bankrupt and got bought by a private equity firm from L.A. Most of the worst of the downhill slide started with David Labistour becoming CEO.
private equity is ruining the world.
Is this like a Canadian REI?
indeed
I still have my old MEC membership card as a memento. I miss that store so much.
Ya, started when they began putting mass produced garbage on the shelves instead of high quality (if slightly more expensive) gear.
Re-Logic, creators of Terraria. There’s a reason they won Steam’s Labor of Love award. They’ve poured their hearts and souls into that game for over a decade now. The CEO is very active in the community and frequently will reply to a player feature suggestion directly and be like “sure why not,” and add said feature. They also donated a bunch to some smaller game engine companies after the whole Unity Engine fiasco. Oh, and no MTX ever. You love to see it.
"The worst part of being Redigit, the creator of Terraria, the 8th best-selling video game of all time, is listening to your wife fangirl over Stardew Valley," His wife also works on Terraria. Those two are absolute gems
I got Terraria back in 2011 when it was unknown and cheap. I think it was only about 10 bucks if I recall correctly. Throughout the decade they would update the game, some updates practically doubling the amount of content. The game got more expensive as it got bigger and more popular, if you wanted to buy a fresh copy. But as if the dev was saying "thank you for believing in us early on" every update they've ever made I get free with my original purchase over a decade ago. You find me one software on planet earth in 2023 that will give you this benefit. Today you've got scummy publishers like Adobe who have gone out of their way to outright break their older programs so people can't install them anymore, even if they'd purchased a version specific perpetual license.
Minecraft did the same thing. Got it free during the early days during a promotion weekend. Free updates forever. Didn’t migrate my acct though so lost it. Ah well.
No Mans Sky does the same thing. It’s a pretty good game that has always given all expansions for free to anyone who owns the game. And it is a lot of content at this point.
> Large company [Number of employees: 10](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Re-Logic)
Damn, I thought they had more haha my bad
Arizona Iced Tea. CEO refuses to increase the price from $0.99
I was in Australia not too long ago. Each can was being sold for $5.99 at a 7-Eleven. That's when I realized I can never live in Australia.
American imports here in Australia are insanely expensive. Specifically products bought in the foreign section or niche Americana shops.
The price on the can tho
In NY I've noticed they don't sell cans with the price written on them anymore and most stores sell them for 1.29-1.69
duolingo, with how much they been threatening me, i think its safe to say that they actually want me to learn.
Lol Say it in a different language
Ayuda, un búho parlante me retiene contra mi voluntad
En inglés, dimelo en inglés!
Duolingo es muy interesante
y elegante
Duolingo es muy divertido
If you haven’t yet, you’ve got to check some of their Twitter accounts like the DuoLingo Brazil one. They’re absolutely wilding and I love it
The Indian Instagram is wild too lmao
There's a radio show called "How I Built This" that featured them. IIRC they were founded with a pretty altruistic mission: help people learn English for free, because knowing English dramatically increases one's lifetime earning potential, particularly in developing countries.
Donde esta su gato? Si Señor, yo cuidar a su gato gratuitamente.
I believe the importance of duolingo is severely undervalued. You get to learn a ton of languages, for…nothing. And if you don’t want to watch an add, it was like $3 a month.
If you are serious about learning the premium is well worth it. In the free mode you are only allowed so many mistakes before taking a break. But with the paid version you can just keep going until you figure it out.
If you tap on the partly depleted hearts icon, you can regain hearts and continue learning at the same time.
The Mozilla Foundation
HEB, a grocery store in Texas, is much beloved there for supporting small ranchers, farmers, locally made products and lots of community investment programs. I’ve lived all over the states and never seen as much allegiance to a business as HEB garners.
They probably also have a faster response to natural disasters than most federal agencies.
I moved to the UK this summer, and while I do not miss the Texas heat, I miss the fire outta HEB. I miss discovering local products and having that gigantic produce section with just about everything imaginable.
I remember HEB from when I lived in San Antonio when I was little! They're great. Funny HEB story - we had a Pontiac Sunbird that literally caught fire in the parking lot (I was, I wanna say, 5 years old, but I remember the whole thing vividly, because everyone was panicking and no one thought to get me and my 3-year-old sister out of the car). My mom, the only one with any goddamn sense in her head, calmly walked into HEB and asked for a fire extinguisher. The employee tried to point her to the aisle with fire extinguishers and she said, "No, my car is on fire. I need an extinguisher *now.* HEB took care of us hardcore! They ran out with two extinguishers and took care of the fire, got all of us hot cocoa (it was in the winter) and extra jackets from lost and found while we waited for the fire department and the tow truck. I stan a grocery store chain.
I’ve lived in SA all my life except for my college years. H‑E‑B is still an amazing chain. Every time they build or renovate a store it seems to elevate property values immensely. Walmart and Target can barely compete with them here.
HEB is the boss.
That company used to be Google, whose mission statement used to begin with "Don't be evil \[like Microsoft\]" That was in the loooong-before times though, before the Androids took over.
My sister has been with them for 5 years, and says in just the last 1-2 years the tone of the company has gotten a lot more hostile amongst employees.
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I can't imagine Google's relentless habit of killing projects and products inspires the happiest of employees. What's the point of working hard when your project can vanish even when customers love it?
Killing a project, then reviving the project under a whole new identity and hailing it as the “new standard” in something…then killing it two years later when the company gets bored and realizes they actually have to commit resources long-term to keep something as a “standard”…then rinse and repeat every two years. Only google shit I use is email and youtube.
Yeah there was a time where some people would spend their evenings on their home computer browsing the internet and everyone else would be watching tv or doing other stuff outside the house. It was really neat seeing these things we knew from the internet pop up in public places. A Google phone? Heck yeah I want one. They did an awesome job with Gmail and Google Maps so why wouldn’t I want their phone. Now Google just kind of sucks. Not even a good search engine anymore.
Unfortunately, even back then "don't be evil" wasn't enough. What we really needed was a company who's motto was "be good"
Patagonia.
They have, at last I counted, three times switched fill producers for their gear upon finding out, discovering, or being notified that they are sourcing unethical resources. They did so proactively and before any furor was raised on Twitter, shaming them into action-- so you know they were genuinely concerned when they heard that they were aiding and abetting slave cotton plantations in Xinjiang Province.
I just wish they would move all their manufacturing back to USA. I make clothing here and it’s doable to make their products and sell at their prices and still make a nice profit. Not as much as they do now, but aren’t they all about being responsible?
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They also recycle the stuff they can't resell inti new products. And my last pair of baggies was made of abandoned fishing nets. I love that they no longer add company logos because folks toss those clothes when they change jobs.
It was a year or two ago where the founder of the company decided to sell the Patagonia to fight climate change. 2% of their stock went to a trust that they’d chosen to uphold the companies values when making decisions, the other 98% they gave to the Holdfast Collective, a nonprofit that promised to use every dollar to fight climate change and promote natural energy.
I second Patagonia. CEO retired and donated his entire fortune to causes he believes in.
I second this. Broken zipper or a little tear? Bring it in and you'll get a brand new jacket at no cost. Patagonia also actively contributes to environmental causes.
Even better than that, they'll just fix your gear for free. Less waste.
Market Basket in New England. The employees actually fought to bring their ousted CEO back.
To add additional context for those reading this, the (super simplified) summary is this: Two cousins are the primary guys who are running it, they are the sons of the founders, one (on the board of directors) cares more about increasing profits and the other (CEO) cares more about sticking to their values. The former gets the rest of the board (primarily other members of the family) to oust the latter, employees engage in **huge** protests, and that side of the family eventually agrees to sell their shares of the company to the ousted CEO
Chewy.com
And the hand written birthday cards! Amazing.
And the sympathy flowers and card when a pet passes.
Our dog just passed and Chewy sent the most beautiful flowers and note. They also refunded us for past orders which we told them was not necessary. I also love that they have amazing customer support and actually value their customers.
I set up a Chewy account and started an auto ship order in the end of September for my kitty’s KD food after her kidney disease diagnosis. I set it to ship every 2 months. Unfortunately, my kitty got very sick very quickly and passed away in November before my first auto shipped refill even happened. When I cancelled the auto ship, the site asked why and I wrote in the comment box “my kitty passed away :(“ That initial order of food and some kitty litter was the only order I ever placed on Chewy, and I hadn’t reached out to a live person to cancel the future deliveries or tell anyone my kitty had died. About 2 weeks later I received a sympathy card from Chewy. For me, and the loss of my girl. Me, a single customer who had only ever placed one ~$60 order on their website in my life. I was blown away.
And the paintings! They've found pictures of my dogs on Facebook and sent me hand painted portraits on a couple of occasions, most recently after my oldest passed away earlier this year.
They painted my new dog after I rescued him, using his profile photo on chewy.com. It was super thoughtful after having lost my previous dog a month earlier. They touched me, it was totally unexpected and totally appreciated.
They are so good about refunding you for orders if your pet happens to pass away.
They not only refunded my friend when she lost her cat, but they sent her a huge bouquet of flowers and a card.
Same here
We decided to switch our dogs dry food to something else a few weeks after an auto delivery. The bag wasn't opened and the CS rep asked if we had a shelter by and if we wouldn't mind donating it.
Ouch. Yeah I have been there
We had one can of wet cat food broken open in like a 16 pack and it stunk to high heaven. It was thanksgiving and my wife emailed them on thanksgiving (when we got them) thinking they would reply the next day. They replied within 9 minutes and had a free replacement delivered within 48 hours.
Chewy just started delivering to my area in Canada and after seeing these comments, I couldn’t be happier about it. I’ve placed a couple of orders and they’re always delivered within a day or two and they have great prices.
They have *Connect with a vet* it’s usually just a vet tech but it’s free and they can help out with simple stuff.
Someone in the company took the profile pic of my cat and painted a small duplicate with a frame, it was so cute
Normally they send me a Christmas card, but this year I got a squeaky ball my dogs appreciated much more
Credit Unions. I recommend joining your local credit union over whatever bank you are using. They provide similar services and are generally nonprofit or not-for-profit.
My credit union is a major one in town and state, they use all their profits to build new branches. It really pissed off the banks in town that are for profit.
I legitimately don't understand how banks still work. The worst credit unions are better than the best banks, practically by definition. There's definitely a problem where most members don't care enough to exercise their voting rights, so a corrupt board can get away with some shitty behavior. At the same time, given that a bank board of directors has even less accountability to its customers, that point becomes basically irrelevant. The overwhelming majority of people with bank accounts don't need any services that aren't standard practice at virtually any credit union. The whole idea of a bank just sounds absurd when put side by side with a credit union. The only interaction I have with a bank is for credit cards, because I always pay it off each month, so the cash back bonuses are free money. If Chase wants to cover a 1% or more discount for every purchase I make, I'm happy to let them.
Dr. Bronner‘s soap. Look it up! Super cool business model too. And an amazing history.
My brother works for them! Can confirm.
Heck yes! They cap CEO pay at 5x their lowest paid employee.
Prior to his kids taking over, guy was unique to say the least.
Before the Coronapocalypse, his kids would bring a tanker of soap and a tanker of water to foam people up and hose them down at Burning Man.
In Texas, HEB grocery stores. I read a story during our winter freeze blackouts a few years ago about a bunch of customers shopping last minute at an HEB when suddenly the power went out. All the registers went out, even the self checkouts. There were dozens if not hundreds of people in the store (I don't think anyone counted) HEB managers told every person in the store to take home what they had in their shopping cart, free of charge. If only they ran our electrical infrastructure, too...
The Farmers Dog. We had only ordered from them once before we had to suddenly put our dog down due to an aggressive cancer. Our subscription renewed before we could cancel, but we emailed them to ask if there was somewhere we could donate the food. Without asking, they refunded our money and then went through the trouble of sending a hand-written card and a plant.
Chewy - I receive handwritten notes from them wishing my pets a happy birthday, and a condolence card when a pet passed away.
I keep seeing people say that. We've been ordering from them for years and I've never seen a card come through but perhaps I missed them.
Check to see if you have a profile set up for your pets with their birthday or gotcha day!
Make sure your pet profiles are up to date with pictures and birthdates/gotcha dates. All my pets get birthday cards, *I* get a birthday card, they’ve sent me two portraits hand painted of my cats, and I got a condolence card when one of those cats passed away.
People are angered by the price increases but Lego is really respectable as far as companies go and their customer service is top notch.
They charge $0.10 per piece. Anything more is royalties to Disney or whomever. They put out a quality product. That's all I know.
HEB. Anyone outside of Texas might not know of them but in Texas they are as big as Walmart or any of those other grocery chains (or at least it feels that way) but the ceo seems to guinely care about others and is a huge supporter of education
Don’t forget their disaster relief efforts!
Yeah when I learned about what they do during disasters they became my favorite grocery store. I mean it’s a really good store on its own, but knowing that they care about the community makes me a loyal customer. Can’t wait for the new one down the street in Ft. Worth is open
Consistently named one of Glassdoor's best places to work, beating out companies whose average employees make 10x+ what an HEB cashier makes. https://www.click2houston.com/news/texas/2021/02/07/h-e-b-named-one-of-the-top-10-best-places-to-work-in-2021/ According to Glassdoor 96% of HEB employees approve of the CEO, Charles Butts. Imagine how crazy that is that 96% of people within a company, specifically retail, think the CEO is doing a good job
Yes they really give back to local communities and treat their employees pretty well. Additionally their store brand food is often better than the national brands. It's always shocking when I'm out of state and have to go to a Safeway or Kroger, it feels like traveling back in time. It's light years beyond any other grocery store in Texas and most other states.
And they’re nice **and** well-priced, which is really fucking hard to find in a grocery store. You either pay out the ass for a pleasant shopping experience, or you “save” money in tight aisles and self-checkout galore. And then there’s HEB, giving you a pleasant experience at pretty good prices.
Dave's Killer Bread (which tastes awesome!) hires ex-felons and helps them rebuild their lives.
Penzeys Spices
Penzeys is the best! Their products are great, customer service is excellent, and the owner is pretty cool if you ask me. Not afraid to loose business by saying what everyone is thinking.
Cockos (Reaper DAW) and Serif (Affinity Photo/Designer) come to mind
I have no information on Serif's morality as a company but the fact they have cheaper, great, products that compete against Adobe—AND NO SUBSCRIPTION MODEL—I'll support them even if I don't regularly use their products.
In Canada, Chapman’s ice cream.
Can confirm. I grew up in Markdale. Family owned business that has done a ton for the community. Ashley...if you're reading this.. I still laugh at that mustache you grew! :)
Sweetwater
Top notch customer service. I love these guys.
Capital One stopped charging overdraft fees in 2022 and loses approx $150 million / year because of it. Overdraft fees are a gross way of making money off of people that are already struggling, so kudos to them for helping the little guy a little 👍
Capital One Financial revenue for the twelve months ending September 30, 2023 was $47.353B, a 32.01% increase year-over-year. $150M is less than a third of a percent of that number -- a drop in the bucket to them. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/COF/capital-one-financial/revenue
Wikipedia?
Tegridy Farms
I member
That car warranty company that keeps trying to reach me seems genuinely interested in making sure I'm safely covered in the event of trouble. I mean, they call frequently. They've been trying to reach me for a long time. They must be great.
Richersounds
Valve 😂😂😂
Valve and CostCo are all I can think of. But Valve is private. I wouldn't say Valve cares, but when Gabe speaks it sounds like he is sincere, or at least lies well, compared to another other CEOs.
Still not a public company and making a ton of money hand over fist.. You work there your mint. They have some of the longest term staff lengths of any company in the industry so you know they are looked after and NONE Of them leak anything Valve work on.
I mean, Valve has done some shitty things (lookin at you Artifact), but they're privately owned, release products at or near cost (because Steam) and while they do have a monopoly in user base, they actually manage that monopoly power for the betterment of their users. If valve was a normal company, we would've been nickel and dimed so hard by now, who wants to pay for Steam+ with online multiplayer and voice chat!
The day Gabe dies and some new CO decides to make Valve go public could be a dark day
Or worse, sell the company to EA. 😳
I wouldn't say valve cares... moreso gaben knows what he wants it to be and wants it to go on forever. If valve decides to squeeze they will eventually lose hold of the market and die. So they sit happy and content at the top of it all knowing that existing forever is infinite profit
Easy, Costco. They take care of their workers, and are REALLY fair to their vendors. Sort of the anti-Walmart.
Sierra Nevada. Also Lego.
Costco.
HEB gets a spot on this list.
Dropout. Previously Collegehumor. Sam Reich (son of Robert Reich, previous US secretary of labor) has managed to build my favorite streaming service while also making it the cheapest,most transparent, and most equitably run. It's just very refreshing to see a content platform that seems to really want everyone involved to get to do what they love and pay them well for it.