Are you going to boycott Walmart, Costco, Amazon, Home Depot and McDonald's on Feb. 28?

Boycott is such a powerful, triggering word.

It's a protest, a punitive ban, a stop-buying activism that serves as punishment for the target.

It's a way for consumers to put their money where their mouth is to prove a point.

Coming up Feb. 28 is such a day, a grassroots embargo and snub that's going by several different names -- Boycott Day, Economic Blackout Day and Retail Blackout Day.

Boycott Day is gaining momentum -- mostly by going viral on social media -- on both sides of the border for different reasons.

The People's Union USA started the movement, urging consumers to boycott companies like Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy on Feb. 28 to protest the retailers' scaling back of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives prompted by President Donald Trump's so-called war on DEI.

Trump is planning to eliminate federal DEI programs and has threatened to freeze funds for non-compliant companies, thus retailers dumping their own DEI policies.

Canadians have hopped on the bandwagon and will be using Boycott Day as a way to shun American retailers in Canada by not spending a cent with them on Feb. 28 either in-store or online.

The Canadian crusade has ballooned to not only target Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy, but also Costco, Home Depot, McDonald's, eBay Staples, Gap and Toys r Us.

The boycott of American brands in Canada is not so much protesting DEI rollbacks as it is about striking back at Trump for threatening 25% tariffs and 51st state jabs.

If Canadians forgo their reliance on American retailers for the day, they can shop at independent, locally owned stores or order from their websites as well as hit up big Canadian retailers like Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, Sport Chek, Shoppers Drug Mart, Dollarama and grocery stores such as Save-On Foods, Real Canadian Superstore, Your Independent Grocery, No Frills, Nature's Fare, Nesters, Choices and Urban Fare.

"We've always pushed and promoted shop local, buy local," said Downtown Kelowna Association executive director Mark Burley.

"And since most of the businesses downtown are small, locally owned independents, it's easy to support local by shopping downtown. But, the thing with Boycott Day is it is kind of dangerous. Sure, those stores may be American-owned, but Canadians work there and a boycott hurts them, too."

Consumer boycotts can create noise and certainly bring awareness of issues.

Such boycotts may even pressure retailers to consider change.

But, as has already been pointed out online in various articles and social media posts, a one-day boycott may catch the attention of big American retailers, but won't really affect their bottom line or behaviour.

So, only ongoing boycotts can be truly effective.

There's been talk of such in this country ever since Trump started to bully Canada last month.

Various campaigns are urging Canadians to shun American companies, goods and services in favour of home-grown companies, goods and services.