I think you so totally fail to get the TRUE gist of what it means, that it's very sad that you are an American Citizen.
Regardless of whether it is products on a hardware store shelf, or whether it is some ideological platform of some politician, the TRUE point of the comparison is simple freedom of speech and/or expression. The very first Right in the Bill of Rights as amendments to the US Constitution. BOTH actions are citizens' attempts to engage that Right.
I'm talking about Constitutional rights of US citizens, and you can only think of hammers and pliers. The educational system in this country has truly gone to the dogs.....
I'll ignore the childish name calling for now, and answer the part you seem to have missed.
In your example, you compare people choosing different stores based on cost or quality of products to people choosing stores based on something that has nothing to do with the products purchased.
You're right in that we have the freedom to choose, but you're way off base trying to claim they both represent "cancel culture".