Here’s a twist: Don’t buy anything on Black Friday

By now, many of you have probably polished off your Thanksgiving feast, and are focusing on a big day of shopping ahead. In fact, our most recent holiday poll estimates that 50 million Americans will be descending on the malls tomorrow. 

To most of us, Nov. 28 — Black Friday — is a day to take advantage of blockbuster sales. But there’s another group of folks — I’d call them consumers, but they’d surely take offense — who think all this focus on materialism is bunk, and they’re urging others to live more frugally and buy a whole lot less. 

We’re not talking about a small commune of crackpots here, but an array of environmentalists, social activists, and concerned citizens in 65 countries, according to one of the event’s organizers, Kalle Lasn,  co-founder of Adbusters Media Foundation, which has promoted Buy Nothing Day since 1992. Adbusters is a not-for-profit magazine, based in British Columbia, Canada, that’s concerned about “the erosion of our physical and cultural environments by commercial forces.” 

So for the 17th year in a row, celebrants will mark Black Friday in their usual, unconventional manner, doing things like cutting up credit cards in malls, holding politically charged protests and vigils, and wheeling shopping carts without actually buying anything. Others will mark the occasion less demonstrably, with non-commercial street parties or by just going off on family outings. The idea is to do anything but open your wallet, Lasn says. 

 

Lest you think our friends to the North are ganging up on the U.S., the campaign is also setting its sites on other nations’ conspicuous consumption habits. Buy Nothing Day is scheduled to take place on Saturday throughout the rest of the world. 

The goal of Buy Nothing Day, Lasn says, is to encourage people to conserve more of the planet’s resources for future generations, live within their means, and to avoid drowning in debt. 

For his activism, Lasn says he’s been heckled and vilified as a Communist hell-bent on destroying America’s economy. Lasn, predictably, sees it differently. “It’s all about making people think and celebrate the holidays in a different and sustainable way. Living within our means will also make us happier and healthier than we’ve been in the past.” 

While it’s impossible to guess how many people will participate in Buy Nothing Day, Lasn says the movement has spread like wildfire thanks largely to the Internet. He estimates that tens of millions of people are aware of the day, while 2 to 3 million have actually tried taking a vacation from shopping. A few thousand more, he says, are more actively involved in protests and other demonstrations. 

What do you think of Buy Nothing Day? Is it well intentioned noble ideal, Communist conspiracy, or something else? Write to tightwad at cro dot consumer dot org.

Comments

[karen]

i think these people need to get a life and stop interfering with others.

opionions are like ...... everyone has one

[Keyalpha]

I never shop on Black Friday but I no political or other motivations except to avoit the mass of shoppers with a live and let die all those who try to get in their buggies' way enroute whatever they deem to be the most important merchandise item before it is sold out. I don't like crowds so I prefer to shop online whenever possible. Anyway, I applaud all with a just cause to save the planet.

[Cornell]

They're tilting at windmills.

[Joan Hillgardner]

Thank you for this report. I wish more consumers would reject the manipulation of advertisers and support the simplicity lived by our ancestors.

[rsamallman]

As a 63-year old grandfather of three, coupled with divorces which has led to a 'family' with many, many grandparents, we have all witnessed the excesses of buying too many things (toys, etc.). The children smile and then play with them for an average of about 5 seconds each. Let's stop it... This will not stop the economy... Spend the money... Fund that college education earlier than later. Buy that second home for family getaways and reunions. There are so, so many things that our money could be spent on that just possibly might provide a better quality of like for our own families and others. What's wrong with putting in a few hours at a food kitchen and taking our children with us. Let's identify a truly needy family and provide them the necessary support yto be able to change their circumstances.

[Khürt Williams]

Cool. I have been an unknowing participant in "Buy Nothing Day" for decades.

[virgila hawthorne]

I can't imagine what would be so important to purchase that poeple would stand in line for hours in the middle of the night or even camp out in tents in vile weather. I avoid Black Friday like the Black Plague!
I shop on a week day, preferably in the middle of the morning when it's comfortable for me and not crowded. Wait until next week. The prices will match the door busters in many cases. If not, there is a reasonable substitute, or I won't buy it.
The only time my husband or I ever did something this crazy was when a daughter thought she must have a Cabbage Patch doll the first year they were made. Daddies and their baby girls.....

[crispinpierce]

We bought nothing on Friday, and support the reexamination of the costs of consumption. Much of the financial turmoil in which we find ourselves is due to over-consumption: credit lines to buy second and third homes, large credit card balances, gas guzzlers.

Our family feels that investment in the future (donations to conserve natural resources, helping those in need, planning for our daughter's college education) is much more rewarding that the immediate gratification of a bunch of often short-lived holiday gifts.

[Guss Hariz]

I think it is a good idea. We are wired to shop from when we are kids. Watch this video: http://www.storyofstuff.com/
It was eye opening!

[April]

I don't participate in Black Friday. Every Thanksgiving, I'm miles away from a mall, out in the middle of the desert outside Big Bend National Park. I can't even get cell phone service, let alone be bombarded by ads, commercials, and the like. I LOVE it.

I HATE crowds. I hate the commotion, the pushing, the line-waiting, and the fervor of manic shopping. I have maybe a handful of stores I visit in person because of excellent customer service, and the rest of my shopping is online. I visit those stores at odd hours if possible. I also prefer farmer's markets, and buy just about everything I can there before buying at a supermarket.

I'm not against consumerism. I'm a consumer, even if I don't do Black Friday. I just choose with purpose, based on MY needs and wants, not what marketers want me to buy. Having too much STUFF depresses me. I've never felt as free as I do now, after spending the last year downsizing and donating, and learning to ignore the ads and choose for myself.

[Clean Simple]

In our downtown, we saw folks with signs saying "Buy More Stuff". See some pictures (from 2007, this is their second year): http://michaelholden.com/pics/v/BuyMoreStuff/

While I love visiting our downtown on Black Friday, I usually don't buy anything...well, other than a hot cocoa at Starbucks.