Buy Nothing Day
November 25, 2009Jon Brooks 1 Comment »As most consumers with an early eye on holiday shopping know, the day after Thanksgiving is also known as Black Friday. On that day, savvy purchasers arise at 4 a.m., attire themselves in running shoes, flak jacket, and football helmet, and brave the vast hordes of salivating shoppers intent on scoring a dirt cheap price for their desired merchandise.
Yes, it’s easy to be snide. But in the midst of this brutal recession, with 10% unemployment, who can blame beleaguered Americans for seizing any opportunity they can to achieve some semblance of their former lifestyle while still meeting their dwindling budgets? Plus the economy needs that holidays’ jolt. Early scenes from the mall have not been encouraging:
But despite all those reasons to have a rooting interest in Black Friday, that mad rush to spend–which has spawned ugly scenes like last year’s trampling death at a Long Island Wal-Mart–has also triggered a backlash. This has manifested in the alternate-reality Buy Nothing Day, co-existing on the calendar with Black Friday.
According to Wikipedia:
This year, Adbusters is calling for a Wildcat General Strike on November 27 and 28. From the site:
On November 27/28 we’re asking tens of millions of people around the world to bring the capitalist consumption machine to a grinding – if only momentary – halt. We want you to shut off your lights, your televisions and other nonessential appliances. We want you to park your car, turn off your phones and log off your computer for the day. We’re calling for a Ramadan-like fast. From sunrise to sunset, we abstain en masse. Not only from shopping but from all the temptations of our five-planet lifestyles.
Instead we’ll feed our spirits and minds with a feast of subversive activities: pranks, shenanigans, credit card cut-ups, bicycle swarms, mall invasions and all manner of culture jams and creative détournements … and some of us will take things even further with sit-ins, demonstrations, passive resistance and acts of nonviolent defiance, anarchy and civil disobedience. If we can create a big enough ruckus on November 27/28, then we may be able to catalyze what the Situationists tried to set in motion half a century ago: a chain reaction of refusal against consumer capitalism … a sudden, unexpected moment of truth … the first ever global revolution.
We’ll check in next week to see how Black Friday/Buy Nothing Day went. In the meantime, here’s a sampling of blog posts about Buy Nothing Day:
We are in a mess. Actually we are in a bunch of messes. The financial collapse was caused in large part by our greedy and over consumptive nature and practices. Markets will not hold when so many people live lives based on an ever revolving line of credit, made necessary by the need to own more than one can afford.
The environmental mess we are in, is a direct result of over harvesting the planets resources to supply our consumptive society.
We are running out of nature… fish, forests, fresh water and minerals. We are running out of clean air, water and soil.
There’s only one way to avoid the collapse of this human experiment of ours on Planet Earth: we have to consume less.
It will take a massive mind-shift. You can start the ball rolling by buying nothing on November 27th. Then celebrate Christmas differently this year, and make a New Year’s resolution to change your lifestyle in 2010.
It’s not just about saving the planet though. It’s about returning to relationships that aren’t based on material gratification.
I’ve had enough of the commercialization of Christmas. Now Black Friday shopping is being hyped more than the supposed reason for the shopping.
Earlier this week I went to my church to help fill bags of Thanksgiving foods for those in need right here in our community. Last week the regular food give-away had to be closed early. The demand out-weighed what was available.
So please join me in boycotting Black Friday shopping. Instead, stay home and write checks to your favorite charities. Or if you are having a tough time financially, use the money to pay down your credit cards.
Christmas is a season of goodness and appreciation for the life that has been given us… and all the joys associated with family and friends.
This particular capitalist wouldn’t do well without her BlackBerry and her credit card for a full day, it’s one or the other, with the credit card much easier to keep in my pocket than the device. But whatever.
Other clever ways to spend the day? How about Whirl-mart; an impromptu conga line of shopping carts in the middle of any large warehouse or retail store (Target would work in a pinch) much to the chagrin of store security?
You can even take it all the way and declare a Buy Nothing Christmas if that’s your thing. Why stop with Black Friday? It’s not like you can afford crap your friends and family don’t want anyway, so just don’t do it. Sock away some money and put it into something useful like gold ETFs or at least new gadgets.
It goes without saying that retail has a long hard slog upward this winter. In fact, some stores are opening on Thanksgiving just to get a jump on the holiday season, hoping they can squeeze out every little bit they can to make it through the end of the year. Yeah, good luck with that.
There’s a movement to de-emphasize our roles as “consumers” and return to being “people” and not taking part in the spending frenzy of “Black Friday” is a big part of that. Of course, with the economy in the shape it’s in, buying something to help retailers and producers get out of the red and into the black seems vaguely patriotic, as the breathless reports of sales and “consumer confidence” will set the tone for the rest of the holiday season, and the economic attitude for the year ahead. It’s like a Hollywood blockbuster… if it doesn’t have a massive “opening weekend” then it’s considered a failure. So, I guess decide for yourself: resist the urge to be defined by how much you spend, or be part of jumpstarting the economy.
The idea of waking up at the crack of dawn the day after Thanksgiving to go shopping for trinkets among hordes of what seem like crazed zombies strikes me as a horrible kind of torture. Nonetheless, millions of Americans consider “Black Friday” a kind of celebratory tradition, with this year expected to be the biggest and craziest yet. Understandably, retailers and other merchants are delighted at the opportunity to cash in.
As an antidote to the madness, some folks stay home or actively participate in anti-shopping movements such as “buy nothing day” – a clever, mostly symbolic, attempt to reign some sense into the consumptive lifestyle.
But why can’t progressive-minded business people suggest a saner alternative? After all, folks who understand the appeal of shopping locally, buying organic, and taking the time to understand where products come from and who makes them, already recognize that we vote with our dollars. When consumers line up at 4am at a big box store to buy next year’s landfill discards then they are voting approval of an economy based on thoughtless consumption, materialism and waste. Only by casting competing votes can we, and other responsible business owners change that tide.
I propose “Buy Something Responsible Day”.
Actually, someone could probably come up with a better name. Green Friday? But the idea is to make a concerted effort to encourage spending some extra money the day after Thanksgiving at businesses who you recognize are making an effort – be it sourcing and employing locally, producing ecologically minded goods, or just making an honest effort at reducing their footprint on the earth. There are dozens of companies we’ve profiled over the years here at TriplePundit, over at TreeHugger, and elsewhere that ought to qualify. The point is to actively stimulate a new, greener economy a “BUYcott” could accomplish much more than a “BOYcott”.
Popular legend has it that the day after Thanksgiving, “Black Friday,” is the busiest shopping day of the year. Anti-consumerist activists have for some years been designating this day “Buy Nothing Day.” This is a day not to go to the mall, not to add to the balance on your credit cards, but rather to start thinking about how to spend this holiday season giving the gift of love, of self, rather than of material goods.
This year, of course, we’re in recession, so is it irresponsible to “Buy Nothing” when the economy depends so much on consumer spending? Well, as Juliet Schor points out in this post on the Center for a New American Dream website, it was financial shenanigans and the housing bubble that caused the problem. For an economic recovery, the pump will need to be primed at a level high above the average consumer.
In addition, many Americans are in hock up to their ears with credit card and mortgage debt, and the wiser option at this stage is to cut down on purchases, pay down debt, and increase the rate of savings, which hovers around zero for Americans. (According to Consumer Reports, in 2006, 23% of shoppers were still carrying holiday-related credit card debt the following March.)
Remember that the cost of every purchase includes not just the price of the item but the price to advertise it, ship it, package it and dispose of it when it breaks down. Much of this cost is in oil, something to think about in this time of global climate change.
And most importantly, real meaning and purpose cannot be found in the mall, or in the exchange of material goods. Real purpose can only be found in human connection, in time spent with friends and loved ones, in volunteering – generally giving the gift, not of stuff, but of self. And that’s the gift that keeps on giving.
(Of course, Jews who observe Shabbat know that “Buy Nothing Day” comes every week!)
November 26th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
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