Some wily retailers would have you think the day after Thanksgiving is some sort of “Black Friday” where you’re supposed to get up before the roosters and claw with other shoppers over “amazing” deals. Actually, it’s really “Buy Nothing Day,” where, in solidarity with anti-consumers around the globe, you don’t spend any money at all. Some might argue you’re swapping one mob mentality for another, but at least one costs less.
Buy Nothing Day [Adbusters]
@HN333
At least I’m not a tool of massive corporations. And I’m a tool with most of her paycheck still in the bank.
Aww the classic market power economic thought model. Does one have the market power to change the market as a whole? How many people are needed to change the market as a whole? What is the lag time? And so on. Just classic analysis…
I’m with MSCLEAR, I’m not shopping on Black Friday (or much in general this year) for the following reasons:
1. Everyone I know has enough crap to last them a lifetime, including me.
2. I refuse to jostle in line with a bunch of people who are usually trashy sheep types (in my town anyway).
3. Last Thanksgiving, I spoke with my aunt who NEVER misses a black Friday, she’s out at 3AM for the good sales. She’s $100,000.00 in credit card debt right now because she just loves to shop so much. Her marriage is in ruins and she’s probably going to lose her house. It really turned me off the whole Black Friday concept.
Yeah, it costs less till you need a digital camera in January.
@MsClear:
Oh wow I’m really sorry. That messaged was meant for you. I clicked on the wrong post. I agree with you 100$.
Again I’m sorry about that.
I think the idea most of you are missing here is to curb the mentality that “Black Friday” is the magical day you MUST BUY EVERYTHING!!!!!!1111.
Nobody wants you to stop buying things. But they do want the insanity and the “Everybody should be out buying on this day of the year” mentality to end.
But hey, if you want to be the next idiot on TV getting arrested for fighting during some mad sale rush, be my guest. I’ll be sitting around and waiting for another day to do my shopping, thanks.
@CaffeinatedSquint:
When the religious reich called for a boycott of Disney because of their gay-friendly policy, did the gay community get uppity and whine that it was unfair?
No. They laughed and went to Disneyworld in droves and spent $2 bills to show they had been there. Disney reported thousands of such bills being spent.
My point is, save the gripes and whines about boycotts and buycotts until _after_ the event happens. If the boycott or buycott works, you haven’t said anything to regret, and if it doesn’t, you have a chance to laugh about it.
Complaining about people planning a boycott just looks like pussiness.
My checkbook is saying, if you want to pay rent stay out of Bestbuy on Friday. Besdides, why would I want to get up EARLY on a day when I can sleep in and be lazy. Being lazy appeals to me much more then spending money on useless crap.
But hey, if anyone wants to buy me a new plasma TV on Friday I would happily accept it.
@Xkeeper:
“Nobody wants you to stop buying things.”
Actually they do. The whole point of organizations such as adbusters is that they are anti-corporate and anti-consumption oriented. It’s the same silly “fight the big bad evil corporation” bullshit.
I’ll be sleeping in. I really don’t like crowds.
@crypticgeek: And like all boycotts, it doesn’t work too well. People will be buying on Saturday, Sunday, and so on. Also some stores will even be open on Thanksgiving.
@noquarter: THANK YOU; it’s nice to see that someone can think past the propaganda that led an entire country to accept the injunction to shop more as a valid answer to the question “What do we do about this impending war?”
Of course the Consumption Behemoth wants you to shop all the time. But you’d think that anyone with the brains to even *read* a news site would realize that that can’t possibly be a good idea. Gee, you think they might just be saying that because it makes them rich? ::the boggleness!::
Do people even realize that what they’re reacting so negatively to here is the suggestion that they NOT BUY ANYTHING FOR ONE STINKING DAY? OH NO! I WOULD EXPLODE! THE WHOLE WORLD WOULD DIE IF I BOUGHT NOTHING FOR AN ENTIRE FREAKING DAY! Man, when you get to the point where the thought of a “Buy Nothing Day” freaks you out, you need help.
I do wish they hadn’t made BND the same as Black Friday; it is good symbolism (since Black Friday is literally Shopping Orgy Day), but it confuses the issue. This isn’t about not having a Shopping Orgy Day; it’s about not having the kind of life, and society, where you shop every SINGLE day. Try having a personal “buy nothing day” every month, and then die of embarrassment because it’s so damn hard to do that in America.
I’ll be out in the wilds, hiking with my brother and his wife. I might buy gas or dinner, but that will be it.
The point of avoiding Black Friday is lost on all the perfectly rational beings who have their entire list in place and are merely lining up at the crack of dawn to save money on what they were already going to buy. Congratulations, you win. It’s for the knuckleheads, some of my favorite people included, who think a $60 DVD player is such a deal, they can’t afford NOT to buy it, forgetting the fact that they don’t even need a new DVD player.
I’ve never shopped on Black Friday. I’d rather stick bamboo under my fingernails.
@liquisoft:
Girlfriend: “Hey, I got you Mass Effect, some new pants, and a gaming mouse.
Me: “Hey, I gave your gift money away! But it was for charity!
Mmmmm no sex for 3 months….
I was planning on not partaking in black friday anyway….like I do every year.
Is it REALLY worth all the bullsh!t & hassle to save a few bucks? I think not.
If I am going to go through BS & hassle to save a few bucks… it will be at on my own terms…. not some magical “trick consumers into coming in & buying” day that stores decide.
This is exactly like that “don’t buy gasoline on Tuesday” scheme a few months back. Unfortunately it will have NO effect whatsoever. Any goods you need but do not purchase on Black Friday will simply be purchased by you a few days later.
@Mary Marsala with Fries: “Man, when you get to the point where the thought of a “Buy Nothing Day” freaks you out, you need help.”
Soooo true. That and the snotty holier-than-thou armchair “intellectuals” who keep asking “do you think you, as one person, can stop the global economy”? First of all, it’s not about stopping the economy, it’s about stopping conspicuous consumption and the “BUYBUYBUYBUY” mentality. I’m sure no one who follows this wants to stop spending completely or for employees to lose jobs or for the economy to tank, etc. It’s about thinking about what you buy, rather than obeying the will of advertisers who insist we consume on this day OR ELSE. It’s about not waking up the day after you had a nice feast with your family and gave thanks for your blessings and then going out and mauling another shopper because you MUST have that $30 DVD player. Second, yes, one person CAN make a difference. If you don’t think so, you need to read some history about social change movements. They all started with one person.
Personally, I’ve never set foot in any retail establishment on Black Friday. I’ve heard some horror stories about how crazed shoppers get and it just personally doesn’t appeal to me. I my buy a few things online but I’ll be enjoying my day off from work, painting and building, while nursing a pleasant hangover.
the people who started this campaign have never shopped on this day to start with. They just dont want to feel alone in their dark corner.
@MyCokesBiggerThanYours: If the only way to support out economy is by buying a bunch of useless shit, then we’ve got some problems.
I’m sleeping in Friday….the only way I’m leaving the house is if a cash register goes down. There’s quite a few stores that use Dell Point of Sale hardware and I am the lucky chap that gets to fix them.
I don’t understand the “Black Friday = Devil” mentality. I make my list the night before, get up at 4, hit the stores I have decided are worth the effort (usually BB, Target, and Kohl’s), get my stuff, and leave. Sometimes it’s a line but who cares? If I’ve planned correctly, 85% of my Christmas shopping is done by 9am the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Is anyone talking about the connection b/w global warming and excessive consumption? Alot of the crap people are clamoring to buy is made in China. I walk down the aisle at Target and observe that half of the items are made in China. China uses coal to fuel its factories, and coal emissions are big contributors to global warming. If people see the connection b/w consuming and this weather change that seems to be happening faster than expected, won’t they be less inclined to shop, shop, shop?
I shudder at the memories of Black Fridays in retailing, which I endured through my college years and the first year out of school searching for full time employment. My first day of retail, at one of the big discounters, actually was Black Friday. Talk about trial by fire.
The back and forth about boycotting and the impact it would or wouldn’t have is interesting, though moot. Our chain was the first to open on Thanksgiving (mercifully my last holiday season there), and it was an experiment. Had people stayed home, perhaps they wouldn’t have done it every year since. That said, the horse is out of the barn, and there’s no going back. (At least the first year of Thanksgiving hours were only 7-2, allowing time to go home and eat with the family, not endure Thanksgiving dinner out of the break room fridge.)
Black Friday shoppers were insane. For all but the first year, I was on the opening shift, arriving at 4 or 5 in the morning, and was actually cursed at on more than one occasion when the wackadoos lined up around the block thought I was cutting the line, until they saw me go in. Trust me folks, the last place I’d ever be at that unholy hour is in line at a store.
I don’t know how it is for all stores or in today’s environment since I’ve been out of it for a decade plus, but we worked to ensure that we had the advertised items in stock when we opened-no bait and switch for us. Many times we would hold items in the stockroom if they were scheduled to be on sale so we wouldn’t be caught without them (until the crowds got to them anyway). One year, I spent the Wednesday night overnight shift getting merchandise set up-and was back again Black Friday morning.
Christmas Eve shoppers were far worse than Black Friday’s crowds, but that’s like saying lethal injection is a nicer way to die than the gallows.
Having survived that, I’ve never minded being the one in the office on the day after Thanksgiving. Anything to be away from the stores.
@Mary Marsala with Fries: Really, so what? It’s a free country. If someone wants to rub elbows with a thousand other shoppers today, so be it. I despise large groups of people, so I won’t.