Black Friday, Green Friday, Cyber Monday
Re-published article
I’ve edited this article and am re-sending it this year to all my new subscribers. Thank you for your indulgence if you’ve already read this. I hope a refresh won’t insult you!
The marketing emails and social media adds are already underway for the big push to encourage us to part with our hard-earned cash. Let’s face the truth - it’s all simply marketing to get us to buy more. The end.
I created a ‘Pink Friday’ graphic as a point of difference and to highlight the hogwash, not to sell anything. There are lots of self-professed sustainable companies now on the Green Friday bandwagon, but at the end of the day it’s the same drive for consumerism. The image of crowds of crazy shoppers scrumming down for a bargain is frankly hideous and anything that encourages this is, in my view, distasteful. It encourages people to spend, often on things they don’t need and sometimes with money they don’t have! It creates waste too, from packaging and from the items themselves that, very often, end up in landfill. Do you really need another pair of shoes or a larger TV, a new laptop? With clothes especially, the global figures are eye watering, with 80% of discarded textiles destined for landfill or incineration after less than a decade’s wear (average 7 years). This annual hedonistic grab-fest is fuelling climate disaster by using valuable resources, which are then discarded in short order.
If you need a new TV or table, because your old ones have given up the ghost, it makes sense to save up and buy something in a sale. Do make sure the item is a genuine bargain before you purchase it though, as prices are often artificially inflated and then lowered, to make them look better than they actually are.
For me, the only way to steer a sensible path through this melee is to avoid it. Buy nothing day has gained some traction in recent years. It’s promoted as a 24 hour consumerism detox and as it costs nothing, does no harm and could actually do a lot of good if it took off. You literally participate by refusing to participate in the Black Friday hype.
It’s easy to feel FOMO about the whole affair, when you are literally bombarded daily, and for weeks in advance, by email and social media telling you that you need to grab a bargain, or that this or that deal will never be available again and will change your life. It’s not true!  Deals are always available and shopping will never change your life (or at least, not in a good way). I’m not anti people making money and as a self-employed baker, writer and painter, I need people to buy what I create to pay the bills. What I don’t need or want is hype and frenzy and falsehood. I sell my products at a reasonable price all year. I can’t afford to reduce my goods. Major suppliers often have large mark ups and can afford the reductions because they are paying the people who actually produce the goods a less-than-living wage.
If you do feel tempted this coming Friday (or Monday) practice a bit of conscious consumerism and ask yourself it you need the item you’re thinking of purchasing (do you already own one or more?) Will you use it next week, next year? And will it last? Finally, can you afford it, or is it yet another purchase that will go on the credit card, putting more pressure on your day to day budget? Answer honestly and you might find you are unable to justify the purchase. If you can, at least you can feel that you’ve not been duped or harried into buying.
You will make your own decisions, all I can reasonably ask is that you think before you buy. I’ll be browsing friends and co-creators websites this week and seeing if there’s anything I can add to my Christmas present guide for next month, but I won’t be brown beaten into grabbing sale items next Friday. Maybe you could do a bit of browsing in your own locale and eye up some handmade gifts for Christmas too?
More information of Buy Nothing Day here:
So kind of you to re-stack. Thank you.