For those in the United States, tradition and media influence have established today as a day for spending time with family, over-eating, and watching television. What could be more American than Thanksgiving Day?
Fast becoming a tradition for consumers is Black Friday (and to a lesser extent Cyber Monday). Retailers have discovered a tendency to for consumers to use the day after Thanksgiving as the perfect time to finish shopping for the holidays. With this observation, the stores compete with each other to grab shoppers’ attention with the goal of having customers depart with as much as their own cash as possible.
Tips for saving money on this holiest of holy consumer days are plentiful. Boiling own the most typical advice, consumers should pay attention, prepare with as much information as possible, stay focused, and get out or online early. For more solid tips for shoppers who are determined to spend money, take a look at The Insider’s Guide to Black Friday Bargains, an article I wrote for PC World.
But even the best advice ensures that you will spend more money. Retailers are happy with bargain hunters because they will spend more in the long run.
There are two paths for the informed citizen:
Path 1: Accept you are one small piece of a larger economy and admit that despite finding bargains, you will spend more money this holiday season than you probably should.
Path 2: Resist the desire to spend spurred by society and spend nothing.
Buy Nothing Day is the anti-consumerist “holiday” promoted by Adbusters. While it is “celebrated” on the Friday following Thanksgiving Day, the movement encourages focus on a larger issue than fighting against retailers who market to us 24 hours a day.
In a consumption-based society, we are draining the planet of its natural resources. Simply refusing to take part in Black Friday festivities will have little effect on the companies or the world. Buy Nothing Day should offer us a chance to look at the relationship humans have with the planet and look for room for improvement.
Use this winter, with the economy deteriorating and leaving many people with less money to spend anyway, as a chance to re-evaluate the way you celebrate the holiday season. Rather than buying CDs and DVDs, plastic toys, and electronics, all which will sit in landfills for thousands of years before breaking down after their usable life has ended and sometimes contain dangerous chemicals, discover new ways to share your love with family and friends.
One tip outweighs all others for Black Friday and the holiday shopping season at large: buy less. Buy intelligently and find your bargains, but use this year as an opportunity to rethink the way you approach holidays sponsored by retailers.
While you’re at the dinner table with your family today, use the friendly atmosphere to discuss whether a new approach to the gift-giving season could apply to your holiday experience.
Read more:
- How to Have a Green Christmas (EarthEasy)
- How to Have a Green Christmas (TIME)
- A Sustaintable, Intangible Christmas With Substance
- Buy Nothing Day
Photo credit: Hey Paul
Email this article
Print this article
Share this article: Twitter | Tip'd | Facebook | Delicious | Reddit | Digg
About the Author
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I wholeheartedly agree and the ‘Buy Nothing’ slogan is the one I shall be using (of course, I’m not in the States so we don’t have either Thanksgiving or Black Friday. Either way, it’s the same here just after Christmas, Easter and pretty much any other public holiday it seems and for each of those, I decide to Buy Nothing.
I agree, I am over the commercials and the push to spend money on things we really don’t want. I subscribe to the buy nothing theory as well.
I concur with the “buy nothing” slogan but for a different reason: you’d have to be insane to wake up at 5 in the morning and stand in the cold just to save a few bucks on something you didn’t need in the first place.
An individual “will have little effect on the companies or the world”, but magically help the environment by not throwing things in landfills.
One isn’t capable of affecting a company’s bottom line, yet one is very capable of helping save the planet?
Here is the reality, regardless of which path you choose, you are not going to affect either outcome. One simply doesn’t have enough money or time to matter either way.
Nice way to think about it. I did that this year for myself. Instead of wasting money on electronics like usual, I took the year off and bought nothing. I feel good about myself and hopefully I can continue to save throughout the rest of the holiday season. The sales will last all month, so no rush for those who are looking to buy.