This week, around 147 million U.S. shoppers will hit the stores or shop online to take advantage of Black Friday sales events. Black Friday, otherwise known as the kick-off to the holiday season or the busiest shopping day of the year does draw big crowds, and each year the chaos becomes more insane. For instance, this year Black Friday, which is supposed to occur on November 23rd, is already in action, and many retailers have released their Black Friday deals before Thanksgiving. So now ‘Grey Thursday’ has been born — and in a ridiculously unprecedented move, stores including Target, Walmart and Sears are opening their doors to begin their giant sales on Thanksgiving Thursday. Insane! Plus, there’s Cyber Monday to contend with as well. However, you don’t have to participate in this shopping madness. You can shun Black Friday, and especially Grey Thursday altogether, participate in Buy Nothing Day instead and do something more meaningful with your family.
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Photo © Flickr user denipet
What’s the big deal – aren’t sales good?
Buy Nothing Day is a saner alternative to Black Friday. Started years ago by AdBusters, this event that ditches the notion of a day where you shop til you drop, and embraces more meaningful activities, such as family time. It is Thanksgiving weekend after all. But why ditch a day that offers sales galore? There are plenty of reasons, such as…
- Standing in stressful crowded store check-out lines is not the best use of your time, especially on a holiday weekend when you could be spending that time with your family.
- Driving around, from store to store, on such a crowded day is slow and a huge waste of gas.
- A day focused on buying lots and lots of stuff is certainly not eco-friendly. Fewer material goods, not more, is the greener mindset.
- Black Friday is short, and forces you to buy stuff right away, which gives you zero time to consider purchases, and you may end up with less eco-products.
- It’s ridiculous to engage in a day that celebrates a, “Buy more, buy bigger” mindset. We’re already living beyond our means in this country, wasting cash on our kids vs. spending time with them.
- Kids should NEVER be exposed to a holiday devoted to buying as much as you can as fast as you can. Kids are overly bombarded with material goods, as it is. An event like this sets a horrid example for your child about what really matters.
Worst of all, Black Friday encourages overspending and is massively expensive for the average consumer.
