Buy Nothing Day – 27th November 2015!

Friday 27th November 2015 is Black Friday. For some people it is a day to trample over other people to get to the best deals in the shops before anyone else does. Other people are going to buy nothing all day, instead celebrating Buy Nothing Day.
The idea behind Buy Nothing Day is that it is the antidote to the excessive consumerism that is displayed on Black Friday and in reality all year round. So many of us are drowning in stuff we don’t need already, so why stress ourselves out to buy more of it? Also there may be some good deals on Black Friday, but unless you know the prices of things you wanted to buy beforehand then you might end up getting something that would have cost you the same on any other day or potentially even cost you more.
This site here suggests doing all kinds of strange things on Buy Nothing Day like dressing up as a zombie and wandering around the shops, or making a conga line with friends with shopping trolleys and buying nothing.
If you want to do something for Buy Nothing Day that doesn’t involve dressing up as a zombie, there are some great ideas here e.g. donate some money to charity instead or do something that is good for the environment.
I have to admit that I have been tempted to look at the offers on things that I actually want on Black Friday online (there is no way I am going to the shops that day). After a few years of hardly buying anything new, I am at a stage where I am no longer drowning in stuff (although the decluttering is continuing) and there is some new really good quality stuff I would like to buy – mainly long lasting reusables (read more here) and other safer kitchen equipment e.g. teflon free frying pans and new baking trays (mine are very old, scratched and made of aluminium). In fact I have already started buying new stuff (blog post to follow soon). I’m not going to stress myself out about shopping on Friday though. I’m not going to visit the shops, I’m not going to buy anything I don’t need. If I do buy something, it will be something I would have bought anyway and I will check to see if there are any offers (online) for local shops before looking at the nationals.
My reservation about buying stuff on Black Friday though is that prices are slashed too far and what impact that has on factory workers, suppliers and the smaller independent shops if any. I hope to counteract that by supporting local shops, but it is very difficult to know the impact in reality.
How do you feel about Black Friday / Buy Nothing Day and will you be shopping or not that day?
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