Social media says not to Black Friday with "Buy Nothing Day"

By

Kate Dingwall

Published
Nov 25, 2016

In backlash to the chaos of ‘Black Friday’, consumers are taking to social media to fight back against the spending day. Using the hashtag #buynothingday, consumers are boycotting the post-Thanksgiving shopping day, where retailers infamously cut prices in order to free up space for holiday merchandise and rack up sales. The “Buy Nothing Day’ campaign is now in its 24th year. 

Buy Nothing Day encourages consumers to not spend anything for 24 hours, and instead, use the time and energy to spend time with friends and family. The pointed campaign now exists in 60 countries.

“The anarchy that ensues on Black Friday has now become an absurd dystopian phenomenon,” the campaign’s website states. “The big retailers use the event to spin out highly competitive one-day offers, which often creates a rabid free for all. Black Friday is creating a brand of shoppers who will trample and fight each other to get their hands on next year’s landfill.”

For many retailers, Black Friday is the biggest sales day of the season. Taking place yearly on the Friday following Thanksgiving, Black Friday is considered the unofficial start of the holiday season and traditionally the day retailers bring their profits from 'in the red' to 'in the black'. On Black Friday and Cyber Monday , retailers drastically drop prices and offer a variety of promotions for consumers. Online sales are expected to hit $8.4 billion between Friday and Monday.

In a move against the mass-spending of Black Friday, brands like Patagonia and Net-a-Porter have opted for a philanthropic approach to the spending holiday. Patagonia will be donating 100% of sales on Black Friday to grassroots organizations. Net-a-Porter is donating 15% of full-price sales to the White Ribbon Alliance, an organization that strives to decrease maternal and newborn deaths across the world.