Not Buying Into Shopping's Big Day

[Khephra]

Not Buying Into Shopping's Big Day
As Others Spend, Spend, Spend, Anti-Consumers Keep Their Wallets Closed

By Elizabeth Williamson and Annie Gowen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, November 27, 2004; Page B01

To most weary shoppers, it's known as Black Friday, the semiofficial start of the holiday retail season. But to hundreds of regional residents and countless others worldwide, the Friday after Thanksgiving is annual Buy Nothing Day.

They're out there, all right. They're just not standing in line.

They're holed up in a Tenleytown coffee shop, completing an astronomy project. Or staked out in front of a luxury store, waving a grisly placard at anyone in the market for a fur. They're working out, not checking out, in a Chevy Chase mall, and drinking in a Crystal City bodega, repulsed even by their own consumerism. Anti-shoppers all, they rebel against ritual.

"I don't like that you are supposed to go shopping today," said Mercedes Lopez, 31. An astronomy fellow at the Carnegie Institution, she spent yesterday in a corner of the Tenleytown Starbucks with her laptop, crunching three years' worth of data on star eclipses. "I'm a geek, I'm sorry," she said. "But every free minute I have, I'm working on this. The character of the stars helps determine the character of planets."

Buy Nothing Day is a 13-year-old observance in the same vein as tree-hugging or World Bank-bashing, though not as widely known, because its organizers hate advertising, too. Promulgated by the Internet and word of mouth, Buy Nothing Day is a non-acquired taste.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15338-2004Nov26.html

[teach1st]

1. Marginalized by the media...

Just a bunch of star-data crunching hippies. Nothing to think about here. Keep shopping.

[OneMoreDemocrat]

5. Marginalized by reality is more like it.............

What's the percentage of people see today as 'buy nothing day' compared to those who see it as 'Black Friday'?

2% to 98%?

[teach1st]

6. Numbers don't matter to a fledgling movement....

...perceptions do.

[Lorien]

16. There's far more of us than you think

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=255

Some of us actually do consider ourselves citizens first, not just consumers.

[OneMoreDemocrat]

45. I don't doubt that there are a lot of you...........

it's just that from the media's perspective, 500 people saying "I refuse to be a consumer on Black Friday" isn't as sexy a story as 45 million people flocking to the stores looking for sales.

I never said it was right, nor did I question your commitment to being a good citizen.

[Bono71]

39. No Kidding....

Of all the protests out there, this one I don't get at all...let's see...can you say "bite off your nose to spite your face?"

No we will not shop for holiday presents when they are 50% off! We refuse the large selection and low prices! We will only buy presents for our loved ones when the prices are high and the shelves have been decimated! Viva La Revalucion!

Are these people trying to put more manufacturers out of business?

I just don't get it.

[SnowBack]

40. You sure DON'T get it...

The whole point is we don't need to spend thousands and thousands on presents because we're being told we have to by the media...

You better just go off to the mall now... This discussion is too deep for you.... LOOK, Walmart has a sale!....

:eyes:

[OneMoreDemocrat]

47. Are you going to buy anything at all this holiday season.........

either presents for your family and friends and/or holiday decorations?

If so, why? Is it because the 'Media' told you to?

Do you also refuse to give birthday, anniversary or 'just because' gifts to the people you care about?

[SnowBack]

54. The gifts I'm giving aren't commercial

Things like offering to paint someone's house. And I'd much rather use holiday decorations that have been around for 50 years... Tradition and all ya know.... :toast:

[OneMoreDemocrat]

55. Just make sure you don't buy the paint from.............

a corporate paint store I guess.

[Bono71]

63. Hah...

Too deep for me, eh?

Methinks you have the "protest" flu. By the way, what is it bad to patronize the businesses who buy from manufatcurers who employ American union members? Is that too deep for you?

[leesa]

48. Funny. You are a good consumer.

[Bono71]

62. Thanks

**

[calimary]

58. Why don't you MAKE some of your presents? Such as...

IDEAS (PLEASE - I have professional experience in this. I'm an artist and a veteran crafter!)

Something cooked, perhaps.

A candle-holder whose base is a plastic lid or one of those AOL CDs you can get FOR FREE. Go on a nature walk and collect pine cones or seed pods. It's AUTUMN, for chrissakes - there's lots of cool stuff falling off of trees at this moment - glue them around where you'd set the candle. Or elevate the candle with a cleaned-out upside-down small catfood can and cluster stuff around THAT.

A pretty picture frame for a special photo of the two of you, or a cherished person or pet can be made the same way. If there's a garage sale in your neighborhood, look for a small empty frame, even if it's ding'ed up. Mix equal parts regular ol' white glue and water and pull out some of your extra wrapping paper - from WHATEVER occasion. Cut up lots of little pieces. Then use the glue mixture as a decoupage and apply all those little pieces onto the frame, to cover it. Let it dry. Glue on another little decoration or something. Or take alphabet pasta, color it with marking pens, and spell out the recipient's name with it and glue THAT in place.

Use that collected nature-walk stuff to make a pretty potpourri - slice up some lemons or oranges and leave 'em out in the sun to dry - they're VERY decorative. OR CUT UP those slices into initials or designs or interesting shapes - hearts, stars, Christmas trees, etc. - and let 'em dry THAT way. Add cloves and allspice and cinnamon sticks. Sprinkle in a little loose spiced tea leaves if you have some.

REALLY!!! You do NOT have to buy ANYTHING! Most of it is just stuff, anyway.

I have TONS of ideas. It's a specialty of mine. I've done this for a living - even did segments about it on HGTV. I'm serious. Anybody who's interested: PLEASE MESSAGE ME OR SOMETHING!!! You DO NOT HAVE TO SPEND MUCH, if ANY, money on gifts this year. Except maybe for some glue or something.

[Bono71]

61. Why is it bad to purchase something?????

If my daughter wants a television set, and I want to buy her one, why is it bad to purchase it when the prices are discounted?

It just seems silly to boycott a day for some made-up "moral" reason.

As for the media "wanting" us to buy stuff, that is utter folly.

[Flammable Materials]

2. Only purchased one thing today.

Ten dollars worth of gas. Otherwise, I wouldn't have made it to work.

[eleonora]

3. How offending!

" in the same vein as tree-hugging or World Bank-bashing"? WTF.

I'm never shopping on that day, EVER. Whatever says you, Washington Post fucker

[madrchsod]

4. purchased one item today

for our company christmas party-20 dollars

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Got some celery stock for

turkey soup, sis gave me lots of it... so had to make some soup out of it and needed celery...

Otherwise, was a no buy nothing day, and quite frankly already got the cards I needed (from teh AFL-CIO)... I am done

[Dover]

8. Maybe Bush was right when he called us "consumers" rather than citizens..

if my local news story on shopping riots and aggressive ugliness is indicative of shoppers nation wide.

People become animals over a good deal......repulsive to be that needy of more stuff. Very different than real need. You'd think the economy was booming with all the shopping going on.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

9. I was supposed to go shopping today?

Who'd a thunk?

[UpInArms]

10. spent $1 on a roll of tape

hope they enjoyed their profit on that one :D

[mrbassman03]

25. Oh, you jerk! You ruined it for us treehuggers and World Bank bashers :)

Now no one will take Buy Nothing Day seriously...

Hey, just kidding. Scotch, Duct, Masking???

[UpInArms]

59. just plain old mailing tape

like the one on the left :D

[Lone_Star_Dem]

11. Not one red cent!

I will do the little shopping I plan on latter in the month.

[OneMoreDemocrat]

12. It's incredible that the same people who constantly..........

bitch and moan about the state of the economy are precisely the ones who refuse to take part in it.

[seriousstan]

13. Self-fulfilling prophets. I have a friend who complains he can't find a

job or a wife ...so he has stopped looking....years ago. GENIUS!!

[Imperialism Inc.]

14. Maybe they aren't interested in an economy

based on the mass purchase of meaningless trinkets on specific days of the year?

[Lorien]

22. Trinkets manufactured in China, no less. n/t

[Lorien]

20. "Taking part in our economy"

funding the RW machine and their media lapdogs, selling your life to Mastercard and Visa, working 14 hours a day to afford another gadget or geegaw so that the next door neighbors may feel a pang of envy. If you must consume like a cocaine addict in search of a fix, then consume intelligently. Research where the corporate dollars go before you give them yours. Buy blue; blue corporations aren't sending American jobs to India and S. Korea, they aren't working to keep the minimum wage low, they aren't trying to bust unions or take away health care insurance.

Mindlessly following the "shop, buy, consume" mantra won't improve the economy. Consumer debt is at an all time high, and it could contribute greatly to the destruction of the American economy. The planet can't sustain the CURRENT levels of consumption for another 50 years. By feeding the corporate giants that control the media and our government, you contribute to the slide towards fascism. Buy smart, or buy nothing at all, but don't feed the corporate beasts!

[MisterP]

21. how DARE they! PRODUCE! CONSUME! PRODUCE! CONSUME!

[mrbassman03]

24. No, just CONSUME CONSUME CONSUME...

We'll have the lesser countries do the boring producing.

[OneMoreDemocrat]

52. Clearly, you've mistaken me for someone else.............

I have no addiction to buying things to create envy in my neighbors, in fact I didn't buy anything at all yesterday (although I did give $11.00 to the local ice rink so that my wife and I could go ice skating....I hope I didn't feed the corporate beast with my gesture). Chances are I will buy something this holiday season from one of the giant evil corporations, but I didn't do it yesterday because I'm not interested in fighting the enormous crowds that one would expect on the 'biggest shopping day of the year'.

I also see nothing wrong with 'buying blue' as you say if you think it will be better for the world than doing otherwise, but the article didn't differentiate between 'evil' and 'blue', it talked about people simply refusing to spend money at all as some kind of protest.

If you want to, take your ball and go home, but don't complain when your local stores (or businesses that you like) are going under because they can't afford to stay open and compete with the bigger box stores when you've made the decision not to buy anything because doing so will somehow feed the corporate beast.

[sonicx]

27. oh yes. feed CEO's pockets

I'll get to Walmart right away!!

[OneMoreDemocrat]

44. Who said anything about Walmart?........

But since you brought it up, since everyone and their Grandmother now hates Walmart (for various reasons but mostly because) they tend to put smaller Mom and Pop stores out of business, why don't you just put your money where your mouth is and support your local Mom and Pop store rather than the "Evil Corporation (tm)"?

[whathappened]

30. don't ya think

maybe it is more about , respect for the people of this country and how low we have gotten to not careing about how most people are under paid and runing deeper in the whole , well these corp's are getting fatter , everytime ya shop at there store's and then run off with there money to count it to see if they have hit a zillion yet

[OneMoreDemocrat]

46. O.K., then I guess the solution is to simply not ever buy...........

anything ever again.

I wonder what will happen to the people who depend on these businesses for their livelihood when the stores have to shut down from lack of people buying their goods.

I wonder what effect spending no money will have on the economy.

[cliss]

56. I was just going to say that.

Just wait till Nov. 29 NEXT YEAR. I'm predicting that it will be a lot more difficult to play the "let's go shopping" game. The TV stations are going to have to hire homeless people to be fake shoppers like I've read on other threads.

I predict many more people unemployed, without health insurance, maybe even without homes.

Let's see them try. They're going to have to be very creative.

[Lorien]

15. Washington Post flat out lies:

"Buy Nothing Day is a 13-year-old observance in the same vein as tree-hugging or World Bank-bashing, though not as widely known, because its organizers hate advertising, too"

Bullshit. Adbusters, who has been promoting "buy nothing day" since the 1980s, has been FORBIDDEN by major media outlets to advertise this concept. PBS ran some of the "forbidden" ads on it's program "Affluenza".

To not consume is seen as the most subversive act in America.

[Imperialism Inc.]

26. Reminds me of a documentary I saw recently on the media.

When the telecommunication act was being "debated" in Congress, some consumer group, allied with phone companies, tried to buy their way in to the debate with ads against the act. The media wasn't really even covering (at least not any down side), but you would think that you could maybe buy your way in with an ad. Nope, CNN refused to accept their money and air the ad.

[bhikkhu]

17. Today I Bought Nothing

but then again, the past couple of years have rendered my family rather poor. At least I feel that my separation from the market economy is a case of mutual enmity, rather than a rejection of myself. I would rather be poor than a cog in the empire's war machine.

[Goathead]

18. Didn't buy a single thing today!

:bounce:

[mrbassman03]

23. Me either!

Sat inside all day and was productive when it came to schoolwork and Halo 2...

[Dr Fate]

19. COOL! I 've doing this for years- I did not know I was in a movement!!

Neat-o!

[Piperay]

28. Me either...

I don't go shopping the day after Thanksgiving cause I think it is a stupid day to go shopping with all those crowds. Glad to know that I am participating in a global movement. :thumbsup:

[Dulcinea]

32. Same here.

I hate fighting the crowds. I'll start my holiday shopping Monday when everyone goes back to work. I prefer shopping online anyway!

[Swamp Rat]

29. I having a wonderful "Buy Nothing Weekend" too.

:D

[pauliedangerously]

31. Love that image....

"They Live" is one of my all time favorite movies.

[Swamp Rat]

36. Thanks

[Seldona]

33. What a crass, rude, article.

I am VERY insulted.

In fact I have just made up my mind that the only money THIS family will be spending for christmas this year is on locally produced products.

If that.

That is not what the 'spirit of christmas' is supposed to be about anyway, is it?

Have most of us, not us here, really become that shallow?

That we are not good citizens if we don't consume their garbage in an orderly fasion?

Think I will just ask the wife if she will donate her stash of knitted crafts to the cause this year.

Even better.

Things people will actually use on a regular basis.

Sheesh, what an ass!

[Skittles]

34. I've observed it my whole life

never shopped on Black Friday

[Judi Lynn]

35. What CAN be more important than getting out there Friday morning?

Everything afterwards would be so "picked over." Lord knows that's just not good enough.

What's Christmas without new possessions?

[Tennessee Gal]

37. Bought nothing yesterday and..................

what I have bought so far has been on line from BABY GAP for my grandson and GAP MATERNITY for my daughter, which according to this web site donates primarily to the Democratic Party.

CHOOSE THE BLUE!

http://www.choosetheblue.com/main.php?backlevel=002..001Choose%20The%20Blue.002Retail%20Shopping%20and%20Fashion&prodcat=Retail+Stores

Wish there were a COSTCO around here!

[anarchy1999]

38. "non-acquired taste"! Drinking beer is a "non-acquired taste". Buying

nothing on the day after Thanksgiving was easy to the palate. For many years now, at least 10! The first one was easy and not hard to swallow at all. It feels good going all the way down and I live right in between two major malls. The "Galleria" and Valley View, what a treat to stay home all day!!!

[dinmo]

41. I stayed home

and refused to go out and buy anything!!!!!

[Sleepless In NY]

42. When you have to shop.."Choose the Blue"

Choose The Blue
Use Your Power -- ChooseTheBlue!

You know what party a politician supports. Do you know which political party a company supports?

ChooseTheBlue tells you what corporations donated to political parties. http://www.choosetheblue.com/main.php

This will be noticed! Choose where you buy ... and make a difference!!!

[Beacho]

43. Take Heart In This Article

Writing insults about Buy Nothing Day in a major newspaper means that it IS being taken seriously. When was the last time that it was even mentioned in its eighteen year history? Means our corporate masters are spooked and worried that it runs deeper than the implications painted in the article.

[DrZeeLit]

49. Dint buy nothin'!

I never go out with those crowds. YIKES!
More and more like lemmings going over the cliffs.
What do we need? I can't honestly think of one thing that I need, or that anyone I know/love actually NEEDS.
So it's a constant search for a present, when our love and support for each other is truly what we value in the end.

What I do at this gift-giving season is donate to charities in the name of my loved ones.
I make certificates for each one, explaining the donation and charity. I try to "fit" the charity to the person. For example, my great-aunt has eye problems, so I have to the Junior Blind Foundation. When my dad died, the local hospice was amazing, angelic beyond words. I give in my mom's name. And so on.

So, today, I'm home with friends, sitting by the fire, playing Scrabble.
What more could a body want?
NOT a trip to a mall. NO WAY!

And, you won't find me there the day after Christmas either.
I'll still be savoring the time I get to spend with my family.

[henslee]

57. Is that dog cat love pic for real or photoshop?!!!!

[DrZeeLit]

60. I don't know... someone sent it to me and I never asked. I wonder? n/t

[fortyfeetunder]

50. For the shoppers -- what's the urgency?

There are things that could be bought either online or in person reasonably months before Black Friday. The Black Friday phenomenon appears to prey on the Murkan's ability to not plan ahead but only to spend....

[Glenda]

51. The streets were deserted mid-afternoon on...

It was nice! Anyone still out was at the mall, so the streets were easy to drive on.

I just went to the gym to work out.

I did buy some hamburger on the way home! From Trader Joes.

Any Christmas gifts I buy will be from the Blue stores or online, and will be planned out in advance.

I'm stepping off the consumer hamster wheel. It's too dizzying.

Glenda

[ima_sinnic]

53. had to drive 2 hours away to an appointment, bought only gas

--but even if I hadn't had to go anywhere I wouldn't have bought anything anyway, like I haven't done for the past umpteen years.
--we stopped exchanging Xmas gifts in my family years ago, at least among the adults. I send some things to my young grandsons but that's about it; this year I think I will send a subscription to Highlights for Children and a few toys that I'll buy at the flea market.
For several years now I have stopped in at MallWart only to leave deposits in their toilets. That place breaks my heart.