La journée sans achat ou Buy Nothing Day (BND) aux États-Unis est une manifestation non-violente de boycott des achats, pour protester contre l’excès de consommation. Reprise internationalement par Adbusters, l’opération fut lancée en 1992 par le canadien Ted Dave avec le slogan enough is enough ! (assez c’est assez). La première fois elle s’appelait No shop day puis cela fut transformé en Buy nothing day.

La Journée sans achats a lieu le dernier vendredi (Amérique du nord) ou samedi (Europe) de novembre. C’est la journée où, aux États-Unis, les chiffres de ventes sont les moins élevés de l’année.

•source: wikipédia

C’est donc ce phénomène qu’a voulu représenter les gars de chez Elliot en illustrant une mascotte tentant d’attirer la clientèle, dans un espace de stationnement vide.

On a bien rit pendant ce shooting puisque des gens arrivaient avec leur voiture, curieux de la promotion que nous offrions cette journée…

**Teaser** La photo Elliot du mois de décembre va frapper fort…elle sera en ligne dès le 1er décembre!

Well, yesterday was Buy Nothing Day and nothing was bought that wasn’t needed. Electric had to be bought as we have a pre-payment metre.

Being on a training course all day helped, and having almost no money until pay day also helped a great deal too. There was a big debate about if it was ok to go to the opening of the new wool shop or not, but that is a treat for later in the week

Silence Dogood here. As most of you know, the Friday after Thanksgiving has come to be known as Black Friday because it’s America’s biggest shopping day of the year, the day when merchants hope that consumer frenzy will take them out of the red and put them in the black for the year. Much of the nation has the Friday after Thanksgiving off (except for those luckless souls in retail sales), so they’re free to shop, and stores offer huge sales, deep discounts, and other enticements to lure people out to the malls, outlets, and other retail establishments.

Apparently, the marketing effort works beautifully. Long lines form at favored stores before dawn, with people waiting in the cold for hours so they won’t miss the hugely discounted gadgets, clothing, and etc. In previous years, people have been trampled and even killed in the stampede to get inside the stores and grab the precious whatever-the-hell-it-is before they’re all gone. Many people try to do all their Christmas shopping on Black Friday; others buy items they’ve been coveting but haven’t been able to afford.

Our local paper interviewed shoppers yesterday, ranging in age from the 20s through the 50s, to see what they had bought, and the results were rather dismaying to me: In every case, the shopper reported buying something on impulse, as opposed to something they needed or had wanted for a while, ”because the price was just too good to pass up.” Yikes.

Anyway, this herd-mentality consumerism proved to be too much for a Canadian man named Ted Dave, who in 1992 founded Buy Nothing Day as “a day for society to examine the issue of over-consumption.” (Thanks, Wikipedia, for the specifics.) In 2009, 65 countries worldwide participated in Buy Nothing Day, which is celebrated on Black Friday in America and the following Saturday in the rest of the world.

So, okay, what did I buy on Black Friday, our Buy Nothing Day? Yes, I did indeed buy something. I bought two tickets to the marvelous movie “Coco Before Chanel,” about, obviously, the early life of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel. Not only did I want to see this gorgeous film, but I wanted to treat our Thanksgiving-week guest Sasha to the film. Sasha, a college freshman, is the son of my best friend, and the rest of his family is out of the country, so he came to stay with me and our friend Ben for the holiday. (And, I think, fell in love with our black German shepherd puppy Shiloh.)

If you’re wondering why on earth I’d think an 18-year-old college freshman would give a damn about a movie about Coco Chanel, here’s why: Sasha has already created his own clothing line, Anso, with men’s and women’s lines (Anso Mann and Anso Merie), models, logos, and a defining symbol. (It’s ([])., Anso period, because after Anso, there’s nothing else. Clever, yes?) Sasha tells me there’s an Anso site on Facebook, so you non-Luddites can go check it out.

Needless to say, Sasha loved the movie, which I also highly recommend to viewers of all ages who love beautiful scenery, fabulous French chateaux, gorgeous horses, and fantastic costumes, not to mention, of course, incredible acting. See it on the big screen if you can, since the amazing visuals demand larger-than-life viewing. Aaaahhh!!!

But to return to the point. I felt great about buying those tickets on Buy Nothing Day, supporting the fine arts, giving enormous pleasure—and possibly genuine inspiration—not just to myself but to someone I love. Did I have anything tangible to show for my Black Friday purchase? Nope. But to me, it was priceless.

          ‘Til next time,

                     Silence

The annual community coat exchange events in Utah and Rhode Island saw many people coming to pick up clothes for the winter.  A sign of the times?

UTAH

Fourth annual Community Coat Exchange helps Utahns stay warm – KSL TV
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=8825698

Holidays inspire senior good deeds – Deseret News on Wrap Up of
yesterday’s community activities, inlcuding Coat Exchange
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705347648/Holidays-inspire-senior-good-deeds.html

Community Coat Exchange Site:
http://coatexchange.wordpress.com/past-events/
http://coatexchange.wordpress.com/
#################
RHODE ISLAND
Update: Volunteers donate coats at Providence event – Providence Journal
http://newsblog.projo.com/2009/11/providence-coat-exchange-moves.html

Rhode Island Green Party Site:
http://www.greens.org/ri/bnd.html

KSL TV coverage

More coverage

Bilder på leksakerna som demonstrerade i Göteborg igår:

Alla foton tagna av Monica Hansen.

Det blev en hel del uppmärksamhet för En köpfri dag igår. Jag smög in en drös länkar i gårdagens inlägg och här gör jag samma sak, med en del av det som tillkommit sedan sist (en länk per ord).

Dessutom var en av frågorna igår i P4:s klassiska program Ring så spelar vi, vilken särskild dag det var idag. Det visste den svarande, och hon och programledaren var rörande överens om att de givetvis skulle delta i En köpfri dag! Ledtråden som de brukar ha i frågans rubrik var “nävton”, där “näve” skulle associera till “hand”.  “Ton” skulle associeras till tonen “la”, vilket tillsammans blev “hand-la”…

Det känns som att En köpfri dags budskap är mer angeläget och uppskattat än någonsin! Tack alla som deltog igår – nu passar vi på att smida medan järnet är varmt och fortsätter ifrågasätta köphysterin – den är ju som mest aktuell nu i julruschen. Om du är med på facebook får du gärna gå med i vår grupp där.

I spent it not shopping. That felt good. Most days I spend not shopping, but knowing I was supposed to be lining up in a mall somewhere on the day after Thanksgiving and resisting the pressure gave me a delightful sense of transgression. I don’t get much of that these days.

Maybe I’ll not shop tomorrow too.

Ich habe leider erst vor einigen Stunden von dem “Buy Nothing Day” erfahren. Dieser so genannte “Kauf Nix Tag” findet immer am letzten Freitag, beziehungsweise in Europa immer am letzten Samstag im November statt. Der Sinn dahinter ist es einen Tag lang nichts zu kaufen, damit man mal merkt, wie gut, oder eben schlecht man ohne einen Tag voller Konsum auskommt. So soll man nachhaltig den Konsumwahn etwas zurückdrehen. Funktioniert hat es freilich nicht, aber ich finde es trotzdem eine schöne Idee sich einen Tag im Jahr mal vom Kaufwahn zu distanzieren, besonders so kurz vor Beginn der Weihnachtszeit.

Da ich erst vor kurzem davon gelesen habe habe ich es schon geschafft heute 2 CDs und 1 Tageszeitung zu kaufen, und das an nem Samstag, verdammt. Nächstes Jahr fällt mir hoffentlich vorher auf, was es für ein Tag ist.

Jedenfalls wollte ich auch meinen Beitrag leisten und habe inspiriert von der Attac-Aktion, die “Nix” auf Ebay versteigerte folgendes mit meinen bescheidenen Photoshop Skills gebastelt:

Nur dieses Wochenende im Sonderangebot: 80 Minuten feinster Stille auf CD für den unglaublichen Preis von “Ein paar Minuten Besinnung”.

Med anledning av En köpfri dag har jag intervjuats av TT, vilket publiceras i en rad tidningar idag, bland annat GP, NSK, BLT, NVB
Folk på stan var positiva till En köpfri dag när GP TV filmade. I olika webbfrågor brukar ungefär hälften stödja vår linje.

I Göteborg kommer vi att fira dagen genom att välkomna alla till en klimatkör som sjunger nya texter till kända melodier, med start vid det symboliska klimatslaget 11.55. Det ryktas också att hundratals leksaker kommer att demonstrera…

Om ekonomins villkor krockar med naturens villkor, så är det väl rimligen ekonomins villkor som måste ändras. Eller?
Forskning visar dessutom att människor med materialistiska värderingar är mindre lyckliga än andra.

Celebrate by buying a big old pack of nothing from dothegreenthing’s amusing Amazero site.

• Read Reverend Billy’s Buy Nothing Day message
• Buy Nothing Day UK
• And Tony Juniper on Buy Nothing Day

To answer some reader’s questions (I have the ability to make a fantastic cranberry apple pie that even pie haters love):

Yesterday I made no pie

Yesterday I ate no pie.

Today I did choose not to buy.

and having no money is not the reason why.

I am looking forward to January the first

because lately holidays have been, in my opinion, the worst.

Sooner than that, Monday I anticipate

a glut of job openings, which would be great

for this four day weekend is dragging by,

much too long for one with no pie.

Here’s just another example of gross consumerism gone awry:

Gainesville police arrested a man at Toys R Us before its midnight opening on the famous day for gluttonous shopping, Black Friday. Police say the man threatened to “bum rush” the door if the toy store employee didn’t open it exactly at midnight. A woman was also arrested for interfering with the man’s arrest.

This is exactly why I avoid Black Friday like the Black Plague, instead choosing to participate in “Buy Nothing Day.”

Hope everyone had a fabulous, glutinous Turkey Day. I ate too much and will be revisiting my dietary habits over the next few days and weeks – after Ma’s birthday tomorrow and two more on Sunday.

Today I am celebrating Buy Nothing Day. It has a lighthearted side – as you can order “nothing” and get a free instruction manual for $5 and T-shirts that say nothing for $20. But don’t order them on BND.

This is my favorite BND site, though the woman looks rather more like she’s running from H1N1 or complying with the dress code in one of the more restrictive Muslim countries.

Despite the lighter side, Adbusters, which sponsors BND, turned serious last year with a look at the underlying causes for the economic crisis. One of the co-founders said the causes of were not the big Wall Streeters and bank craziness. Rather, “It’s our culture of excess and meaningless consumption — the glorified spending and borrowing of the past decade that’s at the root of the crisis we now find ourselves in.” The borrowing seems to be dying down because people have lost their jobs, but based on pictures of lines waiting outside the stores, the consumption goes on. Folks are just looking for more serious bargains.

In honor of the day I am skipping Sushi Friday. Celebrating BND will also counterbalance my sister-in-law who was planning to be at JC Penny at 4 a.m.! That’s just cruel and unusual but better than Toys R Us at midnight where police from three towns had to quell the herd.

So here’s what I’m doing instead of shopping: catching up on accumulated magazines, newspapers, and online journals; sorting through the piles of clippings and other items I’ve collected for this blog; making another round of coulibiac because there was way more filling for the reduced-size phyllo that’s been around in recent years; writing a couple of letters; exercising;  listening to the Ig Nobel awards. My favorite bit is the way they curtail boring speeches. A little girl whines, “Please stop. I’m bored” over and over until the person stops. The awards deserve recognition because they get actual Nobel laureates to attend. The highlight of this year’s awards was the bra that converts to a double gas mask, one for the bra wearer and one for a lucky invitee.

Well, I finished the workout and am proud? ashamed? to admit that I remembered all but one of the verses to “American Pie,” that interminable, kitschy, overblown paean to Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Richie Valens. It’s boring and self-conscious but the beat is perfect for a workout.

Also finished making the coulibiac. Note for next year: It is a far, far better thing to defrost the phyllo overnight in the fridge than to leave it on the counter for two hours. (Sorry, Charlie).

Celebration of BND was no problem since the weather continues to be rainy, windy, and raw. Plus, Larry took my car.

STEAL SOMETHING DAY

and I am cranky.

I get as annoyed as anyone else with the wads of ads in the Thanksgiving Day newspaper urging me to buy crap I don’t need.

But Adbusters’ “Buy Nothing Day” alternative has always rubbed me the wrong way, seemed a little sanctimonious.

It’s like that couple with the second home who wear new clothing and drive (new! expensive!) hybrid vehicles telling you all about their non-materialistic lifestyle while they sip their micro-brews.

Yeah.

So for others who don’t want to feel guilty about buying a loaf of bread today- if they can afford to buy a loaf of bread today- there is Steal Something Day, a snarky concept with a large grain of truth conceived by a group of anarchists in Montreal.

You could make a grand gesture today and pull a Jean Valjean.

CORE New Art Space is open tonight and I will be working there. Anyone who would like to celebrate Black Friday by buying art is more than welcome.

This economy has been particularly hard on visual artists.

Non-buying lookers are welcome, too. But please don’t steal anything:)

I’m not really that cranky. I hope those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving had a lovely Thanksgiving. Happy Black Friday.

Today, I was planning to work on a paper for my Sexuality class and write at least two blog posts.

Instead, I have sat on the couch all day watching The West Wing (only getting up to get food or pee or change the dvd).

In addition to today being Buy Nothing Day, for me, it has also been Do Nothing Day. Oops.

The West Wing has been worth it, the show is brilliant. I can’t believe I never watched it before.

Hopefully tomorrow I can pull myself away from the television and get some stuff done….

Soooo…  I trust you’ve all done your part for the economy… nay… the country, by rising at 3 A.M. and shuffling off to your local national chain to purchase oodles of brand name merchandise at low-low prices, yes? By now you should be comfortably standing in a line somewhere, behind that old lady paying for everything with a check that she hasn’t written out beforehand and that family of 24 (23 of them children) and that gaggle of gossipy gals getting goods one… by one… by one… am I right? Of course I am. And it goes without saying (except that, well, I’m saying it right now), that you’ll take that iPhone of yours, or that Blackberry of yours, or, for the more gadget-conscious, that Droid of yours, and pull up edhoncho.com to see what kind of knowledge I’m dropping today. I mean really, who wouldn’t? Look around, see all those other people looking at their phones with sly smiles on their faces? With a look that probably says, without bragging, “I’m better than everyone here”? Yeah, they’re here too.

And you picked a good day tune in… just like yesterday, and the day before that, and tomorrow, and the day after that. All good days to tune in… but especially today, cause it’s today. I’m in the moment people. Come join me.

So, on the topic of today, I would like to make a couple of proposals. First, it should be a national holiday. I mean, we beat around the bush with Christmas and Halloween and Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day, pretending they’re about something other than super-consumerism, why not just have a day where we admit to ourselves “that’s right, you heard us, we have a holiday that’s solely about buying stuff”? I mean, this is America, right? Could there possibly be a more American holiday? And let’s be honest readers, we’re not the country that passively avoids international disdain. We’re just not that country. We’re the country that says “here’s what we’re doing. Don’t like it? Suck our giant balls.” Right? I mean, isn’t that just so us? And of course, before you know it, every country in the world will have their own version of Black Friday, because we’re the popular kid… everyone hates us, but they all want to be just like us.

Which brings me to my second point… why such a bleak name for such a wonderful day? I know, I know… “in the black”… I never said I didn’t understand it… of course I understand it… it’s just that, well, I think we can do better. I’ve conducted a brainstorming session with some of the brightest minds around (myself), and here are some suggestions:

• Consumption Day – Simple, understandable, and more to the point, to the point.
• Buy Something Day – OK, sure, this is a reaction, possibly childish, to Adbusters proposal to make today “Buy Nothing Day“. Are they trying to ruin our country?
• Recession Avoidance Day – Really, can we afford to roll the dice with the future of the world?
• Thanksgiving, the Sequel – Also thought about going with Thanksgiving II: Return of the California King. Really, who better to thank than the wonderful men and women that provide us with goods and services that we clearly can’t live without?
• Christmas – Let’s be honest. Today is the first day of Christmas. This would extend Christmas and make it more like Hannukah, except instead of eight days celebrating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, we’ve got 25-32 days celebrating shopping.

Surely, from amongst these pretty-much-transcendent ideas, we can come to a consensus on the new name for our wonderful holiday.

Now, what kind of adviser of men would I be if I didn’t offer some wonderful suggestions to you and yours on what to get your sports-loving loved one (or, you know, yourself)? Not a very good one, that’s for sure, and as you all know, those are words that simply aren’t used to describe yours truly (well, except “good”… oh, and “very good”… but not “not very good”… in conjunction with one another, all three, they aren’t associated with yours tru… oh, forget it, let’s just move on).

A replica, full-sized, of the video screen at Cowboys Stadium. Let’s be honest… hosting parties and get-togethers with today’s standard sized 205 inch televisions just isn’t cutting it. You can barely tell how many days facial-hair-growth Edwin van der Sar is working on, let alone make out DeShawn Stevenson’s neck tattoos. This is unacceptable, of course. Suggested hint drop: (while watching the Cowboys play at home) “You know honey, that thing could fit in here if we knocked all the walls out, and bought the neighbor’s house and knocked all their walls out, and connected the two homes. I’m just sayin’.”

The INADA i.2A Massage Chair. You’re going to need a respectable place to sit while watching your new VS (video screen), and while the old lazy-boy might be comfortable and worn-in… it’s time has come. You simply cannot watch the new VS from a lazy-boy… it’d be like wearing your Ralph Lauren loafers with that new K-50 Kiton suit. It just lacks class. An upgrade to the VS requires… demands… a corresponding upgrade to your seat. Lucky for you, the family Inada has your back (and your ass, and upper legs, if we’re technical). Suggested hint drop: “My back! It’s killing me from looking up at this thing all day. Oh God, the pain!”

Michael Jordan Fantasy Camp. Sure, it’s getting harder and harder to pull off that killer crossover you’re known for, and maybe you’ve lost a few feet off your set shot, and maybe, just maybe, that patented running hook shot has been missing the rim a little more than it used to… but’s it’s nothing a few days with his Airness can’t fix. Plus, you get a real chance to back up all those claims you made during the 1998 NBA Finals about taking Jordan to the hole. What’s to lose? Suggested hint drop: “I’m telling you, I could take that guy to the hole.”

The Pontiac Silverdome. Because you can afford it. Suggested hint drop: “You know, honey, I know we’ve been talking about that efficiency flat in San Francisco… but how ’bout the former home of the Detroit Lions? We save money on the deal, and the new VS will easily fit.”

That’ll have to do it for now, readers. I’ve just made it to the front of the line I’ve been waiting in, and apparently it’s rude to be on your notebook whilst checking out. Stupid cultural norms. I’ll have to address these when our new holiday comes to pass. Until then, spend like the wind!

foto "Buy nothing day" dal sito www.buynothingday.co.uk

Domani Sabato 28 Novembre 2009, in tutto il mondo si terrà la Giornata del Non Acquisto, (dall’inglese Buy Nothing Day).

Si tratta di una giornata in cui le persone decidono di non comprare niente, facendo  vedere che per un giorno è possibile liberarsi dalla schiavitù del consumismo a tutti i costi. Si tratta altresì di una giornata di riflessione sulle nostre abitudini di consumo e sui danni che queste possono arrecare all’ambiente, ai popoli meno fortunati di noi e infine a noi stessi (basta pensare alle malattie legate all’obesità o all’anoressia, allo stress, ai condizionamenti  dovuti alla pubblicità e non solo…)

La Giornata del Non Acquisto è anche l’occasione di momenti di divertimento e di iniziative simpatiche che non prevedono l’uso del denaro… dai Mercatini dove si scambiano gli oggetti ai laboratori di autoproduzione per finire ad iniziative sul riciclo e il riuso… Queste alcune iniziative che si svolgono nel prossimo weekend a Firenze e dintorni…

• Fiesole, Casa del Popolo, Sabato 28/11 Mercatino del libero scambio dalle ore 15:00 alle ore  17:00 (e forse più). Organizzato dal G.A.S. ” I Gasolani” in collaborazione con il Circolo Arci di Fiesole. Oggi niente acquisti, solo scambi. Giochi da bambini che i vostri bimbi non considerano più? Regali doppioni o regali non azzeccati? Ammennicoli vari che vi ingombrano la casa? E’ l’occasione buona per liberarsene, magari barattandoli, ma senza transazioni monetarie! Per i bambini alle 17.00 ci sarà la proiezione  gratuita del film: “Pomi d’ottone e manici di scopa”.
• Firenze Sala Ex-Leopoldine Piazza Tasso 7,  Domenica 29 Novembre, Oltre la crisi, giornata del non acquisto, dalle 15.00 alle 19.30 – Animazione per bambini, Associazioni in mostra, Merenda per tutti,  incontri. Programma: dalle ore 14.00 alle 16.00 proiezione di filmati e laboratori pratici o di studio – ore 15.00 Incontro pubblico “Il diritto d’autore nell’era di internet” – dalle ore 16.00 “Cambiamo rotta! verso un’economia del bene comune” dialogo con Pietro Raitano, direttore di Altreconomia – riflessioni sul progetto “Ricomincio da me” e proposte operative per vecchi e nuovi aderenti  – ore 17.00 merenda bio-equo-solidale-vegana – ore 18.00 Proiezione del film sul cambiamento climatico “The Age of stupid” di Franny Armstrong, con Pete Postlethwaite promosso da WWF Italia e Greenpeace.
• Firenze, Piazza Santo Spirito, Domenica 29 Novembre e Domenica 6 Dicembre, Riciclo Riuso & Mercato, dalle ore 10.00 alle ore 20.oo con le seguenti realtà fiorentine:
  RICICLAGGIO E SOLIDARIETA’ – cooperativa Sosteniamo progetti nel Sud del Mondo attraverso la vendita dei “Nostri Rifiuti”. Creazione di vestiti, borse, accessori di abbigliamento e complementi d’arredo da beni usati, il tutto con Marchio Usato Bene e Solidale. Laboratorio di cucito.
  RI ARTECO/ POP POINT OF PRESENCE – ass. di promozione sociale
  Arte del riciclo e valorizzazione del rifiuto – Mostra di artisti che realizzano opere con materiali di recupero.
  ARTE FUORI BINARIO – associazione di volontariato Insieme all’associazione Periferie al Centro presenta laboratori/bottega in cui artigiani e artisti di strada creano opere con materiali poveri e di scarto.
  LA STOFFA – SARTE DAL MONDO – cooperativa Riciclo creativo di abiti usati e utilizzo di stoffe e scarti di fabbrica per produrre capi di abbigliamento e per la casa.
  INCONTRI RAVVICINATI – associazione giovanile di promozione sociale Animazione per bambini! Laboratorio di costruzione di giochi e burattini con materiale riciclato.
  I RACCOGLITORI – associazione di promozione sociale La Pesca Riciclante!… acquista un biglietto e pesca il tuo rifiuto trasformato! Borse con camere d’aria, collane, tende e molto altro.
  RICREAZIONE – associazione Giovani creativi e vecchi materiali: ri-creano nuovi oggetti per la casa, complementi e gioielli purché allegri e un po naif!
  CON-FUSIONE – artigiana Oreficeria e bigiotteria creata con materiale di riciclo. Alluminio, rame, ottone buttati o gentilmente regalati vengono trasformati con procedure di oreficeria.
  ULISSE – cooperativa sociale Riparazione e vendita a costi contenuti di biciclette ad opera di detenuti e persone svantaggiate. Laboratori di riparazione bici.
  SARA MASTROMATTEO – artigiana “Pla-Chic” recupero e trasformazione di sacchetti di plastica in borse & co., gioielli, lampade, rivestimenti di cartotecnica e oggettistica di ogni sorta.
  FREE SHOUT – associazione Riciclaggio creativo e funzionale di mobili, oggetti d’arredamento e illuminazione.
  TOSCANA ETICA – associazione di promozione sociale Campagna “Adotta una pianta” e progetto “Bike&Bag”, borse da bici con materiale
  di recupero per ciclisti responsabili.
  INGEGNERIA DEL BUON SOLLAZZO – associazione culturale Giochi realizzati con materiali di scarto. Promuoviamo il gioco per tutte le fascie di età.
  IL MURETTO – associazione di volontariato / IL POZZO – coop. sociale
  La comunità delle Piagge si occupa di riduzione dei rifiuti e con L’Isola del Riuso” promuove la cultura del riciclaggio come riduzione, recupero e riutilizzo di tutto ciò che si elimina dalle case, applicando il processo di raccolta-selezione-riparazione / trasformazione / creazione-distribuzione.
  Domenica 20 dicembre ore 15,00 c/o la terrazza del Pop Cafè TAVOLA ROTONDA “Stili di Vita Sostenibili” con Daniel Tarozzi del Movimento
  per la Decrescita Felice.

]]> http://luckyjean22.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/buy-nothing-day-or-black-friday/ Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:12:25 +0000 luckyjean22 http://luckyjean22.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/buy-nothing-day-or-black-friday/

November 27th, Friday–

Thanksgiving’s over! I’m so thankful!

Now, today, of course is another sort of “holiday”, and which one you celebrate depends largely on your financial circumstances.

The people running the stores want you to go and shop! shop! shop! til you drop! ‘cuz they’ve got big! big! big! savings on everything you need for Christmas! Christmas! Christmas!

And then they cue “Santa Claus is coming to town”. All those Christmas songs they play in the malls and Wal-Marts aren’t just because the store owners are jolly–it’s an musical reminder. “It’s Christmas”, says the song, which reminds you of all the things you have to buy. Buy! Buy! Buy!

For some of us, the day after Thanksgiving is Buy Nothing Day. This is the holiday I am currently celebrating.

Now, I could act all smug and say the reason I buy nothing on Buy Nothing Day is because I want to protest unbridled consumerism and rapacious capitalism, but the honest truth is that I just don’t have any money to spend. Who’s got money after laying out for all that food on Thanksgiving? (You know most people on food stamps are out of them by the last week of the month.)

Plus, if you got up early Thursday morning to make extra pies, and stayed up late Wednesday night doing the same thing, you’re probably too burnt to get up at some godawful hour to go buy Christmas presents. I slept till almost seven this morning, despite the guinea pigs squeaking at me at six, demanding to be fed at the usual time.

But, now that I think of it, if someone was really wanting to do their Christmas shopping early! early! early!, and that person had money, it’s entirely possible that their family ate out on Thanksgiving rather than do the traditional feast at home.

Hey, that’s not a bad thing, either. If I had money I might do that, too, on one of these turkey days. But I kinda like the day after Thanksgiving being an easy one at home. Sometimes I think I’m more thankful just after Thanksgiving than on Thanksgiving. The guests are gone so the pressure’s off to keep the house all perfect looking, there’s a ton of food still around so you don’t have to cook much, don’t have to run the kid to school today, etc. Who would want to ruin that just to get up early and throw oneself into the Christmas chaos?

I like Christmas ok. I’m not anti-Santa or anything. But I suspect that even if I was rich enough to just hit some buffet on Thanksgiving rather than cook at home that I’d still rather not do the “Black Friday” thing.

By the way, who came up with that stupid name? “Black Friday”? Yeah, I know, it’s when businesses hope to “end up in the black” for the Christmas season…but every time I hear it I think of the stock market crash of 1929 (didn’t they refer to that as “Black Friday” too?). And of course there’s that Steely Dan song called “Black Friday”, in which the term seems to also refer to a day when all the stock markets would crash, etc.

When Black Friday comes, I’ll stand down by the door

And catch the gray men when they dive from the fourteenth floor

Yep, I’ve got that running through my head now. Good think I like Steely Dan. Beats the hell out of you-know-what music.

I’m starting to resent Christmas taking up so much space on the calendar. It used to be they didn’t start playing you-know-what songs on the tv until after Thanksgiving…this year, I swear I started hearing them before Halloween. It’s just too much. Giving gifts is nice and all, I like giving ‘em and getting ‘em, and shopping can even be kinda fun when you have money and you’re into it, but jeez, it seems like they just want to beat Christmas into us.

Also, I think Christmas is a perfect demonstration of why we need real public transportation in the US, instead of everyone driving around in their individual cars. I like being able to drive in my car, wouldn’t want it taken away from me, but the worst thing about Christmas shopping is the traffic and the trying to find a parking spot. It makes the whole experience suck.

For what it’s worth, I think every Wal-Mart in the country oughta be required by law to pay for putting a traffic light in at their entrances. I don’t know about everyone else’s W-M, but ours in Hilo is a bitch to get into or out of. They could afford to put in a light if someone made ‘em do it.

(Don’t have anything against Wal-Mart, particularly…my mom worked for Wal-Mart…my brother worked for Wal-Mart…my daughter-in-law worked for Wal-Mart…I think my nephew still works for Wal-Mart. Just to clear that up.)

When Black Friday comes, I’ll fly down to Muswellbrook

Gonna strike all the big red words from my little black book

Gonna do just what I please, gonna wear no socks and shoes

With nothing to do but feed all the kangaroos

Now, if you’re just bound and determined to buy something, you could buy stuff online. Avoid those crowds! You could sit butt naked in front of your computer and shop if you want. Like…you could buy some beautiful handmade crocheted snowflakes on etsy.com.

(Who, me? Plug my own etsy shop in a blog entry decrying consumerism? Uh, yeah…but in my defense there’s a good chance that y’all might not be reading this right on the day after Thanksgiving…and if you are, you certainly don’t have to buy anything today…and if it does offend someone, well, there’s only a handful of people reads this blog anyway! So, the two or three people that might be offended are welcome to think of me as a total hypocrite.)

When Black Friday comes, I’m gonna dig myself a hole

Gonna lay down in it till I satisfy my soul

Gonna let the world pass by me, the Archbishop’s gonna sanctify me

And if he don’t come across I’m gonna let it roll

I bet I’m gonna hear this in my head all day. I don’t mind.

PS–was just looking up those song words and found this little blurb about “Black Friday”:

The driving shuffle “Black Friday” (from Katy Lied, 1975) was the first single released from their fourth album. Black Friday occurred on September 24, 1869, a day of securities market panic in which thousands of Americans were financially ruined, but the term is now applied to any financial crisis on either side of the Atlantic.

Journée sans achat… le début d’une prise de conscience. https://www.adbusters.org/

En quelques années, nous avons augmenté notre recyclage, mais nous avons fait exploser notre consommation…

Et avant de transformer un maximum de poubelles pour faire du profit (voir billet sur la biométhanisation), il faut d’abord réduire ses déchets et faire preuve d’efficacité énergétique. Sinon on se retrouve avec une société qui produit davantage de déchets pour pouvoir faire davantage d’énergie, qui servira à faire davatage de produits qui seront consommés et jettés à la poubelle… pour produire de l’énergie. On devient fou à force de tourner en rond dans un cercle infini et exponetiel. La vraie solution, c’est de consommer moins.

The Buy Nothing Day Coat Exchange was doing a brisk business when I walked by about 11:00, despite the change of location to the church on the corner of Smith and N.Main St. The coats and the people were nice and dry in the church basement, it runs until 1pm today.

I went to the State House lawn first, and people were gathering there for a rally against homelessness. Downtown was much less crowded than I expected, with lots of parking spaces open around Providence Place.

Some of my family might be shopping the Black Friday sales, but I’m staying warm indoors and catching up on the day job, or jobs actually.

How was your Thanksgiving?

This Friday, stomachs still full from Thanksgiving festivities, Dawn and I woke up at 4:30am and donned our green robes. We rushed over, fighting the cold and dark, to the Macy’s on 34th Street. It was Black Friday, and doors were set to open at 5am. As usual, a visceral crowd of people stood at the entrance waiting for the countdown and the doors to open. They’d probably been there for hours — eager to be the first ones to the shelves and discounts.

When the doors did open, the shoppers rushed in. Along with them was Rev. Billy and a small contingent of his choir, urging shoppers to turn around and go home. It was a short run, we entered briefly with the shoppers and shouted as loud as we could. Then we went back outside and greeted the stragglers, handing out flyers on Buy Nothing Day and consumerism. Very few heads turned. Most just went right on inside and did their holiday shopping. It’s tradition, after all.

At 10am we were at Penn Station waiting for the train to Valley Stream — the site of the Wal-Mart where store employee Jdimytai Damour was trampled to death when shoppers stormed the store last year. We arrived in Valley Stream and I looked out from the station at the vast array of car-centered amenities. We were now clearly in a place that was built for the automobile. To get to the Wal-Mart, we walked along the narrow edges of highways and crossed the vast black emptiness of big-box parking lots for 20 minutes. The store was surrounded by a fortress of Big-Boxes: Best Buy, Target, Home Depot, Petsmart, and more. When we finally arrived, we noticed that the store had taken extra security precautions this year. There was a long line of people in barricades waiting to be let in. Two mounted policemen patrolled back and forth.

We had flyers with Jdimytai’s face on them explaining his story and a bag full of flower petals we planned to scatter on the site of his death in memoriam. The plan was to start at the end of the line of would-be shoppers, singing “Back away from the Wal-Mart/back away from the sweat shops” and handing them flyers. Before we started, Rev. Billy reminded us that in many ways Jdimytai had become the center of the anti-consumerist struggle in New York.  He was a victim of the social consequences of consumerism.

As we went down the line, many remembered hearing of the tragedy last year, but few seemed to make the connection between the line they were currently standing in and Jdimytai’s death. Consumerism – that plastic-wrapped jewel in the crown of the American Dream – is best at separating the act of buying from it’s consequences.  As we stand in line on Black Friday or any other day, we clutch neatly packaged products that in our minds have no place, no history, no politics. Somehow they arrived on these shelves, but we rarely consider the long process that brought them there. Many are made by people that are perpetually poor, working an inhumane amount of hours daily just make a few cents. They are shipped via air and ocean, plastic wrapped in plastic wrapped in plastic, burning thousands of tons of fossil fuel a year.  By the time they get within reach of our hands they are perfectly packaged and advertised products ready for consumption, the story that spawned them purposely buried behind company logos. Consider Annie Leonard’s The Story of Stuff for a better explanation:

When we reached the front of the line, the barricades and cops kept us from going any further. We laid our petals down in a semi-circle and scattered pictures of Jdimytai throughout. Rev. Billy offered a prayer:

“The indigenous holy days that rise from the solstice – Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hannakah and all the rest – offer us an unseen opportunity. This is the day that there is seconds more light and heat, as the earth and sun roll back toward what will become the unleashing of life called Spring. So the holidays in late December are the seed of change. Christmas is radical, and life is out of our control. All we can do is pray for the best, honor it, because it is the beginning of a miracle. It’s not a Consumer event.

Now, Christmas is the annual environmental disaster. Last year Americans generated 25 million tons of trash from Thanksgiving to Christmas. But then, these holy days are the beginning of Spring, the possibility of change. We always had that life inside us, but we suppress it with Consumerism. Are we afraid of what more heat and light might mean? Will next Spring be too wild – too loving – too out of our control? What if the heat and light grows to become Peace on Earth?”

Shortly thereafter we left the cops and security guards alone and made the trek back to the station. Dawn and I decided to take a cab there along with several other choir members, weary of the 20 minute empty journey back.

No, I wasn’t out at 4:00 a.m. in the dark and cold, hoping to catch the door-buster deals. No, I wasn’t even out at dawn, watching the sun rise over jam-packed parking lots and overflowing shopping cart corrals. But yes, I was out by mid-morning, elbowing through my fellow shoppers and picking over the remains of the early-morning merchandise.

My mother is pretty much a die-hard Black Friday shopper. She can tell tales of waiting by moonlight for Shopko to open, waiting in line with my brother for video game equipment, waiting in deep check-out lines while holding a TV. Each year she usually has a mission, a goal, a Holy Grail that is the focus of her Black Friday adventures. But this year, with a relatively short shopping list, she couldn’t convince me–or herself, really–to experience the pain of going out extra early.

We tried to find a mission. The best we could come up with was the “it” toy of the year: Zhu Zhu hamsters, which are battery-powered hamsters that can both cuddle and coo on your lap and run around in a hamster wheel or on a track. We made a half-hearted attempt to find one of the five versions as something for Koda to attack and chase, but we ended up failing. We weren’t devastated.

We were more successful at our second mission: G. I can’t provide details, but we brainstormed a pretty good idea for him and spent much of our time collecting pieces of his present.

Overall, we covered three cities in two states today. I don’t know–I wasn’t seeing tremendous sales anywhere, though I understand we missed the big ones. I thought there would still be great incentives to buy stuff even in the late morning and early afternoon, but really, most places were only offering modest discounts. Oh well. I did pick up a few things, meaning I can’t claim to have effectively celebrated Buy Nothing Day.

By the time we got home, I was pretty well exhausted, despite our reasonably-timed start. My mom mustered some last energy to assemble a turkey potpie. Much of her preparations took place over the kitchen sink, allowing her to inadvertently celebrate Sinkie Day, the day dedicated to eating Thanksgiving leftovers over the–you guessed it–sink.

Now we’re planning to watch a movie and relax. Bring on the dialog; after all, it’s National Listening Day!