Black Friday 2011: Should You Join 'Buy Nothing Day' On Busiest Shopping Day of the Year?
Black Friday is known as the biggest and wildest shopping day of the year and experts are predicting that this year America will have the largest, most expansive Black Friday yet. However, not everyone is onboard with Black Friday mayhem and some groups are pushing for Black Friday to take on a whole new meaning.
Anti-consumerism supporters have been pushing for years for Black Friday to become “Buy Nothing Day” (BND).
Supporters of the BND movement suggest that people recreate the purpose and meaning behind the holidays.
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They say, "With the simplest of plans you can create a new rhythm, purpose, and meaning for the holidays."
This year the movement is taking an extra step, pushing for people to think smart about their holiday consumption.
The BDN movement suggests if people must buy gifts for the holidays to consider buying local or fair trade, as opposed to going to major retail chains that are going all out this year to attract potential buyers.
Stores such as Target, Kohl’s, the Gap, and Target will be opening at midnight on Black Friday to bait customers to come into their stores and purchase their deals. Walmart is taking the Black Friday craze one step further, opening its doors at 10:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.
Brad Wilson, an online shopping expert that runs websites that focus on Black Friday and bargain shopping, has said that measures taken by retail giants are a push by merchants to do “everything they can to prolong that day and that weekend.”
Retail stores generally make around 20 percent of their revenue during the holiday season and last year consumers spent an estimated $10.7 billion.
With a sluggish economy, stores are hoping that if they continue to push the envelope further they can cash in on the shopping craze.
However, not everyone is happy about the Black Friday, or rather, Black midnight news.
Both consumers and employees have expressed their outrage that businesses will be cutting into employees’ holiday time, causing families to separate during holiday gatherings, and likely generating employee burnout.
One thing is for certain, anti-consumerism supporters will not be among the people pushing in lines on Black Friday, midnight or not.
However, with movements like the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street gaining extra traction this year, NBD supporters might be the people meditating and praying in the middle of an overcrowded mall, that the people of the world “reclaim” their holiday celebrations and fill them with love and enjoy, not possessions.
