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Put Down Your Nanowrimo And Leave The House
Sox Shuffle Continues
Though rushing to the mall or local CrapMart the day after Thanksgiving has become trad for millions of Americans, many Americans spend Black Friday boycotting shopping altogether in protest. Buy Nothing Day -- promoted since the early 1990s by the zany culture jammers at Adbusters -- has become a holiday for anti-consumerist folk who enjoy taking a stand against all the shopping and spending that inevitably produces lots of debt, trash and disappointment (that American Apparel hoodie didn't really fix the interminable gnawing feeling in your soul, now did it?)
One can spend BND by safely staying at home and avoiding the crowds, or by participating in one of Adbusters' suggested celebratory activities: Cutting up people's credit cards (with their explicit permission!); walking around the mall like a zombie (can be difficult to stand out in the average suburban mall, where vacant TV Eyes are common, but you can try); or going to a store with some friends, grabbing shopping carts and then wheeling them around in silence without picking up any items for purchase. Actions planned in Chicago include a fur protest and a Zombie Walk down Michigan Ave.
If you just have to buy something on Black Friday, because you're anal like that, then you can avoid putting your cash money in the corpies' coffers by visiting your local thrift store. Buying second-hand doesn't mean you love someone less -- it just means that you also appreciate a good, eco-friendly deal, and your loved ones should either appreciate your common sense or just deal with it. This author has discovered brand-new items on the second-hand racks; look carefully and you might strike gold as well.
Other alternatives to buying include purchasing goods from one of our many local crafters (check back here after T-Day for a craft-fair round-up), making your own gifts, contributing to a nonprofit or charity in someone's name, or finding things in the trash.
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I've been doing this since way before it was a movement. So, I'm proud to say that I've never once in my life shopped on Black Friday, but it was more because I hate crowds.
But, now I'll start doing it because it's a movement.
I'm with you Ingrid! Although my Buy Nothing Day had more to do with not having any money than a making a statement.
Come to think of it, this has pretty much been a Buy Nothing Year...
I think a lot more people will be "participating" this year.
The people I feel dreadful for are the poor bastards working retail on friday. Getting up at 3:30 am to prep shelves so someone can get a cheap blu-ray player or some chintzy gadget is major holiday suckage.
I've never been out on BF, but I'm considering it to save some cash on some gifts. I'll bring some whiskey.
This "protest" reeks of self-righteous bullshit.
"I'm choosing not to buy anything at a significant savings because so many other people will not spend wisely."
gimme a break. Spend your money on what you want.
@Stonepiano:
Adbusters specializes in self-righteousness.
Some beautiful art in the magazine from time to time, but the politics come off like a teenager overdosed on their first reading of Noam Chomsky, or worse, Howard Zinn.
Word, Adbusters stopped being relevant a long time ago.
If magazines were people, Adbusters would be the old dude on a recumbent bike with GORP in his beard shouting at you for wearing leather shoes.
@happyfunball:
GORP!
You are my hero sir.
...but the politics come off like a teenager overdosed on their first reading of Noam Chomsky, or worse, Howard Zinn.
LOL. Best. Description. Evar.
If magazines were people, Adbusters would be the old dude on a recumbent bike with GORP in his beard shouting at you for wearing leather shoes.
Until this... Double LOL!
Stonepiano sounds like an "a-political" hipster who is fat, which kinda makes him a nonhipster because hipsters can't be fat right?
yea heaven forbid people care enough to raise
Consciousness.
Cool on the Zombie thing, I wish it was later
This "protest" reeks of self-righteous bullshit.
"I'm choosing not to buy anything at a significant savings because so many other people will not spend wisely."
Amen. This should be the one day that you DO buy stuff. What better way to stick it to the big bad ol' corporations by only buying their stuff when it's at drastic savings, thereby depriving them of a lot of their revenue.
The only time I've ever participated in Black Friday was as an employee and take it from me: everyone but the managers and stockholders will appreciate you staying home.
While I'm pretty anti-consumerist and anti-materialist, and can't stand the holiday shopping season (or the current fetish with zombies), we should all hope that retailers sell as much as they can this year, even the useless junk that no one really needs. Yeah, even the non-consumerists among us will be hurt from what is likely to be piss-poor sales this holiday season, whether through job losses or stock losses, which pretty much screw everyone in modern American society, whether retirees or the company for which you work, even non-profits (which depend on giving this time of year from for-profit firms). If you don't believe me, review your economics and pay deeper attention to current events.
Please tell me though: WTF is the obsession with zombies all about? I don't get it.
re: Matilda's post.
Stay home, but do your shopping online if you really must get that sale. I read that many online retailers are doing huge discounts as well (as long as supplies last).
They're a way of talking about death in a playful manner.
They represent the inevitability of death. Zombies are slow. You can outrun them, but they will stalk you down one time or another.
They're also great metaphors for any number of political/social topics. Like the mindlessness of consumerism from "Dawn of the Dead" or the post-9/11 mentality of "Land of the Dead" or the youtube voyeur culture of "Diary of the Dead" just to look at Romero's work alone. Even "Shaun of the Dead" is really about being trapped in a shuffling existence.
They're the only "monster" that scared me as a kid. Cause we not all gonna be vampires or werewolves, but we will all be corpses, one day.
Nice idea, Ingrid.
But that means we deprive Stroger and his cousins of sales tax revenue .... oh, never mind.
Albany: Interesting.
I guess the terror of daily living is apparent enough for me (with apologies to Chekhov) that horror-movie characters seem a bit cartoonish. As a metaphor, zombies seem rather played out at this point, I guess.
The obsession with zombies now is the same silly fad that ran before hand, with pirates and ninjas. It's really annoying. I hope they go back to being pirates soon, but real pirates; Malaysians, Indonesians, and Somalis.
You generally have to pay local taxes for online purchases, but a lot of retailers have free shipping over the holidays. Check out bfads.net for a bunch of onlie Black Friday deals, if you do want to shop.
Just a thought, why not buy food and donate to a food bank?
Grocers should be pretty light on friday. Stock up on after t-day sales.
With the job losses and general economic fuckery there's more call for food donations than in recent memory.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/11/24/Tough_times_strain_NYC_food_banks/UPI-24751227579053/
You know, I honestly think that the people who go out on Black Friday actually like the drama.
Some people will admit that they get off on the adrenalin surge from the crowds and the stress, but even the ones who complain about it like it.
People do what they want to do and they don't do what they don't want to.
Now it's vampires with the young kids. But the undead will come back. I'm buying up sea monster memorabilia to beat the next trend.
Funny thing, Zombies, as they are generally seen, are one of the few folklore monsters that are all American. Bits grabbed from the Voudon, but Romero really struck something new and strange with his cannibalistic shufflers.
Just a thought, why not buy food and donate to a food bank?
Nice idea. Great idea.
You know, I honestly think that the people who go out on Black Friday actually like the drama.
Sounds right to me.
@ml180 Only if the business in question operates a brick and mortar location in your state. Purchases from places like Amazon, New Egg and the like are exempt from state taxes.
Supposedly, the government expects the purchaser to file a separate use tax form at the end of each year for online purchases, but I will never in a million fucking years do that.
Agreed. I have yet to see anyting in any Black Friday ad that makes me think the cost in time and sleep and general constitution.
But this? For consumer goods?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3eUiMHtPgQ&feature=
Fuck no.
You know, I honestly think that the people who go out on Black Friday actually like the drama.
It's our modern day version of hunters and gathers type stuff... well, urban hunters anyway. Most of us probably aren't going out and stalking and killing our food and feeling the subsequent adrenalin rush, so for most of this, this is it: "Stalking" a bargain and bagging that sucker. There's nothing like strapping a freshly killed $60 blu-ray to the hood of your car...
wow, I did not know that HateBrianClub.....I swear that practically every single thing I own...from household items to what I wear, comes from online.
(I HATE shopping).
Should I be nervous? I mean, it's not like I shop online once in a while, I am not exaggerating, I buy EVERYTHING online. Will the feds come after me at some point?
Matilda, I am doing my part in not supporting the Stroger alliance! :)
Is buying booze okay? Post-Thanksgiving-Sanity-Booze?
@Ingrid
As a proud member of Amazon Prime who hates 10.25% Cook County sales tax and doesn't drive I'm in the same boat - maybe we'll be cellmates.
Use taxes are a joke, if they don't get me at the cash register I'm not going to keep a tally and doing their work for them.
yea American's don't have a savings problem
I like how Scumtilda and Dubya give/gave the same message of "save Amerikkka, go to the mall and spend. But I guess since Obama is now is President, I might have to remove or possibly add a "k". ( Man I'm clever!
Any way right with the Zombie detail Albany. Personally my all time favorite was Romero's Dawn of the Dead, the uncut version. Not only did the brotha live, which is a first but he also got the girl. I mean she was a preganet( her boy friend got bit and turned into a Zombie at the end) white girl, but still, that sh*t was revolutionary! I like how they escaped into the dawn in the helicopter!
p.s and what's up with the fast moving Zombies! Sacrilege
p.p.s
Shean P
booze is not part of the embargo/ban as its considered medicine
@Spook:
Simon Pegg addresses this weighty issue. The man knows his Zombies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/04/television-simon-pegg-dead-set
"Dawn of the Dead" is SPECTACULAR. I love the big, bold black man getting the swelling hero music at the end as he ass kicks his way out of the mall.
p.p.p.s
Bad-DreamTilda,
please except this as formal cease and desist order from referencing my friend, Anton. American Idol was evented for people of you ilk like you to find common ground, not Dr. Checkov.
Don't care what you think, I've always enjoyed going out on Black Friday. Not for the sales, but just to enjoy the holiday hustle and bustle. Y'all are Scrooges. ;) It's a fam tradition and I intend to keep it.
Albanyparkour,
You, sir,are a gentleman, a scholar, and a fine purveyor of all that is to be purveyed. Great article! I tip my bowler to you. I only hope that E4's Dead Set comes across the pound and soon!
Pip-pip!
I like how Scumtilda and Dubya give/gave the same message of "save Amerikkka, go to the mall and spend.
Uh, no. I am just saying you might regret having so much joy over this bad holiday shopping season.
please except this as formal cease and desist order from referencing my friend, Anton.
Speak to me about your "friend" after you have visited his old stomping grounds and met some of his relatives and read some of his works in Russian--from old hardcover books that predate the Great Patriotic War--and after you have seen his old theater in person. Chekhov had plenty of characters who were similar to your internet personality: Pompous about their own purity, eager to return to simple living but lacking the sense or spine to really do so, enthusiastic about some vague notions of revolution but knowing nothing at all about the common folk, and often harming the common folk more than helping the common folk. If you really consider Anton your friend, you certainly know this.
As well, your own writing could stand to imitate the crystal-clear brevity of Chekhov's writing. Apparently you've taken little from his writing.
Come on, Spook: Let's see who knows more about your "friend" Anton. I double dare ya, son.
Mary Sunshine:
I prefer cow-catchers and the occasional tasering. People clamoring to waste money on shit they don't need isn't the modern equivalent of the Dickensian market square, replete with pox-kissed waifs and haunted curmudgeons.
Words for all of us to ponder before you go in on the slapfight.
"People who lead a lonely existence always have something on their minds that they are eager to talk about."
Interest in zombie stories has to do with dystopia. It's the breakdown of civilization into the fundamentals of survival, drawing out the best and worst impulses of people. This is why it's interesting and relevant, especially for those of us who doubt the integrity of the nation's (or state, or city) disaster preparedness.
Matilda,
Looks like you know a lot about Chekhov, that's saying something too, because he was certainly one of the least talkative among the Enterprise crew.
@Navin:
Beautiful.
Tell us about the Nuclear Wessels...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdSJFrhb-HM
but just to enjoy the holiday hustle and bustle.
What, exactly, is it you enjoy about the hustle and bustle? seriously.
Looks like you know a lot about Chekhov, that's saying something too, because he was certainly one of the least talkative among the Enterprise crew
My third biggest silly laugh of the day. You caught me off guard with that one.
"Wessels" excellent. I can't think of *either* Chekhov without conjuring up the classic SCTV "Memoirs of Chekhov" skit.
I have decided to ignore (as in not even read) what PlemyannikovTilda
wrote above.
And please note that it has nothing to do with the possibility of me being extremely jealous. Because I'm sure she has never visited Chekhov’s old stomping grounds or met some of his relatives or read some of his works in Russian--from old hardcover books that predate the Great Patriotic War--or have seen his old theater in person." So there would be no reason for me to be jealous, even if I had read what she wrote, which I have not.
And if she had wrote something like that then I’m sure it’s a lie, like the cyber skank she is.
p.s. but for your information Russia is on my travel itinerary before capitalism ruins it, like what might happened to Cuba
i don't see anything wrong with black friday. if there's an item you've been eyeing for a while, why not take advantage of the discount?
SINCE I AM A DEAL FINDER I LOVE BLACK FRIDAY.....THE SALES ARE SO GREAT AND YOU CAN ONLY GET THEM ONCE A YEAR. EVERY YEAR I FIND SOMETHING THAT I WASNT EVEN LOOKING FOR I DONT LIKE IT WHEN EVERYONE HAS TAKEN EVERYTHING, BUT I WAKE UP EARLY AND GET THERE RIGHT AWAY IN THE MORNING TO GET WHAT I WANT. USUALLY THERE ARE LINES OUTSIDE THE STORE BEFORE IT OPENS AND I ALWAYS GET IN (ATLEAST IN THE FIRST HUNDRED) AND I GO AND GET WHAT I WANT RIGHT AWAY THEN I LOOK AROUND AT ALL THE DEALS TO SEE IF THERE IS ANYTHING ELSE I WANT I PERSONALLY LOVE SHOPPING SO BLACK FRIDAY IS LIKE MY CHRISMAS HAPPINESS LOL I'M SUCH A SHOP AHOLIC.