Buying Nothing is a Tough Sell on Black Friday

By Chris La Tray, 11-25-08

A few years ago I saw a television segment where a convoy of women were shopping at a mall on Black Friday, laughing about how first thing that morning they had all purchased those big ATV-looking baby strollers for the sole purpose of hauling around all the shit they were buying that day. It was a report typical of the ilk for this particular time of year: the media’s obsession for reporting whether the “shopping season” was going well or not. Expect even more of that this year, as the gloom and doom of our current economic crisis is perfect fodder for the style of sensational news reports favored by our “leading with bleeding” news media. The absurdity of it all struck me even then, and that was long before I started actively turning a critical eye on the consumptive habits of the average American citizen – starting with my own!

Black Friday of course is the name given to the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally one of the biggest retail days of the year. It is the official start of the Christmas shopping season, supposedly, though it seems apparent that, like Christmas decorations, that frenzy is beginning before the Halloween junk is even stuffed back in the garage. Flyers advertising early “Black Friday” sales started two weeks ago. The chains are particularly desperate this year, especially with typical Christmas meccas like Circuit City bankrupt, and Best Buy issuing their own ominous rumblings. Money is tight everywhere, and the only people who will be surprised if more companies fail after the holiday fog clears will likely be the same ones who were surprised when the house of cards that is our American borrow-and-spend economy started to tumble in the first place!

Which brings me to Buy Nothing Day, an action I’ve tried to embrace for the past couple years. Buy Nothing Day is an informal day of protest against consumerism, originally founded in 1992 by a Canadian artist, then picked up by Adbusters magazine. The goal is pretty obvious: participants seek to flex their buying power by choosing not to purchase anything over that 24-hour period. The goal is to raise awareness of the habits of the West, which many see as shamelessly wasteful. In essence, it is supposed to be a big middle-finger to consumer culture.

Whether it works or not is debatable; it seems to me it probably amounts to so much pissing in the wind. I’m not BND activist; for me it is more a matter of participating in an action with other like-minded people. I would love to see more people embrace the idea, but it is only meaningful if it is a mindset one brings to every purchase: do I really need this? Sadly, I don’t think the masses are quite ready to get on board, though the realities of our current economic woe may be forcing it on them. I don’t see that as a bad thing.

Many Serious People would argue that it is particularly irresponsible this year to choose not to spend what money we have. It’s for the good of the economy, right? Get the USA back up on its feet and ringing those cash registers, right? I am inclined to disagree. If one looks at where the cars stack up around Missoula on big shopping days – the mall, North Reserve – one sees where the majority of our money is going. Every one of those stores is part of a chain of retailers that can be found anywhere. The Black Friday website, which tracks which sales are happening where, displays the logos of all the companies they monitor, and there ain’t a Mom & Pop among them.

I feel like those people had their chance. The CEOs and boards of directors and big-time investors and all the other associated people making the silly money via our shopping addictions are the ones leaning on the markets to be liberated, and we’ve all seen where that has taken us. Crazy profits still aren’t enough for these people, so they scheme and tweak and influence until suddenly, like a cardboard box loaded down with personal tokens plundered from a cubicle left vacant after a layoff, the bottom falls out. Look in your own wallet (or your 401k statement, if you have one) to see who is ultimately paying for their hubris. Hell, most of us are paying twice; once on the front end when we wait in line to check out, the second on the back when we bend over at tax time.

So I’m not necessarily advocating not buying anything (though it would be cool if people didn’t). I’m an advocate of keeping the money in our local businesses. There are all kinds of arguments for doing so; here is a list of 5 our own Sustainable Business Council has compiled, including:

You keep more tax dollars in our community to support our schools, parks, police, and other services.

You support businesses that provide a large share of jobs in our community and are more invested in Missoula’s future.

You ensure a solid foundation for our nonprofit organizations because they receive a majority of their donations from locally-owned businesses.

By shopping locally you protect the beauty and natural resources of our community.  Our local stores help sustain vibrant, compact, and walkable shopping districts and conserve energy and resources by reducing the transportation costs of goods.

Over the summer, Missoula hosts so many excellent activities; it seems that every weekend Caras Park is hopping for one reason or another. These events don’t just happen in a vacuum – they cost a lot of money. Our local shops and restaurants and business owners are the ones who make them happen by sponsoring everything from Hemp Fest to the River City Roots Festival; the Festival of the Dead into First Night. They certainly deserve to be rewarded for their efforts, especially in years like this one where money has been as tight for them as anyone else.

I’m not the only one urging my neighbors to do this, yet there cannot be too many voices calling for shoppers to keep it local as much as possible. The reasons have been documented. Many arguments against it have been answered. Quality over quantity makes for an excellent holiday.