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Counterintuitively, I've become a bit of a Nothing fanboy. The phones are decent; the earbuds are decent; and the watches would be decent if it wasn't for the watch face that has the same surface area of a small eastern European country.
Genuinely though, love the idea of Buy Nothing day.
Buy what you need, when you need it, for who you need in your life. Including you.
Or not, I'm not the boss of you ๐
I'm torn though. At some point I am going to buy stuff I want or need. If I were to buy them at full price rather than on Black Friday, I am essentially being more of a consumer per money unit.
So yes, don't look at Black Friday deals and decide you need stuff you see on sale. First decide whether you need something, then go see if you can find a good deal and maybe buy it.
I think the idea is not to not buy anything for a day, it's more about redefining what we need and applying a little impulse control. If Black Friday is profitable, we need to make them keep the prices that way year round rather than applying huge markups to maximize profits.
Lol
A single day (or even week) strike will never work. People just buy double the day after. We need to identify specific companies to boycott until they concede, then move on to the next. As long as it takes. One by one until the job is done.
Sorry, I won't be able to participate this year.
Need to get groceries tomorrow.
I have observed Buy Nothing day(s) since the early 2000s. My personal philosophy is, this is a day set aside to meditate on the difference between want and need.
Do you need to queue up at 4pm on Thanksgiving night to fill your car with cut-rate b-stock imported consumer goods made specifically for $10 door buster sales? No. Fucking nobody does. Your family hates receiving gifts from you, because it's all bound for the landfill in a few months.
Do you need food? Yeah. And maybe the produce is all on sale today.
Think of the labor and the plastic and the waste before you participate in conspicuous consumption. Think of the fuel it takes to get from the factory to the port, across the seas, into a warehouse or a plane, just to be purchased and discarded after a day or a month or a year. This is one of the ways we're dooming ourselves as a species.
Like everything else, just do the best you can. If you need groceries or gas or medicine, go buy them. Meet your needs. If you want the big TV, and the price is right, do it. But think a bit about second hand goods, or working with what you have, or going without. Refurbishment sites exist, and a two year old item is functionally the same as a new one. Not much changes year over year. They just make you think it changes.
What are your needs today?