Buy Nothing Day!
Buy Nothing Day (BND) is a day that is recognized annually on the day after Thanksgiving! This day is part of the movement against consumerism, urging the world to change their purchasing habits and to consume and produce less! (Calendar 1)
The history behind Buy Nothing Day is rich! Buy Nothing Day was first established in September of 1992! Ted Dave, the founder of the day, moved it to be on the same day as Black Friday instead of being in September as an attempt to counteract the excessive buying that would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Now you may be wondering; won’t Black Friday suffer as a result of this day against buying? The answer is no. While some individuals will choose to ignore Black Friday in favor of BND day, many others either don’t know about it or will still continue to make purchases anyway. When it comes to Black Friday and also Cyber Monday, 60% of all online spending goes to a dozen large retailers. (Calendar 3). When it comes to these large retailers, none of them will feel a large impact of Buy Nothing Day. The real impact of this day will come to the other 40% which is made up of smaller stores that have less buyers. These stores will feel a much larger hit and may even suffer from the loss of these customers, unlike the larger companies.
Black Friday first originated in the 1950s. The term “Black Friday” was used as a way to describe the heavy traffic on the day after Thanksgiving and the hordes of tourists and suburbanites who would swarm Philadelphia for the Army-Navy football game. At some point, retailers attempted to change the holiday to “Big Friday” to avoid controversy, but the name Black Friday prevailed and is still used today. In the mid-80’s the term “Black Friday” was used to connect to being ‘in the black’ after a financially bad year. By the early 90s, Black Friday sales were commonplace across the entirety of the United States, and Cyber Monday started to gain traction in the mid-2000s!
Some things that you can do to support Buy Nothing Day are to, of course, buy nothing on that day or make a donation of your time or money such as to a local food pantry or an organization in need. These are great ways to give back and spend less on Buy Nothing Day!
Calendar, N. D. (n.d.). Buy nothing Day – day after Thanksgiving. BUY NOTHING DAY. https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/buy-nothing-day-first-shopping-day-after-thanksgiving