the paradox of buy nothing day

I am greatly impressed by the ASCII art but I have no idea what it is.

That said, I cancelled my subscription to Adbusters when they seemed to suggest that ADHD was a disorder invented by pharmaceuticals companies (I work with kids who'd be lost without the medications that treat ADHD), so I'm not the hairy-fisted lefty I paint myself as/tend to pose as when my ears get hot

On a mailing list I subscribe to one poster mentioned that she spends the day after Thanksgiving switching from her summer to her fall/winter wardrobe, and culling clothes from these to give to Goodwill. I thought that was a great idea, as is Maura's credit card cutting plans.

And I agree with those who find it distasteful to hassle the retail staff. Has anyone come up with any ideas that would strike at management?

right but I'm talking about the possibility for outreach, here. Surely the goal of actions like this is to expand consciousness beyond the realm of those who would already be aware of Adbusters? I doubt that retail workers who had their worst day of the year compounded by a bunch of people who thought it would be 'funny' to buy-then-immediately-return en masse would be very likely to be receptive to any rationalization behind those actions.

and that's why i said that i thought some of the ideas -- like the credit card one, and the Goodwill-culling idea that jel posted -- were worthwhile. What with the opinion of the left in the US not being so high at the moment, actions that will result in those outside the base to relate to their intentions on a practical level would be a lot more effective than Wal-Mart whirling (wheeling an empty art around a Wal-Mart for an hour in an attempt to "get noticed") or practicing tai chi outside a Starbucks. And both of those protests were proposed by readers on the BND Web site, which I spent a fair amount of time reading last night, because I do think that protests against consumerism are important. I just don't think actions that are ultimately counteractive are the best way to go -- and if anything, protests that affect the front lines of retail first worsen the situation, because it's not like upper management, who's being protested against in the first place, is in the affected sphere anyway.

This is why I'm also not so keen on harassing telemarketers, even though they annoy the shit out of me.

Change "counteractive" to "counter-productive" and I agree 100%.

*boggles*

I love this thread. Mostly middle class people patronising other mostly middle class people because they are patronising.

Has no one here actually done a shit job?

How is one day of having a bunch of self-confessed jokers messing with you any worse than the rest of the year, when you're messed about without it being acknowledged? It relieves the fucking boredom, maybe? That's bad!

education campaign about waste

Ha! These four words! Do it, ya crazy bastard!

Has no one here actually done a shit job?

This is a bit presumptuous - I spend all day working with neglected/abused children for a laughably low wage, by which I mean quoting it inspires comments like "oh my God there's nothing I'd do for such pathetic pay" - unless "middle class" is codespeak for something else, I don't think I qualify

'Shit job' doesn't mean every lowly paid job. Presumably you think what you do is useful.

Do Gap workers believe in Gap?

Great. But what you mean?

But if it's self-declared, who will say they've had less than their share of shit jobs? Some might admit. Otherwise "more than my share" is meaningless. Compared to my Auntie Bob (75 years as a footstool) you've seen nothing.

However, my first post implicates everybody here and I take it back (except for finding "education" post funny). I don't like it no more, and will rephrase:

Intention vs. result related question: if you work for low wages in a chain store, why are the people who fill up the room and hassle you for one day a year to be scorned more than the people who fill up the room for the rest of the year and hassle you? Cos they foolishly think they're doing good?

I do think it's an intent thing. I mean, at only the really really busy stores might adding 20 people to a return line not make much of a difference. Going into a store with an explicit intent to not buy -- ie refusing to operate within the construct that the other annoying customers are even if they are obnoxious -- but instead to harass workers... I'm sorry, be "funny" (in a way that's probably very self-referential and uninformative about its purposes to the populace at large, no less) is just not cool. For the amount of extra work it creates (haven't you read about Wal-Mart's tendencies towards unclocked overtime?), for the amount of extra hassle it creates, for the way it colors the rest of the day and the remaining interactions with customers (the possibility for getting written up by a supervisor gets that much greater, thanks to those elevated holiday tensions on all sides).

Not to mention that "funny" distr/actions like this totally fuck up the wages of workers whose commissions are taken from their hourly earnings.

I did mention that i have participated in, and supported, BND in the past? Because I have. I just got a gnawing feeling the other night when i read a slew of action-ideas that involved 'fucking up' stores somehow -- I mean, isn't there enough unpleasantness in the world as it is, especially on the day after Thanksgiving? Some of them just seemed really ill-informed in the same slightly bourgeois way that turned Starbucks into the most evil purveyor of quick coffee out there.

Truthfully I liked James Blount's "culture jamming" idea best of all.

Far better to support fair trade companies instead of the unscrupulous companies and encourage others to do so. I don't know much about fairtrade clothes, so I couldn't suggest an alternative to Gap, but if we all drank Café Direct instead of Nescafé or bought our chocolate from the Co-op (all of their choc is now fairly-traded) then we could make a difference which doesn't involve lawbreaking or pissing off poorly paid shop assistants.

Outworkers [i]in[/a] Australia at crap wages!

This is tomorrow! Saturday is the *worst* day to do this? Is beer excluded?

http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/

If you later pee it out in the pub, you were only renting it and thus it doesn't count as buying.

Good justification! I like it!

Beer is not made in south Asian sweatshops and is therefore allowed.

(ps mine's a Guinness)

what about haircuts?

maybe i should do it myself.

Are half-time raffle tickets at the football allowed, in that I might use some of my winnings for some charitable good?

I'm fishing tomorrow, am I allowed to buy bait ?

last week it was "no music day" - to help us remember how important music is - and now "buy nothing day" - to help us remember how important buying stuff is?

www.bfads.net i just bought a hard drive mad cheap i am not done yet.

I thought Buy Nothing Day was today, not tomorrow.

We have to head into the heart of the Beast (midtown Memphis) today. I wonder what traffic will be like.

It is today in the US and Canada, tomorrow for us Britishers. Don't ask me why.

Apparently it's because we "traditionally" shop on a Saturday, according to their FAQ.

the fools forgot about my 'friday online shopping fest' mwuhahaha

I "traditionally" go the pub on a Saturday.

chalking it up to tradition is a brilliant idea.

"i don't have a drinking problem; it's just tradition for me to start drink ing at 9am and continue until i reach unconsciousness."

Now, come on, I don't usually get to the pub until about one...

.....unless it's an early kick-off rite?

ironic that "buy nothing day" falls on the biggest retail day of the year - the day after thanksgiving. surely this is a somewhat masochistic decision??

well only if you're going to adhere to it, which i guess 99.9% of the population aren't. unless they're skint.

i have a lot of Buy Nothing days

I have to pop this one up for a thread connection...

i hope everybody takes up on this.

because i plan to go shopping on saturday and it'd be wonderful if the shops are empty

i grew up being told, "you NEVER go to stores on the day after thanksgiving, it's terrible and crowded and even more unpleasant than the rest of the year." i only found out that people look forward to shopping then in high school (though you'd think i might've realized it earlier, because why else would the stores be so crowded?). so the "buy nothing day" idea seems kind of funny to me - like do people actually have to make an effort not to shop then?

I think I've already had like four buy nothing days in the past week. I think I'll get some groceries today.

Dueds Maria's parents are right...if even I needed to buy something in the store it would take 2 hours in and out of the store. I got dragged to all those door buster sales by my mom as a child and why anyone wants to get up at 4 a.m. to get hella cheap tube sox or whatevs is BONKERS.

DO NOT the adbusters masterminds know there are thousands of people who have a buy nothing day every week on the Sabbath?

(This is another childhood thing I am never going to do again either)

Dude really? I don't know what modern Sabbath day observations are supposed to be like, you can't drink and buy things, what else is off limits?

DO NOT the adbusters masterminds know there are thousands of people who have a buy nothing day every week on the Sabbath?

(This is another childhood thing I am never going to do again either)

-- Abbott, Friday, November 23, 2007 4:03 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

this is like a red state snorg tee or something

Hahaha whoa! Yeah Mormons are real big on the little laws that are very visual when broken & therefore good Gossip fodder (ie drink a beer = oh no can mock (or maybe they are just people who think they should follow their doctrine.))

So they are all big on 'keeping the Sabbath' which meant no working, first of all, and then no shopping or anything else that would MAKE someone else have to work: public swimming pool, movies, buying gas...of course not everyone is that strict about it. Some people won't play/let their children play sports or do recitals or other competitions on Sunday, tho they'd play b-ball at home. My dad was so hardcore that he wouldn't let us rent movies at th town video shop on Saturdays because it meant we'd have to return them on Sunday (making someone work wtf).

This so much that a lot of businesses in Idaho/Utah just don't open on Sunday. This is almost 90% Catholic town and a lot of the stores close at 4 p.m. (as opposed to 9 or 10) on Sundays, leading me to thing they have some sabbath observation but I do not know if/ what it is.

For real JW but it is true.

Ah, I see. That's kind of nice in a way. I think the earlier Sunday closing is very common all over now, and it doesn't necessarily mean there's a Sabbath observation, it's just tradition. (There was a Catholic mass at 4 PM in my college town, though.)

Is it ok for Hindus at 7-11 to work on the sabbath on behalf of a Mormon?

what you mean on a Saturday or something?

no like is it cool for non christians to break the sabbath?

well fuck it's cool for anyone to, it's not like sin is real, but of course my family is all mourny mourny that this sinful world keeps shops open on Sundays (not that Sunday is even everyone's Sabbath)

No, and that's the real problem, isn't it. People are happy to use the whole "EVERYONE NEEDS A DAY OF REST, SPEND IT W/ YR FAMILY" arguments like they cancel out religion -- for instance in Bergen County, NJ where the GARDEN STATE PLAZA, this fookin massive mall, is closed on Sun (thereby making every major road for miles in any direction IMPASSABLE on Saturdays because EVERYONE has to go RIGHT THEN), but it's not even the proscribed "day of rest" for an increasing number of NJ residents.

It seems like more stores in the malls were closed on sunday when I was a young boy.

bastard Christian fundamentalists who run Chik-Fil-A keep us from sating Sunday morning hangovers with fried chicken and waffle fries

ditto if you wanna work off yr hangover at hobby lobby

At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day. But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him; how he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.

The son of man = the people. Sabbath laws were about not having people getting fucked over. Those who reduce it to an issue of "sin" are complicit in their own fucked-up slavery.

Some years ago back at my highschool, the grade 10 business class went on a field trip to the mall on buy nothing day. Whether that is better or worse that the fact that we once watched "Wall Street" in class, but has to stop it right before the end where Charlie Sheen gets arrested (due to time restrictions) is up to you.

how about buy only what you actually need to live another day day

i am not into this bullshit

i hate both sides of the argument

i want a new argument

and new people making it

i am going to buy a spaceship today

i bought a purse today
http://www.theclothinggallery.com/store/images/000_0682.jpg
it's like this but about half the size and w/ a long shoulder strap. $30!

I would like to say that I did not buy gasoline today.

Oh, wait. that's something else.

Okay this is the stupidest thing I have read in the world (from Reuters):

Ebay said in a statement that shoppers are browsing and researching more on Friday, but buying more on the Monday after Thanksgiving, or "Cyber Monday."

i hope tracer figured it out, why this was yesterday.

i haven't bought shit for several days because I am broke

OTM

lol @ "Cyber Monday"

and yes resource depletion, environmental degradation and reduced ecological health is kinda funny to me tee hee hey I'm just sayin

mod plz add breathalyser posting locks

??? 2nd to last comment???

It's like Ethan's thread abt that vexing Slate article...http://consumerist.com/consumer/black-friday/frys-employees-sell-opportunity-to-cut-black-friday-line-326118.php

$$$???

No, and that's the real problem, isn't it. People are happy to use the whole "EVERYONE NEEDS A DAY OF REST, SPEND IT W/ YR FAMILY" arguments like they cancel out religion -- for instance in Bergen County, NJ where the GARDEN STATE PLAZA, this fookin massive mall, is closed on Sun (thereby making every major road for miles in any direction IMPASSABLE on Saturdays because EVERYONE has to go RIGHT THEN), but it's not even the proscribed "day of rest" for an increasing number of NJ residents.

-- Laurel, Friday, November 23, 2007 5:02 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Link

Laurel have you been to the Costco in Hackensack? They let you buy food and essentials but all the clothing and electronics and such are roped off on Sunday. A bizarre resonance of this is that the string around those areas reminds me of that Orthodox Jewish string that's used to section off areas in which sabbath rules don't apply (I forget the name), which is especially funny since the people most affected by the blue laws are Bergen County's large population of Orthodox Jews.

The only law I know about being invalidated by the eruv is the prohibition against carrying objects outside your home. I think symbolically it makes everything encircled into one household? So you can, like, carry an umbrella (I guess) or carry your children to shul or push a stroller or whatever. Otherwise if yr kids can't walk there, someone has to stay home with them.

Yeah, that sounds right. Anyway, I just thought it was funny that the string that keeps Jews from buying certain stuff on Sunday looked like a reverse eruv.

They use velvet ropes and chains down here in the South on Sundays.

Only in the beer aisle, tho'.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/11/28/2008-11-28_worker_dies_at_long_island_walmart_after.html

Worker dies at Long Island Wal-Mart after being trampled in Black Friday stampede
BY JOE GOULD
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Updated Friday, November 28th 2008, 11:20 AM

A Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island store Friday morning, police and witnesses said.

The 34-year-old worker, employed as an overnight stock clerk, tried to hold back the unruly crowds just after the Valley Stream store opened at 5 a.m.

Witnesses said the surging throngs of shoppers knocked the man down. He fell and was stepped on. As he gasped for air, shoppers ran over and around him...

horrifying

I can totally imagine the look that would be on this commenter's face if he were saying this to you in person:

When I only heard that this happened at a Long Island Walmart, I just knew it had to be the Valley Stream store. To those who don't know the area, the customers at this Walmart and the adjacent Green Acres Mall are predominantly residents of southeastern Queens, so the demographics of Valley Stream do not provide an accurate portrayal of who was most likely in that crowd of savages. For a little perspective on what it's like in that area, the movie theater outside Green Acres had to install metal detectors because of a shooting a few years ago. You can read between the lines and draw your own conclusions.

Jesus, a quick meander thru Youtube has walmart/best buy black friday stampede & riot vids from the last 3 years from across the country, including one from 2005 where a lady did fall in the initial rush and had to be helped out by EMTs

I worked at Walmart on one Black Friday and it was the worse day of work I've ever had in my life. And I've been threatened by crackheads at one of my other jobs!

Buy Nothing Day I never heard of until now. I'm all for not leaving the house and spending money but going to stores to protest/harass workers is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of.

That's so tragic because it's so stupid...and yet at 2 PM today, I went to Wal-mart because I had to get an ironing board before traveling tomorrow, and it was just like any other normal day.

buy nothing day is right up there with gas boycotts as some of the dumbest, most ineffectual shit ever

I get the critique of BND as smug middle class activists taking out their self-righteous alienation angst on low-paid clerks. But if it's targeted at people with expendable income, ie yuppies, I don't mind it so much. It's worth pointing out the madness of a stampede at a Wal-Mart not to take food to feed people but pay $599 for a widescreen HDTV, esp. at a time when the world economic system is collapsing mostly because Americans buy shit we can't afford.

some sweet deals out there

2 shot dead at Toys 'r Us in CA. Black Friday neatly encapsulates much that is wrong with this country.

I get the critique of BND as smug middle class activists taking out their self-righteous alienation angst on low-paid clerks. But if it's targeted at people with expendable income, ie yuppies, I don't mind it so much. It's worth pointing out the madness of a stampede at a Wal-Mart not to take food to feed people but pay $599 for a widescreen HDTV, esp. at a time when the world economic system is collapsing mostly because Americans buy shit we can't afford.

Yeah, I agree with all of this. I'd also like to see more targeting of high-class commodity fetishism -- so much needless luxury gets masked as "eco-friendly" "healthy" and "ethical."

good luck combating smugness

buying an LCD TV is actually good for both you and the environment! of course I wouldn't nec advocate buying a replacement tv just for the hell of it without some plan to freecycle any working equipment.

http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/PUB/LCD_vs_CRT_AH.pdf

Black Friday neatly encapsulates much that is wrong with this country species.

No I think it's mostly just us.

BLAME AMERICA FIRST

I can totally imagine the look that would be on this commenter's face if he were saying this to you in person:

When I only heard that this happened at a Long Island Walmart, I just knew it had to be the Valley Stream store. To those who don't know the area, the customers at this Walmart and the adjacent Green Acres Mall are predominantly residents of southeastern Queens, so the demographics of Valley Stream do not provide an accurate portrayal of who was most likely in that crowd of savages. For a little perspective on what it's like in that area, the movie theater outside Green Acres had to install metal detectors because of a shooting a few years ago. You can read between the lines and draw your own conclusions.

― nabisco, Friday, November 28, 2008 9:08 AM (14 hours ago) Bookmark

this commenter is more or less right about the customer base of the green acres mall, although nobody but a troll would use a word like "savages."

buying an LCD TV is actually good for both you and the environment

that may be true if you're choosing among new equipment and displays of equal size (your link refers to computer monitors), but the UCS says:

While display technology has become more efficient over the years—liquid-crystal display (LCD) technology uses less energy per square inch than older cathode-ray tube (CRT) technology—energy use increases with screen size regardless of the technology. Some of today’s HDTVs, as a matter of fact, can consume more electricity in a year than a refrigerator.

my understanding is that my ancient LCD (don't think more than 20") will consume less energy than a new model, in no small part because it doesn't go into sleep mode when I hit the power button the way many/most new tvs would.

Although Energy Star's new methods of measuring energy efficiency are more useful to consumers, it can still be hard to tell how the HDTV is going to impact your electric bill. Liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions draw much less power than similarly sized cathode ray tube (CRT) sets, but most people replace their old tube sets with much larger flat panel TVs. Doubling or tripling the screen size cancels out potential energy savings.

According to Energy Star, a typical 42-inch LCD television draws nearly four times as much power as a CRT television under 30 inches—the kind of TV most consumers are looking to replace.

http://www.wapa.gov/ES/pubs/esb/2008/nov/nov084.htm

Most people are not like you, replacing their old TV sets with "similar-sized LCD units." They are buying 42-to 47-inch units. Bigger image, greater resolution —using more power than the old TV you used to have. EPRI's estimate, based on its own test data, was that a new big-screen LCD TV would consume 350 to 400 kilowatt-hours per year, compared with 200 kWh for an old-fashioned tube.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/beyond-the-barrel/2008/1/17/seeking-an-energy-efficient-tv-yes-its-confusing.html

why does us news & world report hate america

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=monitors.lcd

haha whoops there I go talking about the totally different problem of computer monitors instead of televisions

the range of monitor size, and therefore energy use, is far greater for TVs for most consumers, than it is for computer monitors

Credit card companies have been working overtime, judging from the mail I and my friends have received. I think there was a moment during the bailout mania where CC companies found a reason to sign up a ton more people and went ahead and did it. So that contributed to Black Friday, as well as that great post-9/11 meme of "A good American is a good consumer". You know, cos if you're a real patriot and not some commie scum you're going to want this new Philips 50" plasma screen.

Support the troops, the ones that charge into Walmart.

my understanding is that my ancient LCD (don't think more than 20") will consume less energy than a new model,

i meant CRT, of course

But on the run-up, Newsday offered a "Black Friday blueprint," with store openings listed so shoppers could plot strategy, including noting that at 5 a.m., the Green Acres Wal-Mart would open and customers could expect to buy a 42-inch LCD television for $598. Many continued to pursue that particular bargain even as Mr. Damour lay dying.

I take it all back.

"I didn't know him, I didn't kill him, where's that dang ol' TV."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/nyregion/30walmart.html

“It was crazy,” said a worker in the electronics department who was in the store during the stampede. “The deals weren’t even that good.”

Soooo, he wouldn't buy that for a dollar?

In this week's City Pages, GM dealership ad: "Savings worth getting trampled over."

that's some seriously callous shit there.

oh my god

So if you can't skip work for the general strike on May 1, can you avoid buying stuff?