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Thursday, November 23, 2006
Exorcise the Consumer Within: Buy Nothing Day!
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
Here is a full press release from AdBusters about Buy Nothing Day:
THE ULTIMATE REFUND: On November 24th and 25th – the busiest days in the American retail calendar and the unofficial start of the international Christmas-shopping season – thousands of activists and concerned citizens in 65 countries will take a 24-hour consumer detox as part of the 14th annual Buy Nothing Day, a global phenomenon that originated in Vancouver, Canada.
From joining zombie marches through malls to organizing credit card cut-ups and shopoholic clinics, Buy Nothing Day activists aim to challenge themselves, their families and their friends to switch off from shopping and tune back into life for one day. Featured in recent years by the likes of CNN, Wired, the BBC, and the CBC, the global event is celebrated as a relaxed family holiday, as a non-commercial street party, or even as a politically charged public protest. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending.
Reasons for participating in Buy Nothing Day are as varied as the people who choose to participate. Some see it as an escape from the marketing mind games and frantic consumer binge that has come to characterize the holiday season, and our culture in general. Others use it to expose the environmental and ethical consequences of overconsumption.
Two recent, high-profile disaster warnings outline the sudden urgency of our dilemma. First, in October, a global warming report by economist Sir Nicholas Stern predicted that climate change will lead to the most massive and widest-ranging market failure the world has ever seen. Soon after, a major study published in the journal Science forecast the near-total collapse of global fisheries within 40 years.
Kalle Lasn, co-founder of the Adbusters Media Foundation, which was responsible for turning Buy Nothing Day into an international annual event, said, “Our headlong plunge into ecological collapse requires a profound shift in the way we see things. Driving hybrid cars and limiting industrial emissions is great, but they are band-aid solutions if we don’t address the core problem: we have to consume less. This is the message of Buy Nothing Day.”
As Lasn suggests, Buy Nothing Day isn’t just about changing your habits for one day. It’s about starting a lasting lifestyle commitment to consuming less and producing less waste. With six billion people on the planet, the onus if on the most affluent – the upper 20% that consumes 80% of the world’s resources – to begin setting the example.
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23 Nov 2006 at 06:59 am | #
Check out Rev. Billy with a cash register exorcism:
http://www.revbilly.com/media/detail.php?id=105
23 Nov 2006 at 08:56 am | #
Great idea and I had already committed to not being a part of the mindless pack. It would be good to follow-up with a buy independent, or as close to independent as possible, day and finally habit. Small, independent businesses like music (Shake It, Everybody’s Records) and book stores, theatres (Esquire), grocers (Trader Joe’s, Findlay Market, local farmer’s markets) and butchers, restaurants, hairdressers (Taylor Jameson), beauty supply stores, buying used, e-bay and other auctions, recycling and trading goods, small chains instead of large (Trader Joe’s, Half Price Books) are all great ways to keep some of that cash out of the machine. The mall should be utilized as the last, not the first choice.
23 Nov 2006 at 12:26 pm | #
trader joe’s? independent? huh?
23 Nov 2006 at 04:29 pm | #
I’ll be recovering from Traditional annual Thanksgiving Day football game, the past few years the children have made the game competitive, but damn, the grandchildren been getin’ quicker every year!
23 Nov 2006 at 05:50 pm | #
Trader Joe’s has a limited number of stores, carries fair trade products and is rated as one of the best employer’s in the country. Also carries many hormone and preservative-free tasty products at a reasonable price--not like Wild Oats or Fresh Market. That’s enough for me to choose it over Kroger’s or any of the other chains.
23 Nov 2006 at 10:57 pm | #
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_17/b3880010.htm
Dude, Trader Joe’s is a subsidiary of ALDI, which is like a cross between WalMart and The Dollar Store. It’s family-owned, just by the Albrechts.
The prices are reasonable because the food’s totally neither organic nor fair-trade. Like at WalMart, it’s just the same stuff rebranded.
Kroger’s is union. Kroger’s is local. Shopping at Kroger’s supports the local economy and (directly) the workers, whose CBA is determined by and large by local margins.
24 Nov 2006 at 01:51 am | #
"independent chains.” That’s a new one. Love it when Sue waxes moronic.
24 Nov 2006 at 09:05 am | #
And love it equally as well when White Power unfailingly and predictably shows his ignorant ass. You represent your ilk well, White.
24 Nov 2006 at 09:51 am | #
http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/rs/profile.cfm?id=300
Trader Joe’s is a reliable source for organic foods and other natural products, often beating out the competition in terms of prices as well. While the company adheres to high standards in its industry, there remains room for improvement. Trader Joe’s carries some Fair Trade products but does little to educate consumers about the importance of fair trade. Trader Joe’s is already leading other food retailers in the phase-out of GMOs, carrying only cage-free hen eggs and not testing on animals.
24 Nov 2006 at 12:54 pm | #
Kroger, Wal Mart, Home Depot, McDonalds, and Bob Evans are the leaders in the state for having employees on public assistance. I avoid shopping at the places that rely on the taxpayers to improve their bottom line. Saying Kroger is local is as false as saying P&G is local. Granted, they do employ people but I wish they would it with more focus on social responsibility.
24 Nov 2006 at 01:07 pm | #
Getting off the consumer hamster wheel is undoubtably the most effectively subversive activity an American can engage in. Remember, immediately post-9/11, before anyone had a chance to start spinning and getting talking points together, the first thing Bushie told us all to do was to keep buying stuff. That, he knew, was our primary patriotic duty. The house of cards collapses if we stop consuming.
I’m buying nothing today.
24 Nov 2006 at 05:51 pm | #
I need a external hard drive for my computer. Staples had a “Door Buster” sale on a Western Digital 400 gig for $99 today. Are you saying I should of waited and paid $250 for it tomorrow? That makes no sense.
25 Nov 2006 at 09:37 am | #
I think the buy nothing day is an empty gesture really. not that i like capitalism that much. but i think these types of things only really hit it home with those who already have an anti establishment mentality. its not something that really converts the non believers, just those who are already trying to bring down the man. these people dont really amount to a force that is going to bring any significant detriment to retailers on black friday.
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http://www.peoplesfurniture.net
25 Nov 2006 at 11:06 am | #
Greg, you are supposed to reflect on why you think you need to consume so much.
25 Nov 2006 at 11:24 am | #
You’re right. I’ll do reflecting. I could of gotten away with a 250 gig hard drive but the 400 was only 30 bucks more. Apparently my priorities are all messed up.
25 Nov 2006 at 01:40 pm | #
Nothing worries a drug dealer more than an addict cleaning up. That’s the point of Buy Nothing Day.
That sounded very Christmas-special, didn’t well. Well, I bought coffee and cigarettes and drank scotch on buy nothing day, so there ya go.