24 November 2007

Black Friday/Buy Nothing Day

Being out of the country, I completely forgot that yesterday was my least favorite day of the year: Black Friday (or as I call it and I hope you do too: Buy Nothing Day).

This year I'm thankful that I didn't have to hear news stories about people lining up at Walmart at 4am so they could trample over each other at 5am in an effort to buy a flat-screen TV or new video game console at a low price; attempts that will give them a momentary feeling of false accomplishment, followed a month later by a few moments of misguided happiness, followed by another year of emptiness.

I know it's callous but I really hate Black Friday and retail therapy and the giving of gifts as an alternative or perceived supplement to investing real time and energy towards the most important relationships.

Ok, getting off the soapbox now.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your losing touch with the good old US of A - this year stores were opening at 4 am - and Best Buy opened at midnight! Really is pretty nauseating. One more benefit of living in London? It will be interesting to see how Londoners celebrate the holidays.

Nathan said...

Adbusters was calling it "Buy Nothing Day" as well.

http://adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/