If so, you might consider taking part in Buy Nothing Day instead.

Now in it’s 24th year Buy Nothing Day was the brainchild of Vancouver-based artist Ted Dave, who conceived it as a “day for society to examine the issue of over-consumption.”

Since 1997 its been held on the same day as Black Friday, in a pointed response to advertisers’ efforts encouraging consumers to spend more – and there are now associated campaigns in dozens of countries across the world.

The UK website for Buy Nothing Day says: “The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from buying stuff – anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!

“Instead of shopping people around the world will take part in a 24 hour moratorium on consuming, either as a personal experiment or public statement.

“The anarchy that ensues on Black Friday has now become an absurd dystopian phenomenon … Black Friday sucks the life out of small businesses, who cannot compete against this ruthless price cutting. If you really need to shop on Buy Nothing Day, ignore the big retailers … make a commitment to support local independent shops and businesses.”

Black Friday was virtually unknown in the UK before 2010, but has quickly become Britain’s biggest shopping day. In 2015 approximately £2bn spent in shops and online over the 24 hour period.

Greenpeace has said it ‘supports the message of Buy Nothing Day’, and is using the day to raise awareness of the environmental impact of the fashion industry.

Dr. Kirsten Brodde of Greenpeace Germany writes: “Because it is so cheap, fast fashion is one of the highest selling product categories on Black Friday, with many major fashion brands and retail giants jumping on the bandwagon.

“Greenpeace has shown that fashion production uses lots of precious fresh water and pollutes rivers and seas with toxic chemicals, long before it hits the shelves. We are also consuming and trashing clothing at a far higher rate than our planet can handle.

“Today’s trends are tomorrow’s trash. The only solution is to reduce our levels of consumption. It could be as simple as taking a break from shopping on Black Friday to participate in global Buy Nothing Day.

The Buy Nothing Day website says the day “isn’t about changing your lifestyle for just one day – we want it to be a lasting relationship or maybe a life changing experience! “We want people to make a commitment to shopping less and living more.”

source: The Telegraph

Black Friday Facts:

When is it? It always falls on the Friday after Thanksgiving in the USA. This year however Amazon launched its Black Friday deals 13 days early.

Where did it come from? Used to describe a pre-Christmas day of commercial carnage the term originates from Philadelphia USA, in the 1950s.

When did it appear in Britain? Online retail giant Amazon introduced the concept to the UK in 2010. Asda, owned by America’s biggest retailer, Walmart followed suit in 2013.

How much money is spent? It’s become the biggest shopping day in Britain, with approximately 1.1bn pounds spent online in just 24 hours. 

Some sources state that the term originated in Philadelphia, used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic that would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. An alternative explanation is that retailers traditionally operated at a financial loss (“in the red“) from January through November, and “Black Friday” indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or “in the black“.

For many years, it was common for retailers to open at 6:00 a.m., but in the late 2000s many had crept to 5:00 or even 4:00. This was taken to a new extreme in 2011, when several retailers (including Target, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Best Buy, and Bealls opened at midnight for the first time.

There have been reports of violence occurring between shoppers on Black Friday. Since 2006, there have been 7 reported deaths and 98 injuries throughout the United States. It is common for prospective shoppers to camp out over the Thanksgiving holiday in an effort to secure a place in front of the line for a better chance at getting desired items.

Some interesting facts:

Americans spend more time shopping on Thanksgiving weekend than they do visiting Disney hot spots.

Many stores hold Black Friday sales all weekend, and for those shoppers who’d rather not venture into a store at all, there are plenty of deals to be found online. The Monday after Thanksgiving weekend was first given the name “Cyber Monday” in 2005 by Shop.org, and has since become a nearly as important to retailers as Black Friday.

Some deals are not really deals at all. A new study shows that 14 percent of products will have prices on Black Friday similar to their normal in-store costs, while 17 percent of items will be more expensive on the shopping holiday than they are on Amazon. Books, movies and music have the best bargain prices on Black Friday, while furniture and jewelry are discounted the least, according to the study.

The shopping holiday is famous for people looking for deals on inexpensive technology or gadgets like TVs or Xbox game consoles, but low-cost items and household basics are big sellers during Black Friday. Pajamas are a big seller, too. Some locations sell out of pajamas and other household items.

Retailers in other countries have watched U.S. stores generate huge sales on Black Friday and have started offering their own deals the day after Thanksgiving — even if they don’t celebrate turkey day.

According to ShopAdvisor, which tracked Black Friday prices for 6,000 items in 2013, the average discount is only about 5 percent — far less than just before Christmas, when discounts can reach 17.5 percent. In fact, the Saturday before Christmas — not Black Friday — is the biggest shopping day of the year for many retailers, both brick-and-mortar and online. So big, in fact, that some have started calling it Super Saturday.

It’s Black Friday – the biggest shopping day of the year. We’ll have all the bargains, special offers and scraps as shoppers scramble to get the best deals.

Millions of bargain hunters are flooding stores to snap up their Black Friday deals – causing mayhem throughout the country. Arrests have already been made as shoppers battle over the best bargains in supermarkets which opened at midnight. Police have been called to stores in Manchester, Cardiff, Birmingham and London amid fears of crowd surges. Shoppers described scenes of “carnage” as people scrambled for the best deals.

Greater Manchester Police said at least two people have been arrested at Black Friday sales events already this morning. Officers attended a store on Excelsior Road in Cardiff twice after midnight over concerns about “customer conduct.” A woman suffered minor injuries after being hit by a falling television in Stretford and an ambulance was called. The Tesco store at Ellesmere Shopping Centre in Walkden was closed down after a crowd of more than 500 people attended.

www.mirror.co.uk

Fill in the gaps with the right words from the table.

1. The river ………………. the town last May.

2. Luckily, the driver only suffered ………………. .

3. Look what I bought! It was a real ………………. .

4. People ………………. to get on the train and someone fell on the tracks.

5. The little girl couldn’t find her parents in the ………………. .

answers: 1-flooded 2-minor injuries 3-bargain 4-scrambled 5-crowd