Today is “Buy Nothing Day,” designed to highlight how all-emcompassing our consumer culture really is. And I intend to observe it — after all, I’ve been on a buying binge for a few weeks now. So today, nothing. Not a magazine or cup of coffee or major appliance.
Of course, the fact that it falls on “Black Friday” really is wonderful, because there’s nothing so horrifying to me than to go shopping on the one day when everyone else goes shopping.
I can’t really understand why everyone goes shopping today, when they know that the crowds will be insane, the parking non-existent, and the prices will not be any better than the prices closer to Christmas.
Anyway, I’m going to do all my shopping online this year, since it all has to be shipped back east.
So, to sum up: no purchasing anything today. This is a day to stay home alone after a day surrounded by people. A day to relax. And balance my checkbook.
I knew it was Buy Nothing day and I refused to shop but I didn’t know it was buy <i>nothing<i>day? I did get a Mocha on the way to work and a Diet Coke at work. I might be ok? They were not on sale and there were no lines.
The letter and spirit of the day says to buy nothing — not even snacks. That said, it is almost impossible to buy nothing at all, when you consider that in that one day my refrigerator was running and I had my television on (paying for cable TV and electricity); washed clothes, dishes, and took a shower (paying for water and gas to heat it). Every day we are consumers on some level, and because we’re Americans we generally are heavy consumers as well. Yes, my washer consumed very little water yesterday because it is so efficient; but my plasma television sucked down the kilowatts.