Black Friday is a recent consumer sales hype adapted from North America which takes place after Thanksgiving Day (the last Thursday in November) despite the fact that the UK does not even celebrate Thanksgiving.
Buy Nothing Day is an annual event in Britain to highlight the issues around consumerism, especially in the lead-up to the festive season. It’s a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life!
To mark Buy Nothing Day in the City of Southampton, this Black Friday, the Art House Café is partnering with Curb, The Real Junk Food Project, Clothes Swap and Books for Free!
They will be taking over The Art House until 6pm on the 25 November, offering food on a pay-as-you-feel basis, clothes to swap or pay-as-you-feel and books by donation!
Food will be available until it runs out – a big part of waste reduction is challenging the notion that there is always ‘plenty’. Be sure you get a plateful of delicious nosh made from food diverted from landfill.
Drop in any time to enjoy some nosh, swap your clothes, pick up a book and have a chat about the ways you can reduce waste in your own home.
178 Above Bar Street, Southampton, Hampshire, UK SO14 7DW
Copyright © 2016 The Art House Southampton CIC, All rights reserved.
SNIPS & SNAPS 
A nice antidote to unrestrained consumerism.
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Isn’t it!
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I’m already annoyed by all the Black Friday emails in my inbox. I loathe the assumption that I’m willing to be forced to participate in something that has no meaning in this country and exists solely, on both sides of the Atlantic, for commercial gain.
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Luckily I didn’t get many as I clear out my cookies on a daily basis
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Sensible
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With the latest version of the Firefox browser, you can choose to clear all your cookies and cache, every time you close Firefox.
Yes it does slow webpage loading by a few milliseconds every time you restart your browser, but in the end, I think, it’s safer.
Of course, it depends upon which sites you visit.
As a researcher, I spend a lot of time going to sites that I don’t know are trustworthy or not — as opposed to people that typically visit only trusted sites, regularly.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/new/
Cheers! JBS
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That is useful information thanks JBS
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I deal with Black Friday in the best way possible. I ignore it.
There is a lovely sign of hope on this side of the pond. REI, one of the biggest outdoor outfitters in the country, has dubbed it “Green Friday,” and is giving all of its employees the day off to enjoy the outdoors with their family and friends. Several sites around here have been placed on their list of suggestions. It’s just a wonderful gesture, and people certainly have paid attention — approvingly. They did it last year, too.
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That is fantastic! I hope that catches on here too!
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Cool idea!
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I’m totally ignoring Black Friday, and will be buying nothing today! The Art House Cafe project sounds amazing.
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Me too!
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What a brilliant idea. I wish I could just nip over there to support the effort. My own area has been in a frenzy of shopping or preparing to shop or just getting in my way everywhere I go this week. I have never knowingly bought stuff on Black Friday, having an innate suspicion of reduced prices by shops and stores. My cynicism usually stands me in good stead at sales times which I also manage to resist. I was in Chichester for the theatre yesterday and I noticed that two shops had packed railings of goods that I am sure is stuff that was unsalable either last year or earlier this year, or else brought in for the occasion. ‘appy ‘holidays.
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People seem to be consuming less – less is more as they say.
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A great idea. Yesterday in New Zealand I went to get some groceries and there were “Black Friday” promotions all over town. No Thanksgiving however, of course, but commercial opportunities!
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Thanks for letting us know, Bruce, I was wondering if it had reached New Zealand.
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Consumerism, as you put it, has both its good and bad sides. With greater selection, we can find the vitamins and minerals we need for our bodies; find the assistive and medical products and pharma which aid recovery from illness, thereby extending our lives; transport ourselves and the products we need to greater distances, thereby reaching more people. While it can add to unnecessary waste, let’s meet better goals with care and realism. We can still be better stewards without throwing out “consumerism” with the bath-water. It’s not the evil behemoth you choose to entirely make it. Unless you plant, pick, spin cotton and sew your own clothes;
raise, shear and spin sheeps’ wool for blankets and sweaters; plant and pick your own fruits and veggies; milk your own goats or cows; mine, smelt, and smythe your own iron ore and metals for nails and
tools; chop and plane your own timber, or quarry your own stone for homes; methinks the hypocrisy is rather evident in such movements and statements. If you look down and see storebought clothes (even hand-me-downs or second-hand) and shoes on your body; look around and see storebought appliances, accoutrements and conveniences around your home, than I think it needs to be addressed as hypocrisy. Not that we can’t streamline for efficiency and improve wasteful practices and products. Music, fine art, film, sculpture — art is BIG business; some of the BIGGEST. A hand-thrown, kiln-fired soapdish might be more spiritually satisfying than a commercially mass-produced one, but that latter was still designed by an artist, though more industrialized. Businesses and art ventures both receive grant money at times; but why should either receive free labor, in the forms of “volunteers” for non-profits, or “interns” for business? Why does this venue, like the one you’ve
featured here (whose menu is right up my alley), deserve nob-profit status to avoid paying for all labor it might receive, when “xyz” restaurant and tavern also hires live musicians, and therefore contributes to artistic expression, but still must pay every single person that works in the establishment? If that art venue isn’t viable, should it continue with public grant funds, when commercial ventures are allowed to fail as the marketplace dictates? So, I hope everyone’ll look at the issues in a rational fashion, rather than respond to trending “feel-good” topics, and see whether what they say matches the true realities at-hand. Thanks. Good post.
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And thank you – good reply.
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Hi Randyjw,
While I agree many of your points, it *also* seems hypocritical to me that store owners attempt to cash-in on Holidays (which are sacred to some, but admittedly, not to others) and milking America’s original Pilgrims for all they are worth for the sake of monetary gain.
The same holds true for other Holidays, such as Christmas (which, again, is sacred to some, but not to others) where milking God, Jesus, Mary, and people’s feelings of goodwill for more Almighties (the Almighty dollar) is quite common. Really, what have shopping sprees and excess debt, to say nothing of Santa Claus and flying reindeer, got to do with the life and example of Jesus? (And that can hold true whether Jesus was a real man and really did those things — or whether it’s an allegorical story that we’ve adopted and benefitted from, for those who don’t believe that Jesus actually lived)
Just on principle (and I’m not religious, as I usually attend church about once per decade) I don’t buy things on Black Friday, nor anywhere near Christmas, nor Easter. That is the extent of my protest against hypocritical shop owners that ‘use’ the Holidays, and ‘use’ people’s feelings of goodwill, to make themselves richer.
There is nothing wrong with making money, far from it! But using people in that way, to get richer, *nearly* crosses a boundary. At least in my opinion.
Cheers! JBS
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I love this! Hate all the Americanisms that this country seems to be adopting and the crass consumerism. I vote for Buy Nothing Friday!
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Thanks and hello Karen!
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What a lovely idea.
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Superb
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Thanks Derrick
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What a great idea! I did buy something yesterday, but it was from a charity shop…does that count?
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That is great – because it is about helping charity while recycling something someone has no use for. If I need anything I always look in charity shops first. My daughter dislikes going in them but when she asks what I want as a gift – I always say something from a charity shop. If I don’t like it then I can always donate it back so that’s a gift given more than once.
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First up, let’s ban Hallowe’en. When I was a young ‘un (a long time ago) Hallowe’en was a fun time when we bobbed for apples (newly in the shops as we ate seasonal stuff then), roasted chestnuts, cracked nuts, played games which always had a ghost somewhere in them, and next day visited our dead relatives to lay flowers on their graves. Even the latter was fun as the deaths didn’t really register on us. No trick or treat, no annoying the neighbours.
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I remember it like that too. We carved out turnips to make them into lanterns to put on graves.
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Ah, yes. I forgot the turnip carving for lanterns. Nowadays they can buy the pumpkins (another American import) already carved, or the plastic equivalent with bulbs inside them. I admire progress and believe in evolution, but honestly, I do think today’s children are missing out by not ‘learning by doing’ something as simple as making their own playthings. Or am I just another old misery-guts!
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Southampton seems a good place to be on Buy Nothing Friday. I did indeed by nothing, but I liked the Civilised Saturday going on at our local independent bookshop: loiter, browse, choose in friendly, unpressurised environment. Save a few pence at Amazon when there’s a local retailer offering good hints and a friendly service? Not me!
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Agree. We’ve got a “Buy from the small independents” next Saturday when there are special offers,10% discounts and free coffees and mince pies. I’m all for it.
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I’ve never heard of this but what a wonderful idea, I hope it expands.
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Thanks for your comment loi
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