Those of us in the U.S. are wrapping up our work weeks today to spend tomorrow with friends and family, gathered around big home cooked meals and giving thanks.
Yes, I know that the history of this particular holiday is not nearly as charming as our children’s schoolbooks portray, but for many, the gathering isn’t about participating in a fabricated historical tale, but is about pausing in our hectic lives and honestly sincerely giving thanks for those things which make our lives sweeter throughout the year: our friends, our family, our community and our work to make world a better place.
Unfortunately, many people across the country leave their home Thanksgiving night to sleep in cold parking lots and line up at stores to participate in the consumer frenzy known as Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. Retailers know that the Friday after Thanksgiving is the only weekday that many people will have off from work until Christmas, so they widely advertise rock bottom prices to lure people away from their friends and families to go shopping. Adbusters has declared November 27th in the U.S. and 28 November internationally Buy Nothing Day and calls upon us all to restrain from holiday shopping, or from any shopping as well as to unplug our TVs, leave the cars in the garage, and “from sunrise through sunset, we’ll abstain en masse, not only from holiday shopping, but from all the temptations of our five-planet lifestyles.”
Last year’s Black Friday hit a new low.
Jdimytai Damour, a 34 year old man from Haiti, was working as a temporary worker at a Wal-Mart in New York State. At 5:00 am, when the store was scheduled to open, the crowd of shoppers who had been waiting in line in the cold for up to 8 hours, stormed the door and trampled Jdimytai to death.
I think of Jdimytai with every advertisement that I’ve seen urging me to go shopping early on Friday morning. And I’ll be thinking of him as I instead linger around our dinner table, crowded with friends, and when I spend a welcome Friday off of work playing board games and making art projects with the kids and doing any number of things that will be infinitely more fun than sleeping in a cold parking lot to be first in line at the mall.
I hope you’ll do the same.
Happy Thanksgiving.
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November 25th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Thank you for this, I’ll be doing the same.
November 27th, 2009 at 4:01 am
I am suprised that there are no comments to this truly disturbing story. I live in a small town in Africa and am therefore not exposed to this level of consumerism. I had never heard of Black Friday and I find it very very disturbing.
Americans (mostly) need to change! The Climate Change issue has exposed this ugly culture of entitlement, over consumption, greed and consumerism. The victims of this culture won’t be the average American, they will be people from poor developing countries who have already had so much taken away from them and now they have the worst effects of climate change to deal with.
Perhaps they should start by getting back to the basics. Don’t use TV as a baby sitter (or let them watch any TV). If your child watches TV ads, he will be hooked for life from when he is about two and will be able to recognise brand names and major stores. You will be rewarded in more ways than you can imagine. When your children are still young, make them appreciate nature and quiet moments. Perhaps then, like the author, they will also start to make connections about where all the stuff is going? If you can’t change yourself,at least give your childen a chance before there isn’t anything left for them to appreciate.
I guess people who these comments are aimed at don’t necessarily visit webpages such as these.
November 28th, 2009 at 12:49 am
I stumbled upon this website and I’m thrilled! I intend to show your “Stuff” video to my middle grade students, possibly this upcoming week.
I also thought about Jdimytai Damour yesterday when I saw a newscast of people lining up in front of a retail store in anticipation of its 3:00 a.m. opening. I deliberately stayed away from the mall today.
Thank you for your good work.
November 28th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Thanks Annie, I wonder how many people know about Mr. Damour. It definitely gets me thinking on the long term consequences that a day of shopping frenzy can have on our mindset and culture as a whole. I’m sure there are tons of stories out there about shoppers gone mad, who would do anything to get that TV or that one toy for their child. (It’s gotta be somewhere on the Internet right?)
I would love to see Story of Stuff help the world brainstorm on ways which we could live more sustainably on this day and help get our culture on track. “Buy Nothing Day” has got me thinking: how do we transform a day such as Christmas, which is less about stuff and more about us? Families are now accustomed to making this the ultimate day of stuff. Some would say they’re almost bound by it. And if Christmas can’t change, how can we expect “Black Friday” to be adopted on a more massive scale, since many consumers are shopping for their families as well (supposedly)?
I was happy to know that “Black Friday” is the same day as the National Day of Listening, which encourages families to interview each other on their lives. Do you think “Story of Stuff” can help gather some stories on ways that families are celebrating Christmas, minus the stuff? Always good to think ahead
November 29th, 2009 at 2:12 am
I was living in Morocco when i first heard about Mr. Damour and was horrified to call myself American. I returned to the states only days ago and can’t believe I lived among this crazy consumerism for so many years. I have never shopped on black friday and never intend to. keep up the great work!
November 29th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
May Mr Damour rest in peace, it is true more should know about this story, I will inform those i know.
Thank you for posting this site Annie, i watched the ’story of stuff’ and was pleased that you ended it on positive note. That we can still do something about the situation which affects every single one of us so that today and in the future nobody gets hurt, bringing us together in peace.
I have never been one for planned obsolescence i still love listening to cassettes and i love old cameras from charity shops and things.
Though to be honest aside from stuff, time with a good friend or my family is the best. Last week I went to the park with a friend and looked at the view, we sat in silence in awe for hours, lets keep our planet beautiful! XXX
November 29th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Annie,
I heard about this atrocity on the news last year. However, seeing Mr. Damour’s face here makes it more impactful. I wish the media had shown this beautiful young man’s face when reporting this story last year. As grieved as I am now, I believe it might have left more of an impression on the masses.
Also, I just viewed your video on “stuff” for the first time as we ate Thanksgiving leftovers with my husband and two teen children. I want to thank you for a job well done. I must admit, this whole area is very new to me, but I find myself under serious conviction to begin to move toward a soltion rather than wait for someone else to do it. I have always felt that Black Friday was nothing more than a frenzy of consumerism driven by the retail industry. I have always historically refused to take part in it. Sadly, though, I must admit that I am one of those consumers all the other days of the year.
I would like to try to contribute toward change in our sociey rather than continue consuming blindly without regard to the implications. However, sometimes I wonder if this is simply too big for me. I wonder if others ever feel that way too. I wonder if I can even get my family on board. Annie, your work inspires me to keep trying. I am always looking for good resources to help my husband and teen children not only understand the criticality of the current state of affairs but also the need to take calculated steps toward changes. Can you suggest any other resource that might appeal to teens?
Unfortunately, they have been exposed to the media on a regular basis which seems to have already captured their attention. However, I have always spoken honestly about how the media operates and that there is always a hidden cost to every offer or attraction. I now realize that this will simplly not be enough to keep them from going down that same path I was deceived into taking.
Blessings on your work.
November 30th, 2009 at 5:34 am
I never even heard of Black Friday until last year, when a friend of mine was answering the question, “What is your favorite day of the year?”
I was thinking, “Huh? Is this like Kwaanza?” I am just not much of a shopper.
We don’t have TV (but have internet for the purpose of research) and we are not heavy consumers or packrats. We are often canning our own vegetables. Our problem is… RELATIVES! How to get them to stop the insanity? It used to be that after Christmas, my family would go back to the various “Stuff Marts” where the gifts came from and return the stuff for money… which we put into savings for the kids’ items and toward paying bills for my husband’s and mine. Oh, what junk we got. Anything we couldn’t return got donated to our local thrift shop. Which, by the way, is where we will often shop for clothing– nice stuff in there!
Well, I guess the relatives got the idea somewhat when they’d come over to visit and not see the various “stuffs” that were purchased for us in the house anywhere. We do have one extended family member with whom we give money to charities in each other’s names. Can’t get anyone else to do so. They think I’m a bad mother that I don’t give the kids all the latest gadgets (read: my children do not have their own cell phones, TVs, or computers, or–gasp–no video games!), but my kids don’t care about those things. They prefer nature, horses, dogs, playing board games with the family, learning skills, and just real life.
Oh, what do to about the relatives. Nearly all of them grew up “poor” and are trying to make it up with their own children, grandchildren, and/or great-grandchildren. And nieces and nephews. *sigh*
November 30th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Black Friday is an abomination in dire need of being outlawed. That this will never happen, is another story.
December 4th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Great blog to read thanks.
December 5th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Rest in peace Jdimytai Damour. Even before this,
I have never, and will never participate in these atrocious shopping fests for stuff no one needs to begin with. I can not stand listening to commericals(saying I need a product for xyz reasons) or worse the commercials aimed at children and then I have to hear “I want that.” It is not that I intend to deprive my children, rather I wish to curb their sense of entitlement to everything in the world as theirs for the taking, and worse, once the thrill is gone – disposing of with out a single care. To the people in other countries, allow this one person to apologize for the corporate mentality that continues to corrupt our global community. It is deeply sadening and shameful. We bare responsibility for our actions, thus must empower the movement towards global justice. Please know that there are many of us resisting, reducing, and peacefully advocating for change.
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:10 pm
I always have hard time trying to mix with friends who want to spend money on buying a coffee from starbucks or costa, when I know that we make better coffee at home for lesser money.
I always think going to cinema is a waste of money and no fun. The feeling that I always get when coming out of a cinema is not of happiness. It’s predominantly that of waste.
Indeed, simplicity of character impresses us human beings more than fashion and consumption.
January 5th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Thanx 4 helping raise awareness – more is needed to provide the info in the depressing topics in an attractive method to lure the needed interest. This is one of several that many have no clue as to what is happening and about to cause.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE!