Forum Post: Black Friday Boycott
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 22, 2011, 4:53 a.m. EST by outwrangle
(39)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Black Friday is coming up, so I propose that we have a nationwide general strike of consumerism on the one day of the year that is all about mindless consumption. Corporations rely on Black Friday to boost sales figures, so they are going to expect us to flock to their stores and buy their products. I say we give them a nasty surprise.
We have a golden opportunity to hit the big corporations where it hurts, and I don't think we should pass it up. Let's take a day that is all about consumption and make it our own, and let's make it loud and clear that we will not support the corporations that destroyed our economy and undermined our Republic.
What do you guys think? How should this Black Friday Boycott work?
EDIT Here's a rough promotional poster I made.
EDIT It seems that people think that boycotting all things on Black Friday may do more harm than good. I suggest that, instead of a "Buy Nothing Day" we have a "Buy Local Day." Instead of buying our friends and family a bunch of useless crap, let's instead go out and help the poor. Volunteer at soup kitchens and host toy drives and do the other charitable things that the government refuses to do. A season of giving instead of a season of buying.
EDIT It's spreading to the other forums now. I'm sensing momentum.
It would be great if we could get everyone with OWS to do this. Maybe it's as simple as making a pact? Use a website somewhere and set it up like a poll only it would ask: "Are you going to boycott Black Friday?" That way we could all get a sense of how many people plan to skip it... What do you think?
of course, we should all already be boycotting capitalism in general so as to accelerate our transition into and advanced civilization...
join us -- http://wesower.org
Hell yes. Save money too. That's not hard to do.
I think that's a great idea.
If anyone with the knowhow is willing to set it up they should go for it.
I don't have that ability, unfortunately. Maybe one of the people who set up www.TheMultitude.org would know how to do it?
I made a post over there with a poll attached. You'll have to sign in to vote though.
Tweet with the Hashtag #BoycottBlackFriday. They'll listen when it hurts their pocketbook.
It's the only thing they understand, for now. But I think they'll be getting a good schooling. ;p
a lot of people are saying its hard to boycott that day because of the great deals, but christmas deals are waaaay better, :) in all seriousness though we need to boycott a day that is important to retailers/general public to at least garner some attention
http://knockknockrevolution.tumblr.com/post/11573860774/why-occupy-wall-street-flyers please give these out to non occupiers to convert them!
Blackout Black Friday! Great idea.
I'll do it for sure. Don't have the money any how. lol
I will spread the word. Are there any businesses that have been helping OWS? I wouldn't want to involve them.
Boycott and Mass Protest at City Halls across America.
There's also the internet equivalent to it, Cyber Monday Boycott that too
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Cyber_Monday
Cyber Monday is a marketing term for the Monday immediately following Black Friday, the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, created by companies to persuade people to shop online. The term made its debut on November 28, 2005 in a Shop.org press release entitled "'Cyber Monday' Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year"....
Great idea.
BAM! Excellent idea. Buy local day, maybe even have a web space up to share what people are doing just for this, to exchange ideas on how to do meaningful things on that day, somewhere positive people can contribute to, so the rest of the country and the world can see what positive kind of world we're wanting, instead of just the protesting. I'm usually pretty negative about the whole damn corporate issue and state of the country/world, but this thread actually made me feel positively charged and well, festive. lol.
Husbands should just freeze their credit cards for the next two weeks, that'll stop a lot of the wasteful spending right there. =P
This is a consequence of buying cheap Chinese junk at WalMart:
http://www.chinasmack.com/2010/pictures/chinese-children-tied-up-while-parents-work-zhejiang.html
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/chinablue/film.html
very upsetting...hope all the billions are worth it...
Love it see my blog. http://overthecoals.blogspot.com/
I'm not hearing any news about a boycott today
Occupy Christmas! http://churchofatheism.webs.com
boycott credit cards and switch your bank accounts to credit unions. Most people won't switch to credit unions because the perceive the ATM< network to be not as prolific. That''s not true. Credit Unions have a great ATM network as big as the big banks...and if you have to use a big bank atm, a credit union will rebate back your fee that big bank charged you for using their atm.
I just facebooked the poster!
Holy crap!!! I KNEW someone else had to have come up with this idea!. Please contact me at hs4265@aol.com. I had the exact idea and posted it here. Even the same small business concept. I called free speech tv moveon.org, salon.com etc.
It should be relatively simple. Buy nothing on 25 November 2011, nothing
Turn off the TV, radio, and ignore the newspaper. Don't use a cell phone except for emergencies. The world needs to feel the impact.. If we do this once it will send the message loud and clear.. We can be pushed out of parks, but we can't be pushed into stores.
Agreed. Buy Local. Support the small businesses. They need it.
In full support but how do you reach those outside of OWS? Lets be honest, most OWS supporters are not big consumers of what these stores have to offer. What we'd need to do is get the average household to boycott department stores. Any idea how to do that? or you could just go another route and seek a way to keep stores closed..... but thats a little more serious.
we're already boycotting capitalism and intend to do so until we can build a true democracy and achieve world peace..
we are boycotting christmas as well, instead of buying junk for one another we are going to help the poor and give love and hope for a better world.
the beginning is here.. http://wesower.org
Make it more than a consumer boycott. If you work retail, Strike on Black Friday!
all that would accomplish is making me miss all the great deals.
It's the very best way to send a message in a language they understand.
boycotts don't work. the best way to reform the system is to attack it using our numbers and drive.
Don't just Boycott Black Friday, Boycott any entities which are the 1%, and Boycott them through the entire Holiday season if not indefinitely.
Oh look, you can still use google site search to find relevant threads. Stilll wondering why this forum is as organized as herding cats? Smooth move there, site owners.
Not all businesses are equal . We should support those that take care of their employees tru wages and benifits and stop supporting those that do not
Boycott and Protest at your City Hall on Black Friday.
boycott boycott boycott !!!
Message from within the Occupy Movement - Boycott Black Friday. Boycott Corporations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHBLxbEiubI
Well it's a bit like the difference between day trading and value investing isn't it? Day traders are looking for a quick hit on the day, and value investors are aiming to build growth in the long term. Similarly, a one day boycott of mega-corporations is only going to defer your subjection to to their talons.
Rather, it is better to develop a commitment to supporting local business and enterprise by identifying incrementally the goods and services you require that can be sourced with locally-owned suppliers. Do it this way and it has a chance of becoming a way of life. This is real value investing.
An appropriate time to start on this resolution is October 28, the anniversary of Black Monday, the day the stock market crashed.
That's tomorrow. Start searching for local alternatives where they exist. Screw down your tacit support of absentee landlordism.
Honestly, I would say boycott Christmas consumerism in general. Christmas eve is the biggest shopping/sales day of the year, not black Friday. BF just has the best sales and the most fighting.
I like this. It has an ongoing campaign already see: http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd If we could get even a fraction of the people at OWS to turn out, or not, for this it would make a noticeable dent.
I like this. It has an ongoing campaign already see: http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd If we could get even a fraction of the people at OWS to turn out, or not, for this it would make a noticeable dent.
I like this. It has an ongoing campaign already see: http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd If we could get even a fraction of the people at OWS to turn out, or not, for this it would make a noticeable dent.
My idea to get the attention of the criminals at the large oil companies was and still is this. (can this be considered as a tactic on black friday) ? I originally thought Thursday would be a better day for most than a Friday but since its started already no problemo. EVERYBODY would it be possible to boycott big oil with a lunchtime (12:01pm) sit-in boycott at the gas pumps in which people park their cars in front of the gas pumps and either eat their lunch, make cell phone calls, read a book or just occupy the space oil companies need to make their millions? We must stand against these CEOs and ex-VP Cheney for their private white house meeting that wasnt recorded as happening, no minutes were taken and the attending oil CEOs were not named. 8mos. later gas prices topped $3.00 a gallon for the first time ever. Boycott big oil at the pump on Nov. 5 .
Boycott could be a powerful tool. Lets do it.
Support local artisans when you Christmas shop. Stay at inns, or hotels that are not associated with a chain if you can when you travel. buy used items from local people if you can. Look at where food is made or processed. Is it worth it to save a few cents for stuff from overseas when you have a choice? In the long run, no...
Now Finally we are getting focused, this the type of action that's gets action but what DO WE WANT, but we need a specific demand above all others that is with in reason(note the words within reason)Kennedy gave Martin Luther what he wanted only WHEN the fervor focused into one voice and one legitimate demand,given the Election stakes Obama will do the same
1Demand should be access to the airwaves-the Public airwaves
This is the Power in America .The power to frame a message and influence the masses.
A 24 hour moratorium across the nation on credit purchases will demonstrate that the populace is not without power. A one week moratorium will create havoc for the banking system which funds all of government. A non ending moratorium on credit card purchases will collapse the entire system in less than a month.
"A season of giving instead of a season of buying." ... What, you think the shopping season is people buying things to give themselves?
Once media sees empty parking lots and malls. They will pay after.room and will know the power. OWS this will ne big for us.
Let us not buy what we want on Black Friday and send signal to corporate America and China ( as most of the stuff comes from here). I am all for it. Buy local stuff. I will be in farmers market.
The funny irony is that, if you displace your BlackFriday spending, the corporations make a higher profit margin on the products you purchase on whatever OTHER day you purchase them. Way to help the corporations pad their margins, folks.
Unless, of course, you change your spending habits permanently.
I love the whole volunteer part to it too, awesome!!!!
This is a genius idea!!!!! It's not even something that hard to do,just don't buy on those days!!
As someone whose family, working in retail, relies on the holiday season to take care of basic necessities, I resent this boycott. Seems extraordinarily presumptive and misguided.
Let's be careful to not cut off our nose to spite our face. I do believe in boycotting, but let's choose our targets carefully and do it in a way to flex our muscle and show them that the people still have the power and we could really affect the profits of a company should we choose to do this.
A month ago, I would have been all for it. However, right now, I think that we should continue going after the banks (at least one or two targets) and show them what happens when the people rise up and stop doing business with them. This will wake them up (as well as the rest of corporate america) and maybe they will cut the b.s. out then.
If we do an all out Black Friday boycott it will further hurt the economy, send more people to the unemployment lines as stores will end up closing, and it would shake up things out there where other companies will not be hiring because they are too afraid to. Let's really think this through. I am all for building up small businesses and community banks. WE must build up small businesses so that they can grow and hire more people. This will send a message to Corporate America that we are tired of their big greedy companies and things need to change or else.
Been tried for years by the same group that started OWS.
http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd
I actually directly mentioned Buy Nothing Day in my post.
Yep, just noting the same origin as OWS.
Oh, well okay then. To be fair, I didn't actually know that Buy Nothing Day was an adbusters thing, so I guess I did learn something new!
Adbusters started OWS?
"I propose that we have a nationwide general strike of consumerism on the one day of the year"....man that's showing them! So make sure you buy everything you want the day before the boycott.
Yeah, that's not gonna work.
Instead, we should all buy our gifts from local businesses. Rather than getting Black Friday gifts from Walmart and Best Buy, go out to a local art festival or antique gallery and buy the family something unique that they won't see in stores themselves later and support local business in the process. Well, either that or buy some raw materials and make your own gifts.
Hate to be a fly in the ointment...but not everyone lives in a place where there is a local art festival or antique gallery. Not all people can afford anything from a gallery or artist.
And raw materials? How many of those come from large corporations that make paper, cut and sell wood, art supplies, fabric etc?
You do realize the irony of picking "Black Friday"? Do you know why it's called Black Friday? Because it takes all year, until almost the end of November, before most companies stop operating "in the red". Black Friday is supposedly the day that these businesses start making a profit.
And yet, OWS continues to declare that these companies are making nothing but profit....all day every day...What about all those people who are unemployed but who are counting on getting holiday only jobs so that THEIR kids can have Christmas?
I think making heart felt gifts for our families is a fabulous idea, because gifts should mean something. But trying to "starve" a corporation out of their profits will only hurt the poorest among us who depend on those companies for jobs AND cheap clothing and gifts for their own families. You need to think all the way through your proposals and realize who you're going to hurt "first and worst" before the big dogs at the top even feel a pinch.
Exactly right, justthefacts. And might I add ... BlackFriday exists likely because the businesses have already become profitable for the year and are eager to offload the older products that have not yet sold to make way for newer products that they can sell for higher profits. In other words: BlackFriday = unload less profitable stuff to make way for more profitable stuff ... NOT lets-make-huge-profits in a single day. My god, think about it ... Don't you think it's a little weird that corporations would offer such steep discounts on products that they could sell for more and get higher margins out of? Think about it, for godsake ... If nobody bought anything on BlackFriday, the corporations would still get rid of their old stuff. They'd just do it a little more gradually ... In fact, they would probably make higher margins doing it that way than they would selling it all at once at steeper discounts. This whole idea to boycott BlackFriday is extraordinarily misguided, ill-informed, and accomplishes exactly the opposite of what the boycotters want to see happen.
Not to mention, yes ... It hurts the very people the boycotters want to help before it ever even remotely pops up on the radar of any vilified CEO.
Actually, BF is at the beginning (or was it the end) of the fiscal quarter, meaning if they have a huge sales day their stock goes up. So, stock tool more than anything else.
Black Friday is a marketing campaign ... Businesses will offload their products with or without it, either by making higher margins on higher prices, or with similar BF sales resulting in higher volume. Boycotting a single day is not going to send a message. Even if it did, the first casualties would be the labor that corporations will cut ... This boycott will hurt the innocent long before any message is received, if it ever is.
Yes, exactly this. The boycott this and that only hurts the lowest people in the company, not the owners...unless we bankrupt the whole thing...in which case who is building the next one?
I appreciate your sentiments. Your argument is sound. However, we need to hurt corporations where it counts: in their pocketbook. what do we do to help protect the employees there? I don't have the answer. Maybe this could be a jumping off point for suggestions. Anybody????
You make good points, but I want to point out that buying local instead of buying from big corporations will support the local economy and increase demand for jobs within the community. The unemployed people will be able to find jobs at local stores. The jobs won't vanish, they'll just move.
Not entirely true, outwrangle, since consumers would likely pay more to acquire the same resources. Price drives demand; higher price drives demand down. Jobs are driven by demand; lower demand drives jobs down. In other words, we're talking about less economic activity with which to generate jobs, not more. I think everyone needs to read an economics book, then come up with a better, less destructive plan.
The large corporations are able to sell goods at lower prices because they externalize their costs onto others. Patronizing these corporations is far more destructive than boycotting them could ever be.
Look, I don't mean this in a demeaning way, but I think you and everyone on board with this boycott seriously needs to read an economics book. This has nothing to do with "patronizing corporations" - that doesn't even make sense - it's basic supply, demand, and price. What you're talking about is essentially devaluing income by accepting higher prices. This will slow economic activity and hurt the very people, who work their asses off during the holidays, that you're trying to help. Angry that nobody's hiring? Sure, just scale back demand, why don't you ... A devalued product is clearly a great motivator for businesses to offer more valuable jobs ...
I'm sorry, pal, I've got news for you: Corporations are not even going to flinch, and you're going to have to hurt a lot of people and a lot of families this hoilday season before there's any hope whatsoever that you're going to make whatever difference it is that you're looking for ... And what difference is that, by the way?
Maybe try and come up with a plan that doesn't hurt my family. Christ sake, the most dangerous thing in our society is ignorance. Swear to God.
You are correct that shifting demand to local sources will cause a decrease in consumer demand due to the higher prices, but consumer demand is only half the story. Supporting local businesses instead of multinational corporations will lead to an increase in demand for local jobs, because the demand for American labor will increase. Corporations like Walmart have done nothing but ship manufacturing jobs overseas, and you're a fool if you think that giving them more money will bring the jobs back.
The world is a lot more complicated than the simple demand curves you learned about as a college freshman. You need to learn a bit more about macroeconomics before you tell me to read a book.
I'm sure we could go on all day about globalization, but let's not let sophistry distract from the simple fact that you have to trample hard-working people, and trample them hard, before you garner the unactionable attention you're looking for. Unactionable, because no corporation is going to trade their global competitiveness to make a handful of non-paying customers marginally happier. You're protesting the wrong policy makers.
The jobs won't come back, but you will still devalue existing income, and it will be distributed to fewer places, demanding less production of fewer resources, requiring fewer workers and lower wages to produce.
High five.
Best idea on this whole silly forum.
I like this idea. Best thing I've read but hell I just join the revolution. Needs to be done the right way, remember, 70 percent of our economy is based on our own spending, we just need to change HOW we spend it. Hit the fat cats were it hurts. Let's boycott big business on black Friday, spend less money an only on local mom an pop business an only with cash. Deny banks credit card interest sales, fees. Hit them on the day that means most to them, IN THEIR WAlLETS.
The boycott is the best weapon on earth. It costs nothing.
This bears repeating. Boycotting is the easiest thing we can do.
Costs nothing. Except the holiday season that many rely on to take care of their families.
Pfft, this whole idea is so obscenely misguided, it makes me nauseous.
tuf shit
And all this time, I thought the Occupiers were concerned about the 99% ...
Thank you for correcting me.
By the way, I got the idea from this thread. Credit goes to Sigma34561.
http://www.reddit.com/r/occupywallstreet/comments/lktjp/a_call_to_action_general_strike_on_black_friday/
I never shop on Black Friday anyway, too crowded. I find better deals closer to Christmas, but I usually buy months in advance so it don't matter one way or another.
that's a great idea.
Yes, please do, then maybe I can pick up some great doorbusters.
I will be getting up at 4AM, grabbing my credit card and go incur some nice debt for the holidays. If the primary issue for OWS is to get money out of politics, how is boycotting Black Friday going to help? The laws need to be changed and new laws need to be written. Not shopping on one day of the year is not going to change that fact and it is not going to get any results.
Where do you think corporations get the money that they use to influence politics? They get it from mindless consumers like you. If you don't want them to use your money to undermine our Republic, stop giving them your money. It's really not that complicated; buy local, fair trade, or home made.
Ah, but I like my video games and guns and neither of those can be bought or made from your sources. I also have kids that like the latest and greatest in toys and I am happy to oblige them when I can if they have earned them. This proposed boycott will go over just as well as the gas holidays that were proposed to bring prices down. It will have no effect since if profits were to go down, they would simply increase their prices enough to make up for the loss. The real changes need to occur in DC. Protesting Wall Street will never change anything so long as the politicians feel safe that the movement is too dumb to not see that they protest the symptom but not the cause.
We, as consumers, have an enormous amount of power sitting inside of our wallets.
Every time you buy a product you are voting for the company that made it. All I'm asking is that you look at who you are voting for and ask yourself if they deserve your votes. If you believe that they are an ethical company that does lots of good for the world, then give them your money. If they use child labor and pollute the environment and rip off customers, then do not give them your money.
Even if you don't think protesting Wall Street will do any good, you have to admit that giving your money to the very corporations that are doing their part to ruin the world won't do any good either. The politicians won't listen to us ever, and neither will Wall Street. They will listen to our money, though.
I'm going to be voting for my local businesses and my community. Who are you voting for?
I will be the first official OWS candidate to win the next election for the CT 4th district. My platform is described on my blog that I have been writing since 2006. read it http://overthecoals.blogspot.com/
More to come. I will be the Green Party candidate. Please support me and please nominate a Green Party candidate in every USA district.
Invite me to the general assembly to hear my strategy. read my blog http://overthecoals.blogspot.com/