Friday is “Buy Nothing Day (BND),” according to Adbusters, an anti-consumerism organization based in British Columbia. Check out the BND Web site at www.adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/ and scroll down and click on the pink piggy for a sometimes-amusing ad spot promoting the day.
I find it easy to be cynical about BND. It’s easy to point out that even if consumers don’t buy anything on BND, they’ll just turn around and buy the same amount of stuff some other day. In which case, what’s the point of BND? Well, the point for me is personal sanity. Long before I ever heard of BND, I avoided stores the Friday after Thanksgiving, just because trying to go near any store on that busiest of all shopping days is simply crazy-making.
Besides, I can’t stand the Musak version of “The Little Drummer Boy” — “ba-rump-ba-bump-bump” does not sound better backed by an overly-sweet string section.
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I didn’t buy a thing. My Dad owned a Dime Store when I was growing up. Christmas time
ment a lot of work for our whole family. I was very aware if someone didn’t buy, someone
else didn’t work.
I went to Plymouth with a few friends and bought some items in the Fake Mayflower gift shop.
My favorite Black Friday memory was the year the Mall of America opened in Minnesota and my then-boyfriend and I decided to go, because we’re perverse that way. It was such an overwhelming scene that, after staggering around for several hours, we left without buying a thing. (This is the mall with the AMUSEMENT PARK INSIDE IT.)