BURBANK, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 14: People shop ahead of Black Friday at a Walmart Supercenter on November 14, 2023 in Burbank, California. Some early Black Friday deals are already in place at Walmart and other retailers ahead of Thanksgiving and the traditional holiday shopping season. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Skip the shopping frenzy with these 4 Black Friday alternatives
By Emily Olson/NPR
Mario Tama / Getty Images
BURBANK, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 14: People shop ahead of Black Friday at a Walmart Supercenter on November 14, 2023 in Burbank, California. Some early Black Friday deals are already in place at Walmart and other retailers ahead of Thanksgiving and the traditional holiday shopping season. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The Super Bowl of shopping. The all-American consumption blitz. The best of capitalism — or the absolute worst.
Whether you love it or hate it, Black Friday is here again, taking over our ads and inboxes with loud proclamations of deals and discounts.
And sure, you could argue that this old shopping standby is changing shape — no longer just a day but a whole long weekend with Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday. You could even call it Black November, with some seasonal sales having started days ago.
But if you’re looking to put away your pocketbook entirely? Organized alternatives for the day of can feel scarce.
Thankfully, you’ve come to the right place.
Below are four trends when it comes to ditching the cart creatively, plus tips for joining in, if that’s your jam.
The trend started in 2015, when REI, the outdoor outfitting behemoth, announced it was shutting its doors for Black Friday and paying its workers to go play in nature.
If you, too, want to choose trails over aisles, start by checking out the websites of your local state and national parks. Some have started waiving fees or offering special events for the holiday.
And if you’re heading out where the weather is cold, NPR’s Brian Mann offers these safety tips.
But at its heart, the concept is just a boycott of Black Friday. Started by the group Adbusters, Buy Nothing Day was intended to be a 24-hour moratorium on making purchases as a personal counter to unsustainable consumption.
Part of why Buy Nothing Day failed to catch on was that it received a big backlash in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. National sentiment suggested that shopping could be an act of patriotism — a way to boost the economy and therefore beef up America’s stature in a burgeoning war against terrorism.
For one, the holiday comes straight after Thanksgiving, which some Native Americans call the National Day of Mourning for its longstanding connection to colonialism. European settlers killed 56 million indigenous people across South, Central and North America in about 100 years, researchers at the University College London estimate.
And second, the holiday is shared with Black Friday, a celebration of capitalistic greed and gluttony in some eyes.
In recent years, U.S. presidents have issued proclamations to observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Columbus Day, the federal holiday that falls in October and celebrates the voyage of Christopher Columbus.
If the lure of a good deal is too much to give up, consider checking out your public library. As the New York Public Library likes to point out in an annual ad campaign, the inventory is literally free.
And they’re not the only public institution that says brainy is the new black.
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