Miriam's video about Black Friday at Wal-Mart

A classmate of mine woke up at 4am on Black Friday this year in order to videotape the horde of shoppers at Walmart. While not the insane stampede of previous years, it was still a pretty bizarre experience. (After a Long Island Walmart employee died on Black Friday 2008, this year Walmart decided to stay open Thanksgiving evening through Black Friday, averting having people wait until opening.)

Adding three new links

These should have been on the link list from the beginning, but sometimes you miss what's staring you in the face.

Adbusters- We are a global network of culture jammers and creatives working to change the way information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning is produced in our society. Also the founders of Buy Nothing Day.

National Geographic's The Green Guide- According to Wikipedia, it has become the most reliable source of environmental information for consumers.

Green America (formerly Co-op America)- Our mission is to harness economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.

The Uniform Project

Here's an amazing website: The Uniform Project. Sheena Matheiken is pledging to wear just one dress the entire year, using scarves, jewelery and accessories to customize her outfit. (I should mention, there's 7 dresses, but it's only one style and color.) Taking a stand against consumerism and fostering creativity! I should have done this project myself for this semester!

Outfit for November 21, 2009

Thoughts on Buy Nothing day

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about Friday being “Buy Nothing” day (Friday also being Black Friday, the so-called busiest shopping day of the year.) I like the idea of having a buy nothing day to raise awareness about excess consumerism. People can tend to get a little crazy during the holiday season, having to buy presents for friends and family and teachers and babysitters and hostesses… the list goes on and on. People will also buy gifts just to have them on hand; in case someone surprises them with a gift, they can reciprocate. It’s hard to draw a line when the line gets further and further away each year.

However, I keep thinking about the other repercussions of a Buy Nothing day. What would happen to the economy if a large part of the population actually bought nothing? I have friends who own small retail businesses, and friends who supply those businesses with goods, and the effect on them would be catastrophic. Retail businesses depend on the holiday season to sustain them the rest of the year. Again, there’s a line. On one end are shoppers getting to WalMart at 3 in the morning to be first on line to trample down anyone who gets in the way of their $15 DVD player. On the other end it’s a little trickier. Is it a person who doesn’t celebrate by giving or receiving gifts at all? Or someone who makes gifts out of items around the house and in the woods?

Personally I’d fall closer to the “no gift” end of the line, but I can see why some people would fall to the other side. If I was really poor and wanted to treat my family to some nice things for the holidays, Black Friday might be the only chance I get to stretch my dollars as far as they can go. Even as a conscious consumer, I fall prey to the discounts and deals that the bigger chains are able to offer. I certainly can’t afford to shop exclusively at local indie boutiques (though I would like to.) And as far as children’s clothing and shoes are concerned, why on earth would you spend more than you had to? They’ll grow out of it in a few months!

Like everything else, I think the answer lies in the happy medium. We should be taking some time for reflection and honoring our loved one with experiences and memories, not just gifts. Ethical consumerism, by definition, implies consuming. Something must be purchased. So at this point in history, I think the best we can do is just stop and think before we open our wallets. Shop, but with purpose and meaning. When you’re buying gifts this season, make sure you feel good about your purchasing decisions when you leave the store.

10% Shift

Thanks to Portland- Buy Local's website, I found 10% Shift, an initiative to get people to shift 10% of their spending from big box chain stores to local, independent retailers. Unfortunately it's for the other Portland, in Maine.

It's kind of like the 3/50 project I wrote about a week or two ago.

Make Wealth History

I subscribed to Make Wealth History's feed and have been reading a lot of interesting posts from them. I like their tag line: "Because the earth cannot afford our lifestyle".

As someone living in a modern, first world country, it is hard to remember that most of the world doesn't have the luxury of living like I do. It's something I know, of course, but not something that I fully grok. Because I don't have to see it everyday. I simply can't imagine a world in which resources were scarce. I watched Waterworld last night and while I know that's a fictitious story, I do know that some people in this world live by scavenging.

As Make Wealth History points out, we have a responsibility to start watching what (and how much) we consume. Because the way it is right now, it's not fair.

If everyone on the planet enjoyed the same quality of life as we do, one world would not be enough. If we can't create a fairer world at this level of consumption, then we have to scale back our lifestyles, for the planet and for each other. MakeWealthHistory.org

Well, that's one way to do it

Here's a story from UK's The Guardian about Mark Boyle, a guy who decided to live for a year without spending any money.

That's a huge undertaking. He did it, but I don't think it's possible for everyone to pull it off. For one, he started with some resources, like his laptop and the solar panels he bought to power it. And had he not donated 3 days of his time per week, he wouldn't have had a physical place to set up shop. In today's society, it's really not possible to live completely free. You cannot sustain yourself by yourself. But he got his point across: all his materials came from places like Freecycle, and he bartered or traded or scrounged for the rest.

I admire the effort, and I think it goes to show how little we actually need. But to modern society, his way of living is unsustainable. If companies stopped manufacturing goods, people would have to scrounge for the materials already out there. Eventually resources would be so scarce that people would fight over any scrap. There must exist somewhere a balance of recycling and reusing and reducing... and consuming.