Boycotting Black Friday

Black Friday has become increasingly popular in the UK in recent years. In 2016, the total spending on online retail stores was £1.23bn. Surprisingly, it seems that this year fewer Brits will take part in Black Friday, but there are still up to £5billion being spent during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

It is tempting to spend your money on Black Friday sales, but are the deals just a big scam? The Consumer Group found that there were ‘few genuine deals,’ and most ‘deals’ are cheaper in the six months before and the six months after Black Friday. It may be obvious, but brands simply want people to consume more over this period for their own financial gain. The spike in sales not only hurts your bank account, but it is detrimental to the environment. Instead of consuming more, we need to think about whether we actually need anything or we’re just being pulled into the ‘sales.’

In a time where consumers buy twice as many clothes and wear them for half as long, Black Friday is just another excuse to impulse buy and consume things you don’t even need. Brands are becoming more aware that fewer people want to participate in Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but there are few brands that are actually being transparent about what Black Friday really stands for.

Monki announced on Instagram that they wouldn’t be taking part in Black Friday:

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Boycotting Black Friday is a massive move for brands. They’re losing out on amazing sales but they’re using their platform to show their stance within the industry, proving that brands can educate their consumers by making positive change.

TALA is another brand that is boycotting Black Friday. But, TALA is closed for business, encouraging their consumers to think about Black Friday and what effect it has on our already dwindling environment.

View this post on Instagram

BLACK FRIDAY ANNOUNCEMENT and it isn’t what you think…  Hear us out. As a sustainable start-up, we invest our money in amazing high quality products and paying our staff fairly through every level of our supply chain. Instead of a sale this week (we know, we think we’re crazy too), we’ll be focusing on key issues from the fast fashion industry and the impact of Black Friday to help us all shop more sustainably and make better shopping choices. This is a huge risk, with no immediate reward. We KNOW people want to shop discounted goods on Black Friday and it has the potential to be our biggest season in terms of sales, but something needs to be done. We’re willing to take the hit to make you think twice and hope that you can support our fellow sustainable brands this Black Friday! The fast fashion industry’s business model has a sole purpose of persuading you to buy more. It’s time to get voting with your money. We want to show you and the BIG brands that you don’t need to compromise – you CAN have amazing products that don’t cost the earth and avoid adding to the problems caused by fast fashion and multiplied by Black Friday. If a company can discount all their products by 30% upwards, there’s a reason. If they can still make money with huge discounts, there’s someone (or millions of people), sacrificing their quality of life so you can add another dress to the pile. We will be closed for business on Black Friday, and encourage you to really think about what your money is supporting. We will be sharing tips on how to shop smarter whilst still getting what you need and fellow sustainable brands you can support! Our staff will be getting the day to catch up on sleep and have some well-deserved TLC. So to kick off, we’ll leave you with a few things to think about when browsing the sales this week… A third of people think that Black Friday encourages them to buy things they don’t need 🤦🏼‍♀ @hellohubbub In 2018, Black Friday saw record spending with nearly £5 billion worth of online sales alone 💰  4% of global waste – that’s nearly 84 million tonnes – is generated by the fashion industry (this is the equivalent of 6 million big bens!) ⚖ #SLOWDOWNFASTFASHION

A post shared by TALA® (@wearetala) on Nov 25, 2019 at 11:18am PST

In their post, TALA not only highlights the effect that fast fashion has on the environment but the unfair treatment of workers: ‘There’s someone (or millions of people), sacrificing their quality of life so you can add another dress to the pile.’ 

It’s time to show fast fashion brands that we aren’t passive, but active consumers. We can see through their deals and understand that they aren’t really beneficial for us. Seeing brands like Monki and TALA boycotting Black Friday shows us that we should think before we buy this Black Friday.

S x