Say this about about Black Friday — the celebration of cheap shopping that we mark today — it isn’t a fraud. It’s not a consumer festival dressed as religious festival, as Christmas is for most of us. It’s a consumer fest dressed as a consumer fest.
But it’s still disgusting, an American import we can certainly do without. It brings out the worst in us. Already this morning, fights have broken out between mad British bargain hunters. A few years ago, a shopping mall security guard in America was trampled to death by hordes of desperate consumers. Cyber Monday, in three days time, when we all buy stuff online, may be slightly safer, but it if anything even more depressing.
The good news is that lots of us seem to abhor the whole Black Friday/Cyber Monday concept. Why don’t we all resist it then? Fight the madness! I propose Gray Friday (Gray spelt the American way so that our friends across the Atlantic can join in). There are two rules:
- The first is that we do not buy anything. Nothing. Is that even possible? It must be. We can save the retail sector by bingeing for the rest of the year.
- The second rule of Gray Friday is that we click ‘unsubscribe’ in response to any email in our inboxes that has ‘Black Friday’ in the subject line. This hits the companies where it really hurts by damaging their all-important databases.
This shall be followed by Real Monday, when we boycott the Internet for a day. Workers have a dispensation: any internet use necessary for work is allowed. But social media and online shopping should be avoided.
Come on: the revolution starts today. Happy Gray Friday everyone.
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