It’s hard to count the ways that over-consumption harms people and planet alike — from unsustainable resource extraction, to mountains of waste, to climate change. So today — the biggest shopping day of the year in the U.S. — I’m choosing family over frenzy, and celebrating Buy Nothing Day instead.
And I’m not alone: more and more people and businesses are opting out of the Black Friday consumer craze. The outdoor adventure retailer REI is closing its stores and encouraging everyone to #OptOutside, while almost 50 state parks near my home in California will have free entry for the day.
Refraining from the shopping mall not only frees my day to spend it in more meaningful ways, it also is part of a long tradition of withholding our dollars to make a statement.
Whether it’s just for one day or targeted at a certain brand whose practices we oppose, refusing to shop offers a way for people to align our values with our actions and demonstrate who we support (or don’t support).
Two famous examples come to mind: Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers’ grape strike and boycott and the infant formula-inspired protests against Nestlé. Both of these effectively drew attention to important issues and helped drive real change. But it’s important to note that they were only able to succeed because they linked to broader campaigns rather than simply changing people’s shopping habits.
Chavez saw the boycott as a means of building support and engaging people outside of the rural areas where farm workers lived. Campaigners fighting against Nestlé’s marketing of infant formula in developing countries pursued an ethical marketing standard for baby formula that was adopted by the World Health Organization. By itself, it was not enforceable, but it provided a framework for organizers to pass legislation in developing countries to protect newborn health. In both of these cases, and many others, withdrawing our money from the system is one step in building strong people-centric and politically-minded movements — a step we can all take today.
More recently, Greenpeace also pushed Nestlé to more responsibly source palm oil for use in a multitude of products. In places like Indonesia, palm oil is a huge driver of deforestation, which seriously damages our world’s most sensitive ecosystems and fuels climate change. After an intense campaign and mounting public pressure, Nestlé agreed not to use palm oil from sources that were contributing to deforestation.
Still, Indonesia is in the midst of an environmental crisis resulting from the same practices from other companies. Up to 80 percent of the island of Sumatra has been covered in smoke from ongoing forest and peat fires — many linked to palm oil production. As in other campaigns, there are many ways we can create pressure for change. You can start by signing the petition to help solve this today.
While avoiding buying specific products, or avoiding shopping altogether on Buy Nothing Day, is one way to act out our values, the truth is, sometimes we have to buy stuff. What do we do then? There are lots of resources available to help us ensure that our dollars are purchasing the least toxic, least damaging, least exploitative option available.
For example, if you’re a tuna eater, check out our Tuna Shopping Guide, which can help you distinguish the brands that have made positive environmental steps from the laggards. Another great guide is this one, that helps explain how safe (or not!) the ingredients are in cosmetics and personal care products.
It is definitely good to seek out the least harmful products when we do shop, but it’s even more important to remember that our real power to make change is not in the supermarket aisles.
Our real power is in coming together as concerned and active citizens and community members, working together for bigger scale impact than we can ever achieve through perfecting our shopping habits.
That’s because the amount of money you and I have to spend on shopping decisions is dwarfed by the funds of huge multi-national corporations who prioritize profit over the planet. That’s why we can’t just “vote with our wallets,” we must use our actual votes and raise our voices too. The real power is not in choosing between items on a menu but with choosing what gets on that menu, and that’s where engaged citizen action (or people power) matters!
So, yes, please join me in enjoying Buy Nothing Day by spending time with friends and family. Hit pause on spending for a day and to take the time to reflect on what really makes you happy. But I don’t encourage you to do nothing, because activism, creativity, community organizing and political participation isn’t just the key to beating deep-pocketed interests, it can be a lot of fun too.
