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In the United States, a peculiar phenomenon happens at the end of November. Two “holidays”
happen back-to-back. Thanksgiving and Black Friday. The first, according to the dominant
American narrative, is supposed to be all about family time, giving thanks and sharing
love, while the second stands for the opposite. But for many, these aren’t holidays. Especially
if you’re in the service industry working in the warehouses for Amazon, where mandatory
overtime pits workers against the clock forcing them to stay on their feet for 12-16 hours
a day. This consumption-centric day of sales is rapidly approaching, so let’s unpack
the phenomenon that is Black Friday. What is it? Why do we focus so much on it? And
is there an alternative?
The term Black Friday began appearing in the 1960s when Philadelphia police started to
complain about the post-Thanksgiving shopping rush. Since then, the day after Thanksgiving
has spiraled into a day of consumer mayhem. From Best Buy to Target, stores slash prices
on key items like TVs or toys to lure customers into their stores. The idea is that once people
are in a store like Walmart, customers will not only get that $50 TV that they waited
hours in line to buy, but they will also fill up their cart with toys, clothes, and holiday
presents they never thought they needed. Black Friday, is, after all, the beginning of the
American consumer tradition that is the holidays, which if we’re talking about consumption
is really a euphemism for Christmas. But increasingly, the door-busting stampedes of the 2000s seem
to be a thing of the past. In 2018, Black Friday in-person shopping was estimated to
have dropped by 1% to as much as 7% since 2017. This is due to shoppers embracing browsing
from the comfort of their own homes, particularly on Cyber Monday, which is the Monday following
Black Friday during which many online retailers have huge sales, comparable to the in-person
prices on Black Friday. Cyber Monday brought in a total of $7.9 billion in sales, with
that number predicted to balloon to 9.4 billion in 2019. So, while the crowds of Black Friday
might seem like they’re thinning, they’re not. In fact, they are actually doing the
opposite. Black Friday deals have become more spread out into the days before Thanksgiving
and the weeks after, which has led to a consistent rise in consumer spending and participation.
But what’s so bad about a day where companies slash their prices so that everyone can get
their hands on the latest gadgets? Although some people may only be able to buy certain
needed goods on Black Friday, much of what is pushed on consumers during Black Friday
are unnecessary luxury goods, like the latest version of Amazon’s smart speaker or giant
TVs. In short, Black Friday encourages people to consume regardless of need, and this over-consumption
mindset has serious consequences for both the environment and our society.
In the case of the environment, Black Friday packaging and shipping have serious consequences.
In 2018, there were 44.5 million online transactions during Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber
Monday. And, with the rise of online shopping, that number is only expected to grow. This
means more wasteful packaging, more fuel burned in the transportation sector, and trucks and
vans packing the streets to fulfill those 2-day shipping orders. Even after those three
days, the holiday season means a massive boom in shipping. The United States Postal Service
transported 900 million packages during the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas in
2018. And this demand for shipping is slowly adding to the emissions of the transportation
sector, which now accounts for 29% or the largest share of the United States’ greenhouse
gas emissions according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Compounded with the issue
of the waste generated from unwanted presents and cheaply made goods that wear out quickly
or are meant to be thrown away after a few uses, the shopping sprees of Black Friday
and Cyber Monday are pushing consumerism further and further into extremely dangerous territory
for both our planet and for the workers who are pressured to fulfill orders and work long
hours in retail stores.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday also reflect and perpetuate serious social problems. The
rise of needless consumption is the result of a capitalistic desire for unfettered growth.
This has resulted in valuing a person not on the way they care, their creativity, or
the strength of their community, but instead on how many commodities they’ve accumulated.
And as Noam Chomsky notes, “a huge part of the economy is devoted to driving these
things out of people’s heads. To make you want to go shopping instead of reading.”
This thirst for more is caused by what Chomsky calls “created wants,” desires for useless
objects created by advertisements that make us believe that if we purchase them, they’ll
make us better, more admirable, or more successful human beings. It also pushes consumers to
ignore the ethical question of whether it is okay to shop at a company like Amazon that
demands 12 or more hour days from its workers who treated so poorly that one employee wrote
that he felt like he was a disposable part of a machine, if he got injured he would be
thrown out and quickly replaced. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are allegedly good for people
without much disposable income, but in fact, they contribute to the exploitation of working-class
people. So, while this structure is terrible for the well-being of people, communities,
and the environment, it’s certainly an excellent way for companies like Apple and Amazon to
turn a profit. In short, the number one priority of a company that slashes its prices on Black
Friday is not the pocketbook of its customers or the state of the world under climate change,
instead, it’s quite simply selling more stuff to make more profits.
So, can we escape Black Friday? I think yes, but Black Friday is merely a symptom of an
ailing culture, not the cause. When we look at it that way, there are a variety of short
and long term fixes. Short term harm reduction strategies look like buying less, boycotting
unethical and environmentally destructive companies like Amazon, and embracing a mentality
of repairing and caring for the materials that you do have. Essentially, you’re trying
to participate less in the harmful consumer culture in which we live. But because we still
live in this culture, those are very difficult paths to follow. So, in addition to short-term,
individual-focused actions, what is really needed is greater participation in the complex
and radical social movements for justice like the Sunrise Movement or Indigenous Climate
Action that already exist. These organizations are challenging both our cultural values and
the institutions that facilitate exploitation and overconsumption. They’re just two of
the many movements working on long term, systemic changes. Whether through restructuring companies
so that they’re community-owned and operated or through true progressive climate action
that funds decentralized green infrastructure, the arts, and dignified jobs, justice-oriented
movements are trying to de-emphasize a constant drive for profits and instead invest in supporting
the people and places which they serve. Only when we create new modes of operating beyond
a profit-centric model will we be able to form healthier cultural norms that attempt
to foster what the holiday season is supposed to be about: an emphasis on care, interpersonal-connection,
and a strong relationship with place and the environment.
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