Time out! Before we decide to go shopping on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, we need to take a moment to think twice and consider the impact our purchases have. The power of our consumerism is not as insignificant as we may think. With every purchase, we strengthen the supply chain of the products we buy; this can be good, bad, or sometimes both. By consuming, we increase the demand, and therefore retailers can increase their supply. It means that we can directly support our local economy with the purchase and indirectly contribute to human rights violations and impact the environment and biodiversity on the other side of the planet.
The unsustainable overconsumption promoted by Black Friday is incredibly wasteful, devastating for our planet and based on exploitative labour. In the end, a shirt is never cheap – someone or something has to pay the price. For those who can afford to skip the Black Friday craze, please do. We need to boycott and dismantle these events and the exploitative systems that make people reliant on such sales in the first place.