Boycotting Black Friday is there another way?


Black Friday, is a dark day indeed but is it VALUE we’re missing when it comes to this day of consumerism celebration?

Every year we hear reports of overnight queues, stampedes, fighting, violence and even (in 2008) death, as desperate shoppers are lured into stores hunting down good deals.

For those preferring to blacken their Fridays from home, the delivery of online orders reportedly result in air pollution spikes, not to mention the production costs to our planets ecosystem services to create these excessive tempting items, their packaging and then the resulting waste issues.

With Black Friday falling at the end of a week that saw the 2019 Emissions Gap report warn us that the world is set to warm by 3.0C+ by 2100 with current human behaviour, it’s easy to see why initiatives such as ‘Buy Nothing Day’ and hash tags such as #BoycottBlackFriday are gaining traction.

The term Black Friday originated from high street shops moving out of ‘the red’ and finally making a profit after a year of hard slog. With our high streets struggling and our local shop owners (the ones who donate products for your child’s school Christmas fair!), overlooked for the cheap delights of exploitative brands, is there an opportunity to reinvent Black Friday by exploring what a ‘good deal’ actually means to us.

According to Global Citizen 88% of the 14 million viewers who watched, Blue Planet II, valued the health of our planet and the people and creatures that inhabit it so much that they changed their lifestyles.

So what if the feel good factor equalled good value? Instead of a ‘good deal’ meaning ‘buy one get one free’ what if we could reframe it as ‘buy one and get one free… for someone who really needs it?’

Take ‘Stand for Socks’ great quality durable, long lasting, warm and cosy socks, perfect for long cold nights spent on the streets, a small comfort for when you feel alone, hungry and scared. If you buy one pair for yourself you’ll get one delivered to a homeless person for free. You can feel proud that your hard earned money made the world a slightly better place, and you get long lasting premium socks with a story.

BiG PAL 2.0 portable chargers from Power A Life, are outstanding products, featuring the latest in quick charging technology. For every product sold, you directly provide a child in a developing country with a solar light. What value would you put on improving a child’s ability to triple their test scores, progress to secondary school, have better health, higher earning potential and a better likely hood of lifting themselves and their community out of poverty?

The team at Social Supermarket believe consumerism has a vital role to play. Co-founder Jamie Palmer commented, “Excessive consumerism is a problem, but to live we need to consume. With global environmental and social issues at the heart of today’s consumer we need to give them easier access to the responsible brands offering valuable solutions.”

Finding products with a purpose-driven story who are making a positive impact, can be time consuming. Online retailers such as the Social Supermarket, have rounded them up and investigated their impact claims to curate a catalogue of certified feel good brands with Black Friday and everyday ‘feel good’ offers. They also go to great lengths to make the consumer journey as ethical as possible.

● For more information, please contact Co-founder Jamie Palmer by email on
jamie@socialsupermarket.org or phone on 07827 732853.
● View our online retail site here.
● View Stand 4 Socks here.
● View Power a life here.
● View our Christmas gift guide here.
● Images available to download here.

About Social Supermarket
Established in 2017, Social Supermarket is the leading social enterprise marketplace in the UK. It was created to connect everyday consumers with social enterprises, selling high quality products that tackle important social and environmental challenges. From specialist tea blends providing employment for refugees, to Fairtrade chocolate and relishes made
with wonky fruit and veg, there’s something for everyone. They are on a journey to become the most comprehensive marketplace for social enterprise products in the UK.

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