Green Guru Network

What ever happened to Black Friday? You remember sales starting at 4am, people near swooning from Thanksgiving dinner cranking over their cars to get to the mall and stand in line?  This year Walmart's employees threaten a Black Friday strike, advertisements are less pronounced, trucking issues due to Hurricane Sandy force some stores to widen their aisles and redistribute good so they can appear to be full. What will this holiday shopping season hold?

Why not get off to a rocking holiday start and take your family for a hike? Or maybe a game of Scrabble? A meal you make yourself? Maybe meeting friends for tea? volunteering? drawing? Who knows what mischief you can come up with while your not standing in line, under fluorescent light, with a credit card in your hand?

All of this can be yours on the first Friday after Thanksgiving. The folks at International Buy Nothing Day believe there are bigger motivations than 80 percent off and figure that Black Friday is a great day to prove it.  They are on the same track with folks at Take Back Your Time Day and Center for the New American Dream.

My top 3 gift ideas:

1. A List - Written by hand on a beautiful sheet of paper. What I like (or Love) about you. This list includes, sometimes in bullet format, traits, values and characteristics of the recipient that I admire. This works well for everyone who can read. pictures of them doing something I admire are great when they are too young to read.

2. Made it myself - Home made banana bread, a photo printed from a smart phone, a child's hand print in plaster. Check out Fiber Flame in Saugerties. This great crafting space offers tons of cool ideas. Insource this year and unleash your inner creative.

3. Service - Think of what they need and what you can commit to do for them. Sending the kid to walk their dog for a month or a year!

What you have to offer is enough don't let marketers tell you otherwise.

Still want to shop until you drop?  Consider just letting go for this one day. The very next day after International Buy Nothing Day, the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, is Buy Local Day.  Designed to focus on promoting local economy reducing travel, promoting eclectic business and products, and keeping your dollars working close to home this is another great option.

Black Friday Sales, starting at 4am.  Run to the store and pick up something at 1/2 price for everyone on your list?  Paula Poundstone first pointed to the idea that stores are loud, visually overwhelming fragrance filled establishments. Forgive my paraphrase; she wonders if killing 3 major senses makes folks more likely to buy. 

Getting a reduced price on something on the Friday after Thanksgiving? What I spend my time doing becomes my life.  The last few weeks I've been acutely aware of the amount of time I spend purchasing. 

I've asked myself this: Would being a loyal customer pass the rocking chair test? (you know the one, imagine I'm on my rocking chair at age 90 would the activity I'm doing bring me joy when I remember it?)  If I wasn't buying would all those grovey folks in hawaiian shirts at Trader Joes or trendy, brilliant, gentle geeks at the Apple store still feel like I was one of their kind? Maybe, and would hanging out with my son, husband, friends, writing blogs for Green Guru Network, or learning to play guitar be a better use of my time?

The folks at International Buy Nothing Day  believe there are bigger motivations that 80 percent off.  They are on the same track with folks at Take Back Your Time Day and Center for the New American Dream.   

Think of all the things we won't have to recycle, how much we will save in energy, time, money, toxic waste by avoiding purchasing for just one day.  If that's not emough to keep you out of a store tomorrow, imagine also how much better you will feel missing the Musak version of U2 and AC/DC 's classic collections.