Today, Nov. 26, is Buy Nothing Day!

[DireStrike]

http://www.adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/

For 24 hours, millions of people around the world do not participate -- in the doomsday economy, the marketing mind-games, and the frantic consumer-binge that's become our culture. We pause. We make a small choice not to shop. We shrink our footprint and gain some calm. Together we say to Exxon, Nike, Coke and the rest: enough is enough. And we help build this movement to rethink our unsustainable course.

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Be sure also to check out the DU Economic Activism and Progressive Living Group!

[Sperk]

1. gotta admit, this is an easy one for me.....I never shop the day after

Thanksgiving. How wants to fight those crowds?!

[Dulcinea]

14. I'm with you.

I loathe crowds. I don't like shopping much at all unless it's a Tuesday morning or sometime like that when the malls aren't crowded.

I shop online as much as I can! For the life of me, I'll never understand the morans who camp outside Wallymart to stampede in at 5 AM. Running each other down to buy cheap low-quality crap? Idiots!

[MileHiStealth]

2. I won't be shopping either ....

Just putting my money away and living week to week
for as little as I can. Don't know from week to
week if I will have any work. Had Thanksgiving dinner
with my ex tonight and she told me she's getting
laid off at the end of the year, so she's in no
shopping mood either ...

[Amich]

3. it may kill me,

but won't be shopping tomorrow:) I talked a friend into not shopping and also my cousin.

[Dickie Flatt]

4. I'll be buying nothing...

but not because I'm following along with this ridiculous bullshit. I just don't like crowds.

And I find it a bit annoying how, in addition to dealing with crazed shoppers each year around this time, I also have to put up with AdBusters' ceaseless moralizing about mind-games and world devastation.

I always thought holiday gift-giving was some good fun among friends, but no, apparently I'm a slave to the evil capitalist machine.

[Deja Q]

5. I decided to stay up late, do some projects, DU, so I sleep in tomorrow.

No shopping for me. No temptation, no matter how strong. Not even the shoes at Kohls. :cry:

[NurseLefty]

6. I'm actually boycotting Christmas this year.

As a tribute to my Lord for the wonderful year I've had. (OK I'm about to get struck with lightning about right now.)
Let's see... My 8.5 year relationship ended and I had to move in the middle of my most difficult time in nursing school, I've been in financial hell, my present job is back-breaking, my dog died, and I've been diagnosed with a tumor in my abdomen that I'm having surgery for in 3 weeks. Hmmm... what else? OH YEAH, BUSH GOT FUCKING REELECTED! FOR GOOD MEASURE, THROW IN THAT A REPUKE HAS BEEN ELECTED IN MY STATE FOR GOVERNOR WITH A MARGIN OF 42 FUCKING VOTES! AAARGH!
:mad: :grr: :nuke:
So, no Christmas cards, I'll get my dad a gift, but I'm in the hospital right before Christmas and I'll be laid up at home for at least 2 weeks. No Santa for me - Christmas in cancelled. :cry:
Like ol' Queen Lizzie once said, it's been an "annus horriblus".
Can I go tomorrow without spending a dime? Easy and convenient, sure!

[AmericanErrorist]

7. If you're talknig about WA...

It's not over.

The Democratic candidate is going to initiate another hand recount.

[Swamp Rat]

8. If I had time to waste, I'd go to a stupid shopping mall and go to EVERY

proprietor and tell them why I am not buying anything. Then, I'd pull out a sign that says, "you are all gonna die!" or the "End is Neigh"... something that would get me kicked out and make a big scene.

I have fucking HAD IT with the "man" and his sheep!

[otohara]

9. Never Understood The Mad Dash After Thanksgiving

day? WTF is that all about?

[elehhhhna]

10. oops. i bought poiballs online for the kids today BUT

they're from Hawai'i--a blue state! Am I forgiven?

[Ducks In A Row]

11. going shopping now, hoping everyone else stayed home

making it easier for me!


:)

[scarlet_owl]

12. I'd like to buy nothing today, but my bearded dragon needs

crickets.

[ornotna]

13. I have to go out and buy a new band

for my vacuum cleaner. But that's all I'm buying, I swear.

[Kitka]

15. I have never and will never participate in this 'event'. I think it's

somewhat silly. Buying nothing on this day does nothing without mindfulness the rest of the year. I try to refrain from buying anything I don't need all year round. I don't really believe this does anything at all to stem the consumer binge the US is hell bent on.... it just means that if I want to buy that personal DVD player for my daughter for Christmas, I have to pay $299 for it tomorrow instead of $169 for it today. I don't feel the need to give corporations even more money for something if I don't have to!

[SmokingJacket]

16. It's symbolic.

And symbols don't have meaning in and of themselves, but they can be helpful rallying points. I first heard of this day years ago, and sometimes I do buy things and sometimes I don't (just like most days) but I *always* think about it. I've come to find the shopping scene downright disgusting.

So you're right: skipping shopping this day and making up for it on Saturday is totally meaningless, but it does remind me (for one) that I don't have to go out and shop till I drop just because Everyone Does It.

Cheers!


On edit: Yay for me: 500 posts! Halfway to legitimacy!

[Kitka]

17. I guess I just don't need this day to remind me, but if others do

that's cool - it doesn't actually annoy me or anything, I've just never bought into it personally. I am often told that the many boycotts I participate in myself don't affect bottom lines so I shouldn't bother, and that bugs the HELL out of me, so I don't want to sound like that myself. I do get annoyed at being looked down upon by others for shopping on this day as an idiot (which has happened both in this thread and elsewhere) just because I want to go save money on the 5 things I'm buying my kids... especially when many of those making the comments will probably spend much more than me, but feel symbolically superior because they didn't buy it on November 26, 2004.

All said, if adbusters gets a few people to think about scaling back their consumerism, I can still see it as a positive thing.

[DustMolecule]

18. I'm making a lot of my gifts this year....

sewing a few pairs of flannel pj's and knitting a few hats/scarves for some people (hope they appreciate it and don't think "*yuck*/weird wish she woulda BOUGHT me something totally useless instead....we'll see).

So I HAD to buy the materials (but I did that several weeks ago).

[UNIXcock]

19. Not only that - I ain't eating one more bite of turkey either :-)

... :puke: