Unpacking Green Friday - The “Anti-Black Friday” Movement

In order to unpack and truly get to the bottom of Green Friday, its message, and its impact as a movement, we must first understand its capitalist counterpart Black Friday.

Black Friday is well known as a day when purchasing caution is abandoned as consumers the world over are enticed by slashed prices, often buying things they don’t need.

This day has become ubiquitous for it’s ridiculous sales, one day only offers, the massive demand this spike in consumption places on shipping and packaging resources, and the subsequent adverse damage done to the environment.

To put this into perspective, here are a few quick hot takes from 2019’s Black Friday sales madness via Spend Me Not:

• 93.2 million online shoppers worldwide 
• 30% of global annual retail sales in 2019 were made between Black Friday and Christmas
• Global online shopping sales reached an all-time high of $7.4 billion USD
• $2.9 billion USD worth of global Black Friday sales were made through mobile phones
• Amazon counted 54.9% of global 2019 sales on Black Friday

However, many more people are becoming aware of the detrimental effects their purchases and consumerism have on our environment and resources. This has led to calls for sustainable practices on the part of businesses being increasingly demanded by consumers.  

Hysterical buying trends that arose as a result of Black Friday have given rise to an alternative movement that fights against unbridled consumerism. The counter movement, Green Friday, encourages people to consider whether their desired purchases are necessary, and if they must buy to do so from a company that is rooted in sustainable and ethical values and practices.