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Buy something day
Nov. 28th, 2025 08:28 pmIn the US, today is known as Black Friday or, alternatively, Buy Nothing Day. In France, consumer-facing businesses have adopted Black Friday, not limiting it to the Friday after US Thanksgiving.
The idea of specifically avoiding buying stuff today has some appeal given the extent to which the original story of Christmas—God's only begotten son being born—has been drowned out by the story of Santa Claus we're not even supposed to believe, yet we're supposed to get excited about buying a bunch of random stuff.
I hadn't planned ahead, however. Weeks ago, I made an appointment to get my hair cut today. Then I bought some eggs and coffee beans. So I guess it's been another buy something day.
Come to think of it, every day is buy something day for most of us. We have subscriptions for everything from telephones to electricity. The water bill arrived in the mail today. I didn't shut off the heat pump at midnight. Many of us have debts we pay off. Although we don't make payments each day, a portion of the payment could be attributed to each day until the debt's reimbursed. So we can make an effort to avoid voluntary purchases on a particular day but all those scheduled purchases keep happening.
Hmm. There are still places in the world where people aren't well-integrated in the money economy. I wonder how many of them would say, "No thanks," to money. How well-integrated in the money economy do you need to be before, "No thanks," to money starts sounding like an answer worth considering?
The idea of specifically avoiding buying stuff today has some appeal given the extent to which the original story of Christmas—God's only begotten son being born—has been drowned out by the story of Santa Claus we're not even supposed to believe, yet we're supposed to get excited about buying a bunch of random stuff.
I hadn't planned ahead, however. Weeks ago, I made an appointment to get my hair cut today. Then I bought some eggs and coffee beans. So I guess it's been another buy something day.
Come to think of it, every day is buy something day for most of us. We have subscriptions for everything from telephones to electricity. The water bill arrived in the mail today. I didn't shut off the heat pump at midnight. Many of us have debts we pay off. Although we don't make payments each day, a portion of the payment could be attributed to each day until the debt's reimbursed. So we can make an effort to avoid voluntary purchases on a particular day but all those scheduled purchases keep happening.
Hmm. There are still places in the world where people aren't well-integrated in the money economy. I wonder how many of them would say, "No thanks," to money. How well-integrated in the money economy do you need to be before, "No thanks," to money starts sounding like an answer worth considering?
