Black Friday craziness has unfortunately invaded France, but there is also a strong resisting push here to make it Green Friday instead!
So what is Green Friday and from where did it come?
Green Friday is a completely different French mindset resisting relentless promotion of consumerism, greed, and exploitation of others and of the planet.
It’s not that the French have a problem with sales, they love them like everybody else, but they resent the importation of malignant hyper-consumerism that has dominated the American society for years.
Having grown up with unbridled capitalism that values the holy grail of making money at the expense of human beings, it wasn’t until I was exposed to European values to fully see beyond the piled high altar of dollars.
I do remember though as a 7 year of child telling my father that I thought business was not “nice” because even then I saw the raw competitiveness as being hurtful and unfair in my little kid’s viewpoint.
The consumer can easily be fooled into thinking Black Friday sales is a gift from the gods but fails to see the ugliness behind the event.
The Black Friday battlefield is a real battlefield full of merchants hell-bent on out slaying their competitors with even lower prices to grab your money before someone else.
The big guys win of course, and perhaps the little guys get some leftovers or not. The consumer can walk away thinking he really scored with some hot deals but to what expense?
Green Friday is a term that was coined and pattened in 2017 and implemented in partnerships with several eco-responsible associations here in France, including the city of Paris.
The goals of the Green Friday movement is to educate the public about the consequences of unlimited consumerism and to promote reasonable and responsible buying.
Yes, it is a backlash to the kamikaze tactics of Black Friday sales. The effort concentrates on readjusting the current consumer mindset to become aware of the pitfalls and fallacies in Black Friday sales concepts.
Black Friday advertising is full of psychological tactics of creating a need to buy NOW. These psychological manipulations are so successful that they can create buyer panic, greed and frenzy.
Doorbuster specials whether they are from E-commerce or brick and mortar storefronts are often of the bait and switch variety.
People who have lined up all night or even sacrificing Thanksgiving dinner are going to be in a warrior buyer mood as soon as the doors open.
As you well know, this has created injuries and some deaths as panicky buyers shove, push and bitterly fight to snatch up bargains, even wrestling them from the hands of others.
Deeply discounted articles for a “limited time only” and “in limited quantities” manipulate buyers into thinking they have a “now or ever” slot of time to get a bargain.
This false thinking can create an uber volume of sales to boost profits. Merchants use Black Friday sales to “drive” customers into their stores or e-site, knowing you are likely to buy and return.
Merchants count on you not knowing the real retail prices of articles, especially in clothing for example, which are often sold on “sale” for what they would command in the first place.
Appliance manufacturers, both large and small assign letters and numbers to each model depending on the year and various components that some have and others don’t.
Have you ever really studied which models go by corresponding numbers and you know them by heart? How do you know when a manufacturer discounts poor performing models or stocks to a retailer because of a new upcoming model, that in turn is deeply “discounted” in “sales” to you? You don’t!
Complicating this is that different countries can assign different model names and numericals to further confuse you, which I have noticed in France and other European countries.
Green Friday was born from the French mentality that has long held a suspicious view of the American model of flooding the public with advertising to “create” desire in the consumer.
The buyer rarely sees that perhaps he has been manipulated and seduced into buying. Bombarded with tons of deals, who can resist?
Publicity geared to children is a flagrant offender of this manipulation. But don’t think you as an adult can defend yourself from this model either!
Wanting is very different from needing. We actually need little to have a comfortable and pleasant life.
You can easily fall into the trap of being convinced that you “need” the newest model or brand names to inflate your flagging sense of self-worth in the eyes of others.
Needing to display and wear expensive articles or the newest models to gain approval is only window dressing to cover up feelings of less than.
Green Friday is being also driven to remind the populace of how unchecked and irresponsible consumerism is ecologically devastating to the planet.
Repetitively replacing perfectly presentable clothing has lead to 73% of textiles ending up in landfills. Inexpensive clothing comes from sweat mills exploiting the poorest of people in third world countries.
Pesticides to grow fiber crops are used extensively as well as the dyes that pollute vast amounts of the earth’s waters. Washing detergents on top of this add tremendously to the pollution of rivers and lakes.
Don’t forget all the plastic and styrofoam used in packaging E-commerce articles for sale that will end up as microplastics in our oceans.
France banned stores from automatically packaging purchased goods in plastic several years ago. You either bring your own or buy a degradable bag.
Green Friday wants to promote zero-waste in consumer goods, which has already been set up as laws in France since 2016 for restaurants and grocery stores in France.
Any consumable leftover food products must be offered to charitable organizations and food banks first or if thrown out in bins, must not be doused with bleach, so the homeless can forage.
Triaging garbage in order to recycle thrown away glass, metal and plastics have long been in place in Paris even when I moved here at the end of 1999.
Green Friday is also against the increased carbon emissions involved not only in manufacturing but in the logistics of delivery E-commerce via trucks and planes.
Other ecological minded groups recently blocked the Amazon warehouse in Clichy, seen as a major exploiter of workers in order to fuel over consumerism and profits.
The French parliament recently approved an amendment that could potentially ban Black Friday advertising because of its ecological and financial impact.
Sales are quite regulated here to only two times a year, though you will still see some “private sales” in store windows.
A law was recently put on the books outlawing Amazon from discounting books along with free delivery in order to protect small French booksellers.
The French worry also that unregulated E-commerce will destroy other small businesses as you have seen in America. French villages have already suffered the loss of small businesses that once provided the infrastructure of village life.
The bottom line is that Green Friday wants to create an alternate mindset in an effort to dimish the growing influence of unneeded hyper-consumerism and the ensuing financial impact on small business, consumer debt and the ecological health of our planet.
They hope to turn Black Fridays into Green Fridays of donating unwanted goods and or recycling them, rather than buying stuff.
Yes, it is perhaps utopian in scope and grassroots, but that is how a revolution starts! Education and awareness is the beginning of taking action and being responsible in an individual way.
Accumulation of unneeded material goods does not make for happiness but serves only to fatten the profits of those who want to convince you to buy.
The best deals in life that can lead to happiness are having a healthy relationship with yourself and others!
The economies (and governments) basically depend upon people going further and further into debt to boost the economy. Then every decade or so we have some type of dramatic recession to “readjust” for the disasters of massive indebtedness. It is just the human nature of the sheeples of the masses to get irresponsibly caught up in the hysteria of the “deals” offered in those Black Friday sales.
A lot of those “sales items” have just become a way for merchants to get rid of old models of electronics, appliances, seasonal and old clothing fashions. One day last week they reported record sales of $7 Billion; and they keep setting new records weekly and yearly. That certainly equates to many people taking on indebtedness that they really cannot afford. The government and the economists push for more and more sales to demonstrate how robust the economy is (with no regard to the growing problems of people becoming indebted beyond their ability to pay).
Perhaps it is mostly because of our being in the third-third of life; but my wife and I really don’t buy very much anymore. We could certainly afford to buy a lot of new stuff; but we have just about everything that we need or desire. There simply isn’t the desire or compulsion to buy stuff to have the latest version or gimmick . . . for what? It is fine for those who enjoy buying new stuff and who can afford it. It is terrible for those who go into debt and wind up paying 20% or more in interest charges.
LOL . . . we make regular trips to the local Goodwill store to donate stuff, just trying to get rid of things that we have accumulated. Everyone enjoys getting things at bargain prices; but buying just because something is “on sale” isn’t very practical unless one really needs and can afford the products. The Black Friday sales promotions just whips people into a psychological desire and perception that they have to buy immediately.
This is going to be another one of those years where June and I really don’t need or desire anything for Christmas. The grandchildren are getting older . . . high school and college age. I say give them some money to buy whatever they desire (I always hated getting gifts of things that I really didn’t care for).
We need commercialism to keep the economies strong; but that should be balanced by people’s ability to pay for their indebtedness. Unfortunately our economies are too much like “Pyramid Schemes”; it all depends on massive growth to keep it from collapsing. To me, it appears that the French aren’t much better (and maybe worse off) for their attempts to over regulate their businesses and economy, and society.
Thank you, David, for your in-depth comment and opinion! Like you and June, I too embrace a minimalist approach in buying. I am never pulled toward impulsive buying, preferring to study articles that I need before any purchases are made.
I stick to my budget! A good thing living in such an expensive city!
I agree that some economies seem much like pyramid schemes that could collapse at any moment depending on the whims of the market, but am not knowledgeable in that domain to comment other than the psychology that I see drives buying.
Cherry, I had to work at the store Black Friday and your so right about a battlefield. It was so crazy and not to mention the way people drive in the parking lots and streets. A lot of fender benders .and for what,to save a few dollars on something that you really don’t need.
While working I observe the demeanor of my customers who seems to be in a trance to find something that they don’t even know what they are looking for.and others know what they are looking for but can’t find it because of so much more added merchandise in the aisle and more people than usual hurrying around . I then realize just how sane I really am.
It’s definitely getting worse every year.and most co. Are not turning their red ink into black as the original purpose of Black Friday.
I think I’ll take a vacation next year on Black Friday.
Hugs to you
Thank you so much Isham for sharing your own reality of Black Friday as an astute observer of customers’ behaviour. I don’t blame you for wanting to sit out next year’s craziness! You have already had your share of this wild sale day! Hugs