Your mailboxes have probably filled up quickly in the last few weeks, the internet branches of the big department stores and the online retailers have showered you with seemingly appealing offers. A digital camera for half the price! Here, haven't you always wanted a new washing machine? Look, Bluetooth headphones reduced by 70 percent! If you don't buy that game console now, you'll bitterly regret it later!
Black Friday" is an import from the USA - yes, what actually? If you look at all the fuss it makes year after year, you might think it's a holiday as important as Christmas or Easter. In the end, however, only one thing is celebrated: unrestrained consumption. It has been documented in American retail since the 1960s, and there are various theories about the origin of the term: One says that the merchants had black hands from counting so much money in the evening. Others claim that the Philadelphia police coined the term when in 1966, on the first Friday after Thanksgiving, the streets were so crowded with shopping enthusiasts that the officers were afraid of losing control.
Of course, we at Soeder also discount our goods from time to time. If a product is discontinued, we sell it at a lower price, or if the best-before date is in danger of being exceeded. But we don't believe in discount for discount's sake. Everything we sell has its production costs. These in turn lead to the price.
A "Black Friday" is therefore completely incompatible with our philosophy, also because drastic price reductions lead to customers buying things that, on closer inspection, they don't even need. We reject this for reasons of sustainability.
We are not alone in this attitude: Other brands we hold in high esteem also point out the nonsense of this day with the slogan "No Black Friday - Yes, We're All Naysayers" - for example the bag makers FREITAG, the folding bike pioneers Brompton, flamingos life, known for their vegan sneakers, Secrid, the inventors of the card protector and the professionals for sustainable surf and yoga clothing, Oy.
Thanks for saying no and passing it on!
P.S.: By the way, retailers complained about delivery problems on Black Friday this year. So with a bit of bad luck, you buy something that you then don't get at all.
