Buy Nothing Day

[filkertom]

Either you've been up since 5:00, and you're at the malls, or you're relaxing at home, celebrating International Buy Nothing Day, a protest against consumerism. (I might break the boycott later -- a pizza is calling my name. ;)

Sooo... rampant shopping, or sleeping in? Remember this can change on a year-to-year basis.

Comments

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

I'm doing neither. I'm at work. :|

[r-caton.livejournal.com]

I had a day off since I gotta get 5 and a half days in before Christmas or lose 'em despite the chaos I go back to after time away from the bench.
Gonna go mass buy the special cat food our Mog needs for his poor old innards...and have bought a CD-RW drive because I'm fed up with the games my Plextor is playing.

Ain't nuthin' wrong with pizza...

[seanmonster.livejournal.com]

Sleeping soon, then gaming, then work.

[madmanotl.livejournal.com]

I'm off today since the following New Years Day falls on a weekend. Other than buying groceries, (since I wouldn't even think of going to that store right before Thanksgiving) I'm just going to enjoy the day off. I won't get many in the next 5 weeks.

[valkyrwench.livejournal.com]

Working actually, but even if I wasn't, I wouldn't be shopping. I avoid all stores like the plague between now and New Years. I spent part of the drive figuring out how to get groceries for the next month without actually having to the store.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Seriously? Check your local markets. Some may offer online shopping. Here in S.E. Michigan, Busch's Valu-Land (http://www.buschs.com/) will take a full online order, bag it, and have it ready for you at the door for a nominal fee, and even put it in your car for you. Kroger does some special orders online (http://www.c-els.com/sfc/s/E051020020050037.asp). I recall Whole Foods (http://www.wholefoods.com/) doing something like that, but I couldn't hook up to their site this morning. And, if there's a Trader Joe's (http://www.traderjoes.com/) in the area, they're usually a touch less busy than the bigger chains.

[valkyrwench.livejournal.com]

Hmph. This is North Dallas. You don't think we'd have something as cosmopolitan as Trader Joe's, do you?

I actually refuse to shop at most regular grocery stores because of their personnel policies, Kroger included, which unfortunately limits my options. I can't get into the Whole Foods site, either, and Central Market doesn't deliver :(

Probably going to have to make a strafing run at Target early tomorrow morning, right when they open and avoid all parts of the store except the grocery aisle. With luck, I'll manage to throw enough in the cart to last at least a couple of weeks.

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

What about those of us who ordered from Amazon before midnight?

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Does getting a blood test and my driver's licence renewed count as rampant consumerism?

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

What about those of us who may well go out and get some food later? I mean, I won't go near a mall, but I don't plan on ignoring a day off if I have things to get.

[aiela.livejournal.com]

I never go shopping the day after Thanksgiving. Dealing with hordes of people isn't worth the sales.

I slept in, saw my boyfriend off to cover the high school football finals, and am now at home, trying to finish up a work project that's due Monday and getting some housework done.

[ericthemage.livejournal.com]

We might have to go buy a new thermostat today. I hope the hardware stores aren't too packed. My dad said Lowe's didn't even have any specials today, so I'm hoping they won't be too bad.

[ericcoleman]

I'm at work, on a day when most of our offices and our corporate office is closed.

So, I did the 15 minutes of work that I had and am now surfing and listening to The Kids Are Alright DVD that I have playing on the computer in the cubicle next to mine.

Print shops are fun places to work, since Mac generally come with DVD drives stock now.

Also on the playlist for the day

Bill Hicks - Live (the recent release on DVD of his One Night Standfor HBO, Relentless and Revelations as well as the It's Just A Ride documentary)
Storefront Hitchcock
Oingo Boingo - Farewell
Mitch Hedberg - Mitch All Together (the DVD that comes with is recent CD)

[jss]

Like valkyrwench, I avoid all shopping as much as possible between Thanksgiving and New Year's. I had to shop on Wednesday for groceries, and may need to grab a couple more grocery things today (the produce selection on Wednesday was abysmal, and I should get more veggies to add to the lettuces for the salad, and maybe some for crudités, and some fruit for the cheese tray presentation, if I bother at all). But non-online shopping for anything other than food is right out until after New Year's Day.

[ericthemage.livejournal.com]

I'm working from home. Not actually being productive, but hey, I'm logged into the network. :)

[nuveena.livejournal.com]

Usually, I avoid Day After Thanksgiving shopping like I would a sulfuric acid enema. This year, though, Satan WAS tempting me, in the form cheap stick drives at Staples.

However, I have laryngitis this morning. What I get for actually trying to converse with my in-laws yesterday. So I'll be staying home to sip hot tea, and let my son rot his brains on television. It's going to be tricky, I think, wrangling a toddler without my maternal bellow!

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Slept in, coding now (big project). I need socks and a few other essentials while I'm home from school so I'll probably go to some store. I'm also thinking of hitting a Suncoast or equivalent, but I could just be stupid.

My Day After Thanksgiving Ritual...

[arucartoonguy.livejournal.com]

In another hour or two I'm going to drive to the largest shopping mall in the area.

Once I'm there I'm going to walk, stroll actually, at a sedate pace from one end clear to the other, and then back again. While doing so I'll most likely get in the way of other people rushing about and they'll rush right past me and that's the point...

For the rest of the shopping season I won't stress out over some slow idiot in front of me, because I'll have already balanced the karmic scales first.

[arensb.livejournal.com]

A few years ago, I did a stint in private industry. The fact that I had to work the Friday after Thanksgiving, and the period between Christmas and New Year's sent me running back to academentia (well, that and the hellish commute, and the NDA, and a number of other things).

Other than that, I tend to ignore the day after Thanksgiving, except when people remind me about it. Then I tend to avoid it because crowds suck even more than people in general (yes, I'm a misanthrope. What's your fucking problem?). Although a few years ago, I went to Target the day after Thanksgiving a little after noon, and it was deserted. Dubya-tee-eff?

However, continuing the "ignore the media; do what I like" theme, I plan to get my copy of Sid Meier's Pirates!. No stores in my area had it on Tuesday, and I was too tired on Wednesday to go out. But the original was the best pirate game ever, and the remake is supposed to live up to the original's reputation.

Also, most Sid Meier games are highly customizable, so I'm hoping it might be possible to install a Monkey Island theme and call it Sid Meier's Men of Low Moral Fiber (Pirates!). Or a Gilbert and Sullivan theme and call it Sid Meier's Noblemen Who Have Gone Astray. It could also be fun to throw in a splash of Tim Powers's On Stranger Tides.

[firedrake-mor.livejournal.com]

I awakened, with some dismay, about eight a.m., and couldn't go back to sleep, so got up, made coffee, read the paper (resolutely throwing out the ads), and am at the computer to do some freelance work for a client, but couldn't resist the LJ. Had leftover pizza from Wednesday night for breakfast.

My wife's off to order the new glasses for her new prescription -- at an optician who's NOT at a mall. May go see The Incredibles tonight, or may stay home and watch the Prisoner of Azkaban DVD

I will do some shopping tomorrow at an SCA marketplace event, then to LosCon after.

Because I freelance, I have a flexible schedule -- If I go to a mall at all this season, it'll be on a weekday morning in the next week or so. My in-laws celebrate Hanukkah, which is early this year, and my wife's birthday is the 15th.

Here in L.A. the sky is blue, my grass is greener than it's been most of the year because of some recent rains, and the living room is littered with boxes of Christmas decorations I refuse to put up till Sunday night (old family tradition). Life ain't too bad . . .

[umbran.livejournal.com]

Protest against consumerism? Hardly. It is enlightened self-interest, a simple cost-benefit thing. The deals today are not nearly so good that they are worth fighting crowds. For me to call it a "protest" would be a thinly veiled attempt to make a virtue out of my insufficient drive.

And heck, my Lady is off at work today, saving doggies from swallowed turkey bones and stuff.

[skipjim.livejournal.com]

It's easy to protest against consumerism when you're broke =[.

I'll be avoiding stores this year almost entirely....

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Sleeping in.

December is pretty much "buy nothing month" as far as I'm concerned. Not because of political protests, but because they jack up the price of everything.

I try to do most of my Christmas shopping in January, when it's on sale again. The other nice option is a gift certificate for a store you know your recipient likes, since they'll use it after the holiday, when the price comes down.

If it wasn't for the colored lights brightening up the too-soon dark skies, I would hate this holiday like Scrooge.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

The only shopping I'll do today is at the supermarket, and that only because I'm out of coffee. (-:

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

Sleeping... about as late as usual, staying resolutely home. Pizza's sounding awfully good, though. Wonder if they have any decent specials on the Papa John's site...

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Or we're steeling ourselves for our turn in the mill as retail workers on Black Friday.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I'm working today too. When I'm not working, I'm sleeping (or trying to sleep. Warren has the radio up so I can hear it, and I've been yelling at him to turn it off).

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

I have my son (age 4) today, so shopping is right out--not that I've ever done it the day after Thanksgiving, anyway. We ran a couple of errands, did a couple of fun things, and went nowhere near a mall or shopping plaza or department store. We'll probably go to the mall for a food-court dinner and shopping some time next week, which will remind us to stay away until January.

[ruisseau.livejournal.com]

Today I WORKED in RETAIL HELL. I briefly contemplated wearing all black and then decided to go utterly opposite and do Seasonal earrings and a pin and a red shirt...I'm insane.

[mrlogic.livejournal.com]

As usual, was too lazy to go out and partake of the sales in the morning -- and in the afternoon it's too late to be worth it.

However, this morning I had the best reason to be staying in bed that I have had for a long time. I'd rather snuggle than shop any day.

[technocracygirl.livejournal.com]

Every year, at Hannukkah, my family has sock night. My mother goes to Fred Meyer on the day after Thanksgiving and buys 1/2 off socks. And one night of eight is sock night. She has gotten up for sales for as long as I can remember. It's a tradition (though we usually leave around 7 or so now.) And now she goes to Toys 'R Us to get cheap toys for her class of special needs pre-schoolers. So, yes, we glory in the sales that are the after-thanksgiving sales.

[arensb.livejournal.com]

Every year, at Hannukkah, my family has sock night.

Is this because everyone knows that at some point, they're going to get socks (instead of something good), so might as well make a night of it? Or what?

[technocracygirl.livejournal.com]

It's because my mother buys socks every year and figured that if people were going to get socks, we might as well do it on the same night, so as not to disappoint the smal children who would much prefer toys. Or books.

[treebones.livejournal.com]

I acquired gasoline, and a can of whipped cream for the pumpkin pie. I think my consumerism was a fair bit less than rampant. (:

[dbcooper.livejournal.com]

I have decided that in lieu of one Buy-Nothing Day, I will have more Did You Really Need That? Days. More meaning, and more flexibility.