Black Friday: bargains and protests

Black Friday saw shoppers flooding the street and the internet, partaking in a quintessentially consumerist celebration which has become a global shopping phenomenon – racking up global sales receipts of $40 billion.

Originating in 1950s USA, Black Friday falls the day after Thanksgiving. Heralding the American holiday shopping season, its now taken off worldwide, co-opted by a plethora of brands which aim to drive sales by discounting some of their key merchandise.

Although internet sales have soared to new heights, post-pandemic shoppers on the hunt for a bargain flocked to the hallowed temples of retail in the streets of New York. Despite a global economic crisis and soaring inflation, shoppers showed little restraint in their spending.

Antonia Harris: "With the holiday coming up, Christmas, the people are willing to spend ahead of themselves a little bit, to make sure they're having festivities. And in there, a sea of people coming in the door, oh my goodness, it doesn't look like anything slowed down, not even a little."

With many having trekked across state lines to reach New York's shopping paradise, keeping spending under control proved something of a challenge.

Samy Kunz: "I think it made us look for sales more so than we usually would, just to be conservative with how much we're spending."

Chase Moore: "Definitely more than usual!"

Chase Moore: "I have already spent way more that's in my budget. In grad school currently, so budget is like negative 300. So, we're, where, we've, we've already crossed that just by being in New York City."

While many are revelling in the spending frenzy, Greenpeace offered shoppers in Madrid pause for thought. Activists displayed their opposition to excessive consumption in one of Madrid's main commercial avenues.

Celia Ojeda Martinez is Head of Biodiversity.

Celia Ojeda Martinez: "What Greenpeace is denouncing here today is not so much the consumers, who also have a role to play, but the big brands and big companies that continue to produce products that are less and less durable, of lower quality, with toxic products that end up polluting because they end up incinerated and in landfills."

Greenpeace draws a direct line correlating the promotion of consumerism by big brands, tempting shoppers to make unnecessary purchases, and today's environmental crisis.

Celia Ojeda Martinez: "Black Friday is about how brands encourage us to buy one more pair of jeans when we already have six exactly the same in our wardrobe. To produce one pair of jeans, it takes 7,500 liters of water, which is the same amount of water a person drinks and consumes for seven years."

Growing from its beginnings as an American shopping habit, this now global phenomenon stretches on till Cyber Monday, ahead of the December sales. View Less