As is the case every year, this Friday will mark the start of a major shopping event: Black Friday. It features significant discounts on a wide range of brands and at large retail stores. It’s a concept that seems appealing to both consumers and businesses—which see their sales skyrocket on this day— but it’s not without consequences. With COP26 having just concluded, the environmental situation remains as alarming as ever. And everyone’s behaviors and habits must move in the right direction. That’s why we’re seeing more and more companies boycott Black Friday for ethical reasons. This is the case at KIPLI—we offer products at a fair price and have participated in Green Friday from the very beginning. We’ll tell you more in this article.
What is Black Friday, and where did it come from?
Black Friday has been an American tradition since the 1930s, but the term was first used in the 1950s. It refers to the last Friday in November, as it follows Thanksgiving and also marks the start of Christmas shopping. On this day, businesses offer spectacular discounts (much more significant than what we see during sales periods in France). Hence the videos of crowds packed in front of stores, rushing to grab products five seconds after the doors open, barely caring what they’re grabbing. The goal is to snag as many great deals as possible in record time.
In France, despite the two traditional sales seasons—summer and winter—as well as the French Days, we’ve embraced this Friday of sales since 2010. This trend has certainly been fueled by the boom in online sales, which has further globalized this type of event. Today, Black Friday is no longer limited to a single day. First of all, the following Monday also offers plenty of discounts. This is called Cyber Monday—just in case you missed out on Black Friday. What’s more, an increasing number of brands are offering discounts all week long, including Black Friday, and even throughout the entire month of November. Endless promotions—it’s hard to know where to turn. It’s becoming “Black November.” These sales campaigns are enticing but encourage overconsumption and a shopping frenzy. To counter this, more and more brands are openly taking a stand against Black Friday. This is what we call “Green Friday,” and we’re part of it.
Why celebrate Green Friday?
Many brands regularly offer discounts. There are outlet stores, sales, and “promotions” pages that you can find almost year-round, especially on fast-fashion websites. Offering more discounts encourages impulse buying—and thus often unnecessary purchases. We might be tempted to buy a new, cheap phone even though the one we have still works perfectly fine. Or we might buy gadgets or appliances that we won’t really use. All of this generates a huge amount of waste, in addition to driving up demand for delivery services, since most of these purchases are now made online.
Green Friday has been around since 2019 and lists brands that do not participate in Black Friday for environmental and ethical reasons. The goal is to return to sensible and purely practical consumption. Rethinking the entire way commerce operates is essential for our future. We must combat planned obsolescence by repairing items whenever possible rather than replacing them. We should make do as much as possible with only the essentials and what is truly useful, and buy high-quality products to ensure they last. Of course, we can treat ourselves, but the key is to limit overconsumption. It’s a gesture for the planet but also for a healthier society. Who enjoys seeing people fight over the last jar of Nutella at a bargain price? We might as well learn to make our own spread with ingredients we know and trust.
At KIPLI, we’ve held this vision from the very beginning, and we refuse to offer discounts where the original price has often been inflated to create the illusion of a “deal of the century.” We offer our products at a fair price. Transparency is our guiding principle. Everyone involved in both the manufacturing and sale of a product is paid a decent wage. We want to be an active player in this emerging new era of mindful consumption, which is essential for preserving our environment.