Here’s The Best Way To Do Black Friday Week

Here are 11 good reasons to avoid BLACK FRIDAY and 10 no-buy gifts to pull together with all your new free time

While we would never say no to getting a great deal, we do think that unless you are in the market for something specific and you know for sure that it will be on sale at a shockingly low price, shopping on Black Friday weekend can be a colossal waste of money and time.

11 Good Reasons

Aside from the frantic buy-it-now-or-lose-it-forever-at-this-price mentality that has come to mark this day, (CLICK HERE for Atlantic magazine’s 11 simple economic lessons to make you a smarter shopper on Black Friday, including the fallacy that Black Friday prices are just a one-day-only deal), one thing that really bugs us is how Black Friday takes the idea of family right out of U.S. Thanksgiving. It is particularly obvious this year with the introduction of Black Thursday sale shopping set to commence mere hours after Thanksgiving dinner ends.

We do need to say no to that.

10 No-Buy Gifts

What we need to say yes to are holiday gifts that are more about thoughtfulness than money. We like Grace Bonney’s no-buy gift guide idea. Yesterday on Design Sponge (D*S), her famous design/craft blog, she offered readers 10 fabulous no-buy gift ideas (CLICK HERE to see her selects). “While gift guides are simply part of the season,” she writes, “I prefer to start this time of year with something a little different: a guide that’s dedicated to putting down your laptop and car keys and using your own two hands—and your heart—to celebrate your loved ones.”

We would like to say yes to that. —eds

Artwork: Adbusters, M. Pessaris, Veer