Not even beer?

I'm pretty sure that beer -- even $344.55 in beer -- is OK.

+ "Revolutionize the way you think"
+ "Reduce unnecessary spending"
+ "Recycle ..."
+ "Reconnect with your family and friends"

Please partake, people.

Buying nothing helps no one.

Should be buy locally day.

If you have to buy to help, you've failed.

I'm not buying any of this.

At the risk of being called a troll:

*"RE tarded"

troll.

doesn't this smack of the oft held and oft failed "don't buy gas on such and such day so we can show the oil companies a thing or two" schemes?

if you don't buy what you need on buy nothing day, you're going to buy it the day before or the day after.

sorry, things like this just. don't. work. great concept but...the odds of it having any sort of impact at all are greatly against you.

I guess it might have helped had i not forgotten the link for the group behind the whole thing.
while yes it is gimmicky i believe the point they want too make is how negative consumerism is and i would have to agree what better day then black friday.http://www.adbusters.org/

Tangential: "Smart Cars" are stupid. My car (a Toyota) gets 40 mpg, it has 155,000 miles on it and it has only ever needed routine maintenance. Smarts, which are half my car's size, top out at 34 mpg and suck mechanically. Oh, and don't expect to survive any accidents in them.

The main issue here, why "buy nothing day" really will never work, is it's promoting an individualized solution to a social problem. Consumption is part and parcel of the capitalist system, and will not be reduced unless the system is under serious recession or is destroyed altogether. It really has very little if anything to do with individual choices. We can't buy or not buy our way out of this mess, either by shopping "green" (which means being suckered by snazzy PR) or not shopping at all. You want to destroy consumerism and save the planet? Quit wagging your finger at consumption and start organizing workers to take production into their own hands.

john golfine's smartcar and a raccoon got into a fight at 60 mph. the smartcar won, but it was an ugly victory.

as tamara says: "If they were smarter, they'd be bigger."

zra.: I'm not so naive to believe that Buy Nothing Day will "work" in the sense that it will, as a single day of the shopping season, make a significant impact in retail sales. But maybe that is not the point. Perhaps the point is to make people think...think about where their dollars are going, who they are supporting (and not supporting), what they don't really need and how they might spend their time if they are not busy shopping.

rediguana is correct in stating that this is a relatively individual solution to a social problem in that the campaign calls upon individuals. So how do we get those individuals to act as a collective? Yes we should organize workers, but organized workers are consumers too, and few labor organizations have been successful in any dramatic attempts at curbing consumerism or taking "production into their own hands." How many union members do you know that own their work product? A few, no doubt, but not enough to have an impact on our national and global economies. I don't pretend to know the answer but we're not going to find solutions by denigrating the well-intentioned efforts of caring individuals.

Red, FYI my smart car gets 40 mpg, it hasn't yet needed any mainenance (I only have 6k on it but I haven't heard of anyone have any significant problems with them), cost the same if not less than your Toyota and is a hell of a lot more fun to drive. But you're certainly entitled to your opinion that they're "stupid". As for safety, I don't considered it any less safe than all other small and medium sized cars.

as usual, I think I'm with @ndy.

Just my near-worthless opnion, but I don't "get" Smart Cars, either. I suppose if you lived in a big city and parking was an issue. But, otherwise, they cost just as much, get the same or less mileage as, and are a whole lot smaller than a lot of larger models. Just seems kind of silly to me.

Yeah. That's right. I said they are smaller than a lot of larger models.

Now you know the truth.

I am amazed at how often my daily life leads me, a fairly non-materialistic person, into a store. Buying nothing for a day might help us appreciate the abundance that we generally take for granted. Not everyone has the luxury of running out for a Phillips-head screwdriver or a squeeze-bottle of honey whenever the urge strikes.

I'm with rediguana on Smart Cars. They're good for parking in small spaces and seemingly nothing else. It's hard for me to believe that you can't get better fuel economy out of a 2-seater in 2008--the fuel-miser version of the Honda CRX got 45 mpg overall with 20 year-old technology, and it would run rings around a Smart.

Big E...I agree. This aluminum demon gets 60+ mpg and no one wanted them. I love mine...600 miles on a tank of gas.

For the record, Buy Nothing Day has been going on for over 15 years, and Adbusters, always having been heavy on the design, actively promotes individuals creating their own Culture Jammer materials (such as the above video w/ the smart car).

Driving two and a half hours to go to the Gateway to Hell* would probably defeat the purpose, though.

Don't buy anything one day, to make a symbolic gesture, but then use the money you might have spent and donate it to a charity, so that you are doing something tangiable (political parties don't count).

The award for Most Wisdom goes to Ramos and Scribbler.

Ramos: "I am amazed at how often my daily life leads me, a fairly non-materialistic person, into a store. Buying nothing for a day might help us appreciate the abundance that we generally take for granted. Not everyone has the luxury of running out for a Phillips-head screwdriver or a squeeze-bottle of honey whenever the urge strikes."

Sribbler: "Don't buy anything one day, to make a symbolic gesture, but then use the money you might have spent and donate it to a charity, so that you are doing something tangiable (political parties don't count)."

Yeah what ever. Another feel good day for the progessives in Duluth. Does this "buy nothing day" include not shopping at Whole Foods Cooperative ?

The day is not meant to impact the capitalist system directly. It is the consumer equivalent to the spiritual day of fasting. It is for self reflection, which could, eventually, impact the greater system.

The fact is, without concerted conscious effort, it is nearly impossible to accomplish. Do we count the fuel that is being consumed to keep warm, even if we won't be paying for it until next month?

Burly?

I doubt I'll go shopping that day anyway, we usually watch the Macy's Day parade on TV. But we will also have relatives in town that weekend, and we'll go out to dinner with them. I know we'll go to a local restaurant, not a chain. I'm much more supportive of buying local, rather than not buying at all. I think Scribbler's idea is also fabulous, by donating money you would spend to a charity, you are actually making a statement, not just holding off on shopping til the next day.

Why the exemption of political parties Scribbler? And why is refraining from supporting particular companies intangible?