Don't buy anything for a whole day?

Sounds feasible - but it will be more difficult when the internet, social media and shop windows explode with offers on this day.

Because every year in the USA the Friday after Thanksgiving is Black Friday.

In the meantime it has even been a whole Black Week in which shops advertise with discount campaigns.

This Saturday is again “no shopping day”.

A counter-action to question our consumption, to stimulate thought.

Germany was also a single discount shopping event this week.

There is the group that fills their online shopping cart days before Black Week in order to get hold of the parts right at the start.

According to a survey by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Black Friday is particularly popular with those under the age of twenty-five, also for getting Christmas presents early.

In the USA you see terrifying scenes every year: at three o'clock in the morning in front of the shops, customers queuing, wrangling and sometimes fighting each other up to mass panic.

A shopping break

"Everything in business is designed to buy something today, now, here, right now," said Canadian artist Ted Dave three decades ago. "I was completely exhausted from it and thought maybe it would be a good idea to finally take a break from shopping." In 1992 he started the "Buy Nothing Day". A sign against our consumer society. It is now organized in over 60 countries - in Germany, however, the Kauf-nix-Tag is hardly known. It was here years ago that “Narra e. V. ”and the Konsumnetz-AG of the Attac network.

It has become quieter around the idea generator. However, a regional Attac group in Göttingen is planning a small campaign. They distribute self-made bags with flyers with the inscription: "Careless purchases increase the ecological footprint". "We live at the expense of the earth," says Christine Rose, member of the Attac regional group in Göttingen. "With our campaign we want to encourage people to question their actions."

One focus of the counter-action is on the effects of fashion items on the environment.

Many textile companies now advertise sustainable materials and controlled supply chains, but Viola Wohlgemuth from Greenpeace says: “Fast fashion will never be sustainable.” Repairing, renting and secondhand must become “the new normal”.

The pedestrian zones will be full on this Saturday too.

The no-buy-tag does not have enough power for a long range.

It won't make Black Friday look old anytime soon.

A little disillusionment doesn't hurt, though.