The Black Friday Crisis
21 January 2024
It is the weekend before December and the streets have become packed with people bundled in woolly hats and thick jackets. They are rushing around in the winter winds searching for the perfect Christmas presents. The only haven from the bitter weather outside is the warm glowing shops that beckon them in.
Inside, the chatter of clinking cash registers fills the shop floor as people bustle about. It is the busiest time of the year for retailers and it’s evident from how often people are tapping their shiny little plastic credit cards. Around stores, huge red banners read: BOGOF! 50% OFF! 70% OFF! HUGE DISCOUNTS!
This is what we are going to see next weekend when Black Friday commences. Across the globe, countries are gearing up for their biggest sale of the year. In the U.K. alone, shoppers are expected to spend around £9.4 billion, according to the Statista Research Department. My sister is one such shopper obsessed with Black Friday, “I love it,” she exclaims. “Every year I book the day off work so I can go shopping. I’d say it’s more of a commitment than an addiction.” But it’s not just Britain that is cashing in on the shopping bonanza. Despite originating in the U.S., it is now a custom celebrated across Europe, as well as Australia and even Iran.
So, what to expect? Black Friday has been around for roughly the past 7 decades and it is a hard event to miss with such huge discounts available. Companies often advertise the massive sales weeks in advance, with some online marketing campaigns even sporting live countdowns to the event. One of the most notable Black Friday sales last year was from online retailer PrettyLittleThing. The clothing brand offered up to 99% off items, selling off some dresses for just 8p each. The discounts were so popular that items sold out within a matter of minutes. Sales like this are characteristic of Black Friday but the event wasn’t always about a shopping frenzy.
The story behind it varies depending on who you ask but the real reason, according to Sky History, comes from Philadelphia in the 1950s. The term was used by police to describe the chaos on the day after Thanksgiving, as masses of shoppers and tourists would flood the city in advance of the big football game that was held on that Saturday each year. The crowds caused queues of traffic and shoplifting in the city increased as thieves used the chaos of the stores to cover their theft of the merchandise. Black Friday became so unruly that Philly police were refused days off and instead charged with extra-long shifts in order to keep the peace.
The chaos has only gotten worse since then. It’s evident in the site crashes of our favourite fashion retailers, as customers sell out stock in a matter of minutes. But it is more than that. Black Friday has become a catalyst for spreading chaos into our very ecosystem.
Fast fashion is a multi-trillion dollar industry that uses mass market production of the latest trend clothing for minimal cost. The detrimental effects of this industry reach far and wide. According to a 2019 U.N. report, the fashion industry is responsible for up to 10% of global carbon emissions (that’s more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined) and is also the world’s second biggest consumer of water. Black Friday simply exacerbates the problem. According to Diana Verde Nieto, co-founder of Positive Luxury, “air pollution spikes” during Black Friday due to the delivery of online orders. The statistics showcasing the negative effects of this event are practically endless.
It comes as no surprise that the top consumers of fast fashion – USA, Europe, Russia, Japan, China – are also the top producers for greenhouse gases. But the problem is not just with those funding this appetite for consumerism, it is also those who are making the products. India and Bangladesh are the largest producers of fast fashion in the world. In Bangladesh alone the garment industry is responsible for 83% of the country’s exports and employing 4 million workers. However, it’s also one of the world’s worst polluted countries, vulnerable to both climate change and regular flooding due to rising sea levels.
Black Friday’s endorsement of fast fashion through flash sales is not only implicating the environment but also affecting those working within the industry. Thousands of garment workers in places like Bangladesh are forced to work without healthcare, education or even a living wage. Fashion Checker is an online website financially supported by the European Union as part of the Clean Clothes Campaign. They survey popular fashion brands and found that 93% of the brands surveyed do not pay their garment workers a living wage. Imagine being forced to make clothes day in day out and not being able to afford any for yourself.
It is this apparent abuse of the environment and workers that calls for us to discard the fast fashion industry and the Black Friday mentality of overconsumption and materialism. In fact, some companies are even beginning to boycott the Black Friday event this year, like Next and Marks & Spencer. Some companies are taking a different approach, for example Ikea is instead offering 20% extra in refunds on old furniture items brought back for resale. Approaches like this is what will ultimately end up slowing down clothing consumption, which has doubled globally since 2000.
Not only are we now consuming more than ever but we are also keeping our clothes for half as long as we did 15 years ago, according to fashion retailer Levi. This is why the company has launched their own sustainability campaign: Buy Better, Wear Longer. Fashion trends can be a fun and playful way of expressing our identities but in recent years the industry has become inundated with short-lived trends. This contributes to the 92 million tons of waste the fashion industry produces each year as people are only wearing these trending items a few times before they are ditched for the next best thing.
Jen Sey, brand president for Levi, condemns such fleeting trends saying “Ultimately, Levi’s denim is meant to be worn for generations, not seasons”. This is the foundation of their new sustainability campaign, which pushes shoppers to buy second hand and take advantage of the brand’s “in-store Tailor Shops to extend the life of their garments”, says Sey. The campaign features popular public figures like YouTube sensation Emma Chamberlain, rapper Jaden Smith, and English footballer Marcus Rashford MBE.
Levi is not the only fashion retailer trying to tackle this crisis in the fashion industry. Many companies are now introducing sustainability lines as a push towards making their brands more ethical. H&M, for example, have pledged to make all their products from recycled or sustainably sourced materials by 2030. They have also introduced their own collection called Conscious which features across all departments and is produced from at least 50% sustainably sourced materials, such as pineapple leaves, hemp waste and recycled glass.
Using sustainable materials in clothing is essential in order to protect the environment against fast fashion. More affordable retailers unfortunately use cheaper synthetic materials so they can keep the price of production low. This is how retailers like PrettyLittleThing were able to sell clothes so cheaply in last year’s Black Friday sales: by not paying their garment workers living wages and using cheap materials in production. Not only does the use of cheap materials significantly reduce the life expectancy of your clothes (meaning you will have to throw it out sooner and replace it) but it also aids the destruction of our environment.
Around 50% of our clothing is made up of cheap synthetic materials like Polyester, which is essentially plastic. Whenever you wash these clothes, hundreds of thousands of fibres break off and end up in our water system. The plastic fibres are so small that they get through our filtration system and end up in rivers and seas, where they are ingested by marine animals. Not only is this devastating to marine life but we run the risk of coming full circle in that when we eat from the oceans we will then also be consuming these microplastics; it will infect the entire food chain.
To avoid this happening, the best course of action is to buy better quality clothes made from sustainable materials. When shopping for clothes, keep an eye on the tag for hemp, wool, cashmere, organic cotton, and linen. These are the most common materials found in larger high street retailers. Although these products might be higher in price, they will last longer and have a lesser impact on the environment. By shopping sustainably, you pay more at purchase but save more in the long run.
An even cheaper method of shopping sustainably is to shop second hand through charity shops and ecommerce sites like Depop, Vinted, and Vestiare Collective. This way we limit the money given to companies that contribute to the oversaturation of clothing in the fashion industry. We, as consumers, also become more conscious with our buying habits.
When the Black Friday sales erupt next weekend, the most eco-friendly option is to avoid the mania altogether. But hardwiring our brains away from overconsumption is a lot easier said than done and the lure of Black Friday can get to the best of us. If you are not quite ready to give up the discounts then don’t despair as many of the second hand websites mentioned above offer reduced rates for the event. This way you can cash in on the Black Friday fun while also recycling clothes; both your bank balance and the planet will feel a bit better off. But the best thing to do this festive season, and all other seasons for that matter, is to think before you buy: do I really need this?