23 11 | 2018

I am buying stuff for Green Friday

Written by Tanguy

Classified in : Homepage, Miscellaneous, Grumble, Bike

So, today is Black Friday, and today, environmental and zero-waste organizations are promoting Green Friday, suggesting that people abstain from buying stuff, and to create and repair things instead.

Well, believe it or not, while I am in favour of reducing consumption and waste, and because of that, I am buying stuff on Black Friday, and doing so in order to repair things, namely, my bicycle.

I am an intensive bicyclist, commuting almost exclusively by bike every day, and guess what? A bicycle needs to be maintained, and for that, requires spare parts. As a bicyclist, I do not believe at all in zero waste, which is just an unrealistic goal, perfectly impossible to achieve. With the six thousands kilometres I ride every year, I am buying an average of two tires, one cassette, one or two chains and eight brake pads every year, and proudly dumping exactly the same, used ones.

So, for Black Friday, bike resellers are offering actual discount on spare parts, and, for the planet's greater good, I am buying some. This is not additional purchase, just stuff I need to maintain my environment-friendly attitude.

Tags : black, green, friday, consumption, buying, repair, bike, components, discount, zero, waste, reduction

2 comments

friday 23 november 2018 à 23:52 illwieckz said : #1

Well, it still has a negative effect and still produces a social prejudice but you're not the one suffering from it.

Black Friday is only profitable for sellers if you buy something you don't need: It's the deal to reduce the price to sell something instead of selling nothing. If the purchase is not an extra purchase and if you're going to purchase in any way, purchasing on Black Friday is just making someone getting less money to feed their child than the fair price would give him. It means you don't pay the fair price.

Because of that, buying something with a discount on Black Friday that would have to be bought in any way is a social injustice.

Then it gives the seller a false feedback that will wrongly think the discount worked, and will be enticed to replay the Black Friday game that is just a loss for him.

Black Friday is a deal, it's a game, and it's a sad game. In this game the discount is only fair (at the seller/customer scale, not the society one) because it's an extra purchase. If it's not an extra purchase it's not fair in any way.

I would say something like that: « Play the game for real and be sad for real, or don't play the game at all and be nice for real, anything between is worst ».

monday 26 november 2018 à 10:44 Tanguy said : #2

@illwieckz : This is an interesting thinking, and I would agree with it, except in my case, it was a discount on bicycle spare parts, like tires, cogs and chains, from an online store specialized in that. And they should know that people do not buy such spare parts if they do not need them. You do not buy a pair of bike tires impulsively, you do if you plan to use them.

That shop also sells things that could be extra purchase, like clothing, bottles and any kind of bicycle equipment, but they still decided, willingly, to apply discount on spare parts. They cannot expect to sell these to people that would not have bought them anyway at some point, I would therefore assume that since they decided to apply this discount, the consequences are harmless to them, otherwise they would not have done it. Or they should not have done it, but this is their doing, not mine.

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