No Purchase Necessary

[emlev]

A 24 hour moratorium on consumer spending - participate by not participating

North America: 23rd November, 2007
International: 24th November, 2007

Credit card cut up

Volunteers stand in a shopping mall with a pair of scissors and a sign offering a simple service: to put an end to extortionate interest rates and mounting debt with one considerate cut. Be careful though: in some first-world countries, carrying scissors in public can get you arrested as a "terrorist".

Zombie Walk

The cheerful dead wander around malls, marveling at the blank, comatose expressions on the faces of shoppers. The zombies are happy to be among their own kind, but slightly contemptuous of those who have not yet begun to rot.

Whirl–mart

This activity has the advantage of being most likely to piss off security personnel. You and nine of your closest friends silently drive your shopping carts around in a long, inexplicable conga line without ever actually buying anything.

More Ideas...

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. Bump!

[BeHereNow]

2. Clog up check out lines and then...at the point of pay- change your mind.

And put it all back...
Heh.
BHN

[Swamp Rat]

4. "Sorry, I forgot my wallet."

[emlev]

6. Or how about...

backwards shopping?

Walk backwards into the store pulling a full shopping cart, full of empty product containers. Back through the store putting the empty boxes, plastic containers, etc. on the shelves where they originally came from...

[dysfunctional press]

10. "put it all back"...?

umm...they pay people to do that...let THEM put it all back.

[tritsofme]

23. Because nothing is funnier than making life hard for a miniumum wage worker

That'll really show those corporations.

[dysfunctional press]

26. welll...i wouldn't say "nothing"...

but it does rank up there pretty high.

[Basileus Basileon]

30. Dick. nt

[nightrider767]

3. I got a better idea

Folks, let's send them a real message.

For the rest of the Holiday season, let's focus on the spirit of the holidays and not the spending part.

Spend as little as possible.

Every year they export more and more jobs overseas so that they may manufacture things cheaply and in turn sell them to to us on credit.

Enough is enough.

Learn to make greeting cards. Men, make your kids some toys. Treat your spouses like Kings and Queens for the Holidays. Celebrate the real holiday, not the fake one.

And with the money you save, either stash it away or pay off a credit card.

[emlev]

5. The Whirl-Mart really sounds like fun to me. n/t

[dysfunctional press]

9. whirl-mart one better...

before forming the conga line, each person should spend 20 minutes playing the part of a good little shopper, and filling their cart with merchandise...then AFTER the conga line, leave the full shopping carts at the front of the store as you leave.

[madmom]

11. the only thing this does is make some poor stock person work their ass off putting it all back!

[dysfunctional press]

12. well, since they get PAID to do it- they should see it as "job security"

and since nobody will be shopping- the employees will need something to do anyway.

[madmom]

15. yes they do get paid to do it, but rest assured there is always plenty to do in retail stock,

and do you really believe there will be no one shopping? that is known as "black Friday" in retail because it is the biggest shopping day of the year.Officially the first shopping day of the xmas season.so why make these poor minimum wage workers work harder than they have to,because they are the only ones who will know about this.

[dysfunctional press]

20. because they're there?

[madmom]

24. ?

[Basileus Basileon]

31. Yeah, I remember always being really fucking grateful

when I worked at Target and some jackass would just decide to "put away" half a cart's worth in some random corner of the store.

"Thank you for giving me something to do," I would think. "I don't know what I would do with myself if I wasn't spending the next 15 minutes cleaning up after you, asshole. Why, I might have to actually help some guests or something."

[NanceGreggs]

7. K & R!!!!!!!

[emlev]

8. Thanks. n/t

[nick303]

17. Can I un-recommend this thread?

[AlCzervik]

13. i would never, ever in a million years be out shopping on the day after thanksgiving

no way, nuh-uh no how.

[EFerrari]

21. I did it once. Deep discounts and at that time, needed ones.

But it was a lot like being in a riot and once was plenty!

[appleannie1]

14. The one place I would never go the day after

Thanksgiving is anywhere within a mile of a store.

[seriousstan]

16. Thank God these ideas never get further than the foolish few.

Let's see, where do I begin?

Not One Damn Dime Day or The November 6 don't buy anything protest.

Or maybe the fact that you would be the only asshat that was making the regular workers at Walmart's jobs even tougher. You really are so naive as to think that they wouldn't be expected to restock AND get their regularly scheduled work done? I can only assume you have never had a retail job.

Keyboard generals......sheesh.

[ThatsMyBarack]

18. But...but...it-it's the DAY after THANKSGIVING!

People will think we're all COMMIES or something if we don't celebrate the birth of JESUS by going out and spending $$$$!

[trotsky]

19. Umm...

Wouldn't this be as ineffective as the one-day gas boycott?

[earth mom]

22. Therein lies OUR POWER. Cut the cards up, pay off debt, stop spending!!!

I'm not your average consumer, because I'd rather shop thrift stores, estate sales and garage sales than at the mall. I ALWAYS pay in cash. I would LOVE to give up on shopping at any of the mainstream places like Target and Albertsons, but gotta eat, gotta have laundry detergent. That being said, I fully support efforts such as this one, but feel we should be making an effort YEAR ROUND to break free of the stranglehold corporate america has on us-their willing slaves.

My question is...would having a BUY NOTHING YEAR-save groceries, prescriptions, toiletries and gas-be the thing to bring those f*cking bastards to their knees? Hmmm.......

[GliderGuider]

25. Kick

[orleans]

27. kick. and i'm in. n/t

[orleans]

28. kickin again. if you're all just waking up to get ready to hit the stores

GO BACK TO BED!

[Basileus Basileon]

29. So how does it send a message if you buy the same amount, but on Sunday instead of Friday?

[Berry Cool]

32. It doesn't. It just gives people a false sense of virtue

so they don't have to go through the possibly painful process of actually buying less. Period.

It also seems that every year, a bunch of people on DU think they are being amusing and clever by recommending that other people protest a commercialized holiday season by filling up their carts with stuff, then leaving them behind in the store. What a way to "stick it to The Man," huh?Well...no. You're not sticking it to The Man. You're sticking it to the minimum-wage worker who has to put away everything you plied in the cart in your slacktivist pranker glee. Chances are they'll have to stay after the hour they were originally going to get out of work to help put things away...and not get paid overtime for it, either. Yeah. You sure showed THEM.

Please, if you want to protest commercialism, do it a useful, meaningful way...just buy less.