buy nothing day : The Birds In The Meadow

Tomorrow, November 24th 2007 is the UK’s annual Buy nothing day. To quote the official UK website:-

It’s a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life. The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from consumerism and live without shopping. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!

I agree with the above sentiments so strongly, despite being an ethical shop owner myself. That’s right, I don’t even want you to buy from me! I think it’s bizarre that shopping has become such an important leisure activity when there is so much more fun to be had elsewhere. Last weekend I was being dragged round Hamleys in central London by my partner who wanted a gift for his niece. It was so packed in there that security guards were manning the escalators to ensure it was safe, so suffocating you were breathing other peoples air, I lasted about 30 seconds before I frantically squeezed my way out of that shrieking madhouse and on to the tourist clogged but marginally saner Oxford street. Not my idea of a fun way to spend a weekend, and yet it seemed to me that the whole world was out shopping and diddn’t feel my fear and loathing one bit. Do people really, truly enjoy being corralled into consumer hellholes where they will shell out more than they can afford for some vacuous plastic crap that will be spurned and forgotten by boxing day? I confess, I have always been freaked out by how, when it’s the weekend and I grudgingly have to go to some soulless DIY store for some supplies, it is rammed solid with entire families doing what looks suspiciously like recreational shopping. Do me a favour people, on the 24th November, watch a favorite film, go play some football, take a walk on a blustery beach, sunbathe if your climate will allow, eat some pizza, read a good book, start writing that novel, go for a bike ride, sit in the pub all day, go to the park, a museum, a lovely garden, stay in bed, make some stuff, paint a picture, bake a pie… do anything – ANYTHING – but shop!