Climate groups protest against Black Friday throughout NL

Climate activists from Extinction Rebellion will be protesting against fast fashion and over-consumption throughout the Netherlands on Black Friday, with slogans like "cheap means someone else is paying the price". 

Actions include 'guerrilla repair stations' where people can bring their clothes to get patched in Zaandam and other places, a "make it yourself" workshop in Amsterdam, a dance and make session in Eindhoven, and a second hand clothing swap station in Leiden and Ede, and more traditional protests elsewhere in the country, according to Extinction Rebellion's website. The protest actions will mainly be held near large fashion stores.

The goal is to save people a trip to the tailor or a new purchase, spokesperson Lucas Winnips said to Metro Nieuws. "Did you know that a whole truck of clothing is dumped every second worldwide and that 200 million kilos of textiles are thrown away in the Netherlands every year?" he said. "And that the fashion industry's share in CO2 emissions is 10 percent?"

As far as Extinction Rebellion is concerned, today should be the last ever Black Friday in the Netherlands. "We are selling ourselves out," Winnips said. "We are destroying lives with our over consumption." 

While the Black Friday shopping day has only garnered limited support from customers in the Netherlands, it has become an exceptionally busy period for retailers, distributors and delivery firms this year with the Covid-19 pandemic prompting many to swap in-person shopping for online purchasing. Consumers are likely to spend 75 percent more online from mid-November through the end of the year compared to the same timespan in 2019, according to Dutch bank ABN Amro.

The bank said that many logistics companies were already running at maximum capacity two weeks ago.

A Bol.com distribution center in Waalwijk doubled their workforce to 4,000 people just for the period of November and December, according to ANP. PostNL delivery drivers on Black Friday alone will make 5,500 runs instead of the normal 4,000.