Scientists want next Cabinet to ban Black Friday

Black Friday must be abolished in its current form. It stimulates an unhealthy urge to buy, and the earth cannot keep coping with our unchecked consumption, researchers and professors said to the new Cabinet. The Council for the Living Environment and Infrastructure (Rli), an important advisory body for the government, published a report with the same advice, AD reports.

The American phenomenon of Black Friday has well and truly blown over to the Netherlands. It is no longer one day of offers but has turned into a multi-week event with escalating discounts, Pricewise reported. Delivery companies are seeing their year-end peaks shift earlier and earlier as people buy Sinterklaas and Christmas gifts on Black Friday.

“Black Friday is the height of waste and the throwaway economy,” Andre van der Zande, committee chair at the Rli, told AD. “It is a form of mass hysteria that is exploited to the maximum by entrepreneurs, with government support. We shouldn’t put up with that anymore.”

According to Cees-Jan Pen, head of a research group at Fontys that examines waste, Black Friday tempts customers with bargains that give them the impression that they’re missing out if they don’t buy things. And manufacturers keep the circle going by making products of such poor quality that they must be replaced frequently. “Promotions like Black Friday encourage consumers to buy more of this junk, all while appealing to a concept of scarcity created by the capitalist model,” Pen said.

And this discount spiral can be very damaging, said consumption researcher Hans Dagevos. “The production and disposal processes of consumer goods have numerous effects on people and the environment. Besides the fact that the short-term nice feelings of the Black Friday story turn out to be an illusion, it obscured the long-term pain of our excessive consumption.”

The only way to get out of this mess is to not throw away products but repair them or reward returns. That rarely happens, but companies are slowly starting to change course, Arjen Wals, professor of Sustainability at Wageningen University, told AD. For example, the Dille & Kamille stores are all closed today. And this week, Ikea placed Marktplaats ads on its billboards for people who want to resell their Ikea furniture.