Black Friday
Buy Nothing Day
At Gnosis, we believe in CONSCIOUS COMMERCE. Just as we stand against Charm Pricing ($5, not $4.99! see blog here), we stand against the madness of Black Friday. We stand for integrity, transparency, non-manipulative sales tactics, and for thoughtful, educated purchasing. Black Friday is the opposite.
YES, we believe in good deals, and we will be offering them for your holiday shopping as we would love to partner with you in the season of gifting, and want to offer you the very best pricing we possibly can!
But we will NOT be pushing you to order for “Black Friday.”
We will be sending out a respectful number of meaningful, thoughtful, love-filled emails about our 100% freshly handmade creations over the next few weeks, so please do sign up (and then continue reading!)
We are simply, in our little way, taking a stand against the negative impacts of this consumerism-oriented holiday mentality. Yes, I know, we are incredibly idealistic. We believe with a name like “Gnosis” Chocolate, we absolutely must adhere to certain moral codes.
To call out Black Friday shoppers may be considered elitist or classist, especially in this economy. Perhaps we can just pause a moment to consider…
In the food industry, economy of scale isn’t just about the cost of packaging and ingredients. It’s the labor! What methods, machines, or minimum wages are fueling a company’s ability to offer such a huge discounts? Yes, of course, it is helpful when customers order early so we know how many to make and can more efficiently produce and ship. But… must we call it, “Black Friday” and contribute to this concept of spending so much the day after “Thanks Giving”? How much profit is spent on marketing that COULD (should!?) be put towards creating a product so excellent that the company EARNS its growth by organic means alone (as we did - in 300 stores and on the screen in the back of NYC taxis without a PR company or paid advertising whatsoever… completely by word of mouth and customer demand aka our Suggest A Store Program)? Or that could be spent on improving supply chain, for example building a better fermentry at country of origin, as we have?
Part of the solution lies in all of us individually taking a step back to examine what, how, and why we consume, and asking ourselves…
is Black Friday really the holiday mentality we want to support?
The other and most important part of the solution lies in addressing the systemic issues that lead to this yearly hysteria.
Here are a few other things we can do the day after Thanksgiving:
Shop from small businesses and support brands that mindfully impact the planet and its inhabitants with every part of their process.
Participate in Giving Tuesday. Giving Tuesday helps promote charitable acts of giving and to foster a society that is “more gracious” and inspires people to work together and help each other.
Participate in BUY NOTHING DAY! We began promoting this in 2010 as “White Friday.” Have you spent a day purposefully spending nothing when the rest of America is being pushed so hard to buy? We do hope - whether this year or in the future - that you experiment with purchasing NOTHING on Black Friday. It’s interesting.
We agree with the CEO of Mountain Rose Herbs.
“Buy Nothing Day is our act of pushback.”
Thank you for taking the time to consider the morals behind Black Friday marketing.
And, dearest ChocoLovers…. please do let us know if you need a discount. If you know Mamma Wonka and I by now, you GNO we will do all we can to oblige!
AGAIN:
YES, we believe in good deals - and we WILL be offering specials for free shipping and discounts up to 20%
over the next few weeks as we would love to partner with you in the season of giving!
We will be sending out a respectful number of emails, so do sign up below! :)