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this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
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One day at a time. Isn't that what the 12 Step groups say? People in this thread saying this won't do anything. You have to start somewhere. Don't be defeatist. Get involved. Unless you are just trolling to keep people from doing anything.
I'm sure it will do something, I'm sure it'll lead to overstock at large stores and force all the low wage workers to suffer a little extra. That's what it will do.
Doomer do-nothings are so incredibly frustrating. I get the frustration, but spreading apathy is not useful. Authoritarianism flourishes when apathy takes root among the populace.
Real doing something is a long term boycott. Not a one day thing. Real doing something is labor organization, unions allow collaboration at a higher level, and allow you to strike back at the throat.
Even protesting at a leftist capital is doing more than a single day's blackout.
Go exercise your second amendment by a conservative senator's house if you really want to do something (and I don't mean that as a shoot them euphemism. Make them uncomfortable.)
This is it. If we want to have any effect it needs to be much longer than a day. One month would make a statement. You could even cave out food. You could also have people cancel their endless list of subscriptions or just scale back their lifestyle for a greater effect than a one day pause.
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For real. Most Americans have probably never even participated in a “buy nothing” day, much less a pocket book protest against a government.
I don’t see what’s wrong with starting with one day, letting people get used to the concept, then dialing up the frequency once word of mouth has spread.
One day will do nothing. This is slacktivism. Every one of them is a useful fool for the fascists.
They show up on every single issue and I want to just interview these people and post it online. Like who are these fucking losers
The key thing to remember is that a one day blackout won't have an effect on the corporations. What it will do is get more people comfortable with taking action. If you can go one day without buying from Amazon, two days isn't much more, and then a week, and then a month. The idea is to ratchet up the action.
Just like how fascism has a progression to slowly "boil the frog," collective societal action does, too. This isn't an end but a beginning.
The problem with this approach is that the frog knows you are trying to boil it.
I don't think it's much of a problem. People taking part want to do something to combat Trump and Elon, but many don't know how. And let's face it, it's kinda scary to try to go up against powerful people. This is an easy, low-threat way to get started. It's for Jim and Jane down the street who want to do something but don't know what and are afraid of going all in right now.
So, if they boycott for just a day as a symbol, they see it's not so bad. Hell, they may even make it two or three just on their own. Then the next call to blackout comes a month later, but this time it's for a week. Easy. Now, this time, they find alternative local businesses who align with their positions to get "emergency" supplies from. Then the next call comes for a month's blackout, and they realize that they haven't been buying from the big companies at all, so that's easy.
But, they still feel like they aren't doing enough. Isn't fighting supposed to be harder? So, they decide to attend a small protest. Then a bigger protest. Suddenly, Jim and Jane realize that they are going to city hall meetings, protests, etc., which they never thought they'd get involved in. And it started with just taking a day off from buying things.
Obviously, this won't happen for everyone where they get hyper-involved. For most, it'll probably just be doing the economic blackouts for however long at a time or just finding alternate places to do business so they feel like they're helping. And you know what, that's fine. If people turn away from the big businesses, even just 20%, that will start to show up.
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I just been not buying things most days. Anti-consumerism 2025
If everyone just holds off buying their shit until March 1st, or buys everything they will need Feb 27, then this blip won't have any effect.
You've got the right idea, if we want to actually hit them where it hurts. I'm doing the same, but not really by choice. I'm just broke.
That's not actually true.
It looks true on the surface, but because of the way global shipping and trade is set up, they are predicting how much products they need, how many workers they need, on any given day. If folks don't buy anything on a day that they are expecting to sell stuff, they waste all of that labor. They waste all of those resources, in the sense of keeping the lights on. Keeping the heat on.
Companies have overhead. A day with depressed profits throws off their expectations and that costs them money.
The theory is fine, but there are several practical issues that mitigate the effect.
First, and most obvious, not everyone is participating. In fact, I'd bet that most people ignore the protest and go about their day without realizing there is a boycott. Nobody can block all the gas stations and supermarkets to keep customers away, so most stores won't actually experience a perceptible loss, at least not enough to justify closing shop for the day. A lot of people exist without buying anything some days anyway. Stores will occasionally have days with low sales due to weather, or local festivities, or bad press, or
Second, the people participating are being told to get their shopping done the day before or wait until the day after to buy what they need. The boost in sales on either side will average out the labor and heating costs for stores. Most employees are paid weekly or biweekly, and a single day of low traffic something most shops already expect every now and then.
Third, this will mean nothing at all to online sales. Unless you're Amazon or Instacart, hardly anyone does same day delivery services. Your daily overhead surplus capacity is a tiny fraction of the operating costs for the business. Online retailers measure activity in quarters, they don't care about slow days.
Lastly, it's far too diffuse to result in effective change. The loss is spread out over all commerce which means that nobody specific will be affected. What are the grievances? Who are you asking to change? What specifically are you asking them to do? If the demands for people to return to shopping are simply "wait 24 hours" then the ruling class can wait it out. The is exactly what happened with Occupy Wall Street. There was no clear endgame, so all they had to do was wait while the effort collapsed on itself. If it's a hostage negotiation, you need demands. If it's a show of force, then it needs to have more impact. If it's an effort to educate consumers on the value of consuming less, then it needs to not be described as a temporary protest.
To be meaningful, it would help to be
- Targeted
- Longer
- More impactful to business
- Accompanied with specific demands
I'll be participating because I agree with the sentiment (and I'm cash poor, so any excuse to save money), but I'm not holding my breath that it will make anyone change their behaviors.
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I used to do production coordination. This isn't an issue. If Tony expects to sells two peaches a day, but this week he sold three yesterday and one today it's all the same. The amounts average out over time. You will have to hit them for much, much longer than a day to have ANY effect.
One day or a handful of days is meaningless slacktivism.
Perhaps it wasn't an issue for the company you worked for. A large distributor may only have so much room in their warehouse, and expect inventory to clear in order to receive shipments that are due. Peaches can rot. Etc.
I mean, you're right it's going to be a drop in the bucket overall. But it is a beginning.
And the more folks who participate, the bigger that drop is going to be
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Yeah, I've cut back my spending dramatically. Reminds me of how it was in 2020 when I bought next to nothing except food and essentials for like 12-18 months. Once you break the habit, you stop thinking about it and it just becomes easy.
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Since Amazon doesn’t actually MAKE anything, just resells stuff, can’t we get a delete and cancel Amazon day too?
There are some Amazon Basics branded stuff. Is that not making? What about the books that they print on demand? Not defending, just curious what the definition of “makes” is.
I canceled prime already. I'm also sourcing locally and from Canadian owned corps where I can.
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it's going to take a much larger blackout. No one will notice one day. it's a start I guess but it's not going to accomplish anything. I've ditched amazon, walmart, target, etc,.. Buy local or even better, don't buy at all. You don't need the latest shiny distraction. vote with your wallet.
May I present you all with the secondhand market. Please go back to using craigslist everyone. Craig never did you dirty and you left him hanging.
Got to start somewhere. Start small, send the message, get the word out, then dial up frequency and reach.
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I've been cleaning out the cupboards this month. Just going through all the random food stuff we have in the freezer and cupboard instead of buying anything
I never understood these "don't buy stuff on day X" things. Ok, then you will buy on the next day. It doesn't make a difference. What am I missing?
It's a threat. Nobody likes the idea of crippling the economy with an unending general strike. But the people who watch the daily numbers use them to predict future behavior. A big blackout in the second month makes them think really hard about what is coming 6 months down the road. If the blackout is small, they know they don't have anything to worry about. If it shifts 50% of sales to another day, they know they're having a conversation with a giant that can move their numbers a lot.
The idea is for it to be material enough that it shows up in reports about earnibgs for the day.
And also to get people accustomed to the idea of participating in mass actions. You don't go from barely having protests to a multi week general strike in one go. You do things like this, first.
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I see so many of these protests and blackouts. I wish there was a nationwide, unified voice for this stuff so its not so piece-mealed together. If only there was an opposition party.
Look up the 50501 movement that this nationwide economic blackout is a part of. They also have a next nationwide protest planned for Mar 4th
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