Black Friday: bargains and protests

Shops were busy this Black Friday. Shoppers spent $40 billion in stores and online.

Black Friday’s an American tradition. It's the day after Thanksgiving, when Americans start their Christmas shopping.

During the pandemic, online shopping increased enormously. Now, shoppers are excited to be going out shopping again and looking for bargains. The streets and stores of New York were filled with people.

Around the world, prices are increasing. But will this stop people from spending lots of money?

Antonia Harris thinks the Christmas holidays are keeping sales strong.

Antonia Harris: "With the holiday coming up, Christmas, the people are willing to spend ahead of themselves a little bit, to make sure they're having festivities. And in there, a sea of people coming in the door, oh my goodness, it doesn't look like anything slowed down, not even a little."

Black Friday shopping trips to New York are popular. Many arrive from other states to look for good deals.

Samy Kunz: "I think it made us look for sales more so than we usually would, just to be conservative with how much we're spending."

Chase Moore: "Definitely more than usual!"

Chase Moore: "I have already spent way more that's in my budget. In grad school currently, so budget is like negative 300. So, we're, where, we've, we've already crossed that just by being in New York City."

Greenpeace wants shoppers to buy fewer things. Greenpeace shared this message with shoppers in Madrid.

Greenpeace employee Celia Ojeda Martinez explains the problems with cheap products.

Celia Ojeda Martinez: "What Greenpeace is denouncing here today is not so much the consumers, who also have a role to play, but the big brands and big companies that continue to produce products that are less and less durable, of lower quality, with toxic products that end up polluting because they end up incinerated and in landfills."

Greenpeace says consumer purchases cause pollution. It also thinks Black Friday encourages shoppers to make unnecessary purchases.

Celia Ojeda Martinez: "Black Friday is about how brands encourage us to buy one more pair of jeans when we already have six exactly the same in our wardrobe. To produce one pair of jeans, it takes 7,500 liters of water, which is the same amount of water a person drinks and consumes for seven years."

Today, Black Friday’s grown from a one day event. Offers continue until Cyber Monday, then December sales begin. Weniger anzeigen