{"id":621,"date":"2022-11-25T20:40:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-26T01:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/?p=621"},"modified":"2022-11-25T20:40:01","modified_gmt":"2022-11-26T01:40:01","slug":"ottawa-businesses-opt-out-of-black-friday-to-protest-hyper-consumerism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/2022\/11\/25\/ottawa-businesses-opt-out-of-black-friday-to-protest-hyper-consumerism\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa businesses opt out of Black Friday to protest hyper-consumerism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Gwyneth Egan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some local Ottawa businesses opted out of offering Black Friday sales this year to protest unethical practices and rampant consumerism.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the pressures on businesses to provide discounts, some business owners are instead advocating for conscious consumerism over excessive shopping and consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA holiday around consumerism is just offensive,\u201d said Susie Pearson, owner of Hintonburg Kids, a baby and children\u2019s boutique on Wellington Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a day designed to get people to buy,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just artificial.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pearson said she does not participate in Black Friday as a rule because it encourages people to buy things they don\u2019t need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way big companies, such as Amazon, treat sales days like Black Friday make it difficult for small businesses to compete, she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA good Christmas season is what carries [small] retailers through,\u201d Pearson said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a problem for small businesses that Amazon tends to be the first place shoppers look for items, Pearson added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen people shop at places like Amazon, I understand it’s cheaper, (but) they do nothing for your community,\u201d she said. \u201cThere’s value to supporting your community with your dollars.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the important time for some businesses to determine if they\u2019re going to survive,\u201d said Christine Leadman, the executive director of the Downtown Bank Business Improvement Area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The holiday shopping season is arriving at a time when inflation has many cash-strapped Canadians looking for deals. In October, inflation rose nearly seven per cent over the same month in 2021, according to Statistics Canada.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local businesses bring a \u201clocal flavour\u201d to Ottawa that is \u201creally important for business areas to survive and our city cores to do well,\u201d Leadman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rachelle B\u00e9langer, a manager at Purple Urchin, a natural, hand-made bath and body store on Bank Street, said she\u2019s aware of the negative impact a lack of Black Friday sales can have on the store\u2019s foot traffic, but she does not want to contribute to the \u201cfrenzied atmosphere for shopping\u201d instigated by the \u201cdehumanizing\u201d practices of the holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rachelle
Rachelle B\u00e9langer works at Purple Urchin on Black Friday. The store is opting out of Black Friday sales. (Gwyneth Egan\/Reloading News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know we\u2019d probably have more people in today if we had Black Friday sale deals,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t want shopping for the sake of shopping.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some business owners say that Black Friday sales are the only way to remain competitive with other retailers that offer similar products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost of my customers shop here and at a competitor,\u201d said Michael Wallack, the owner of Wallack\u2019s Art Supplies & Framing, located on Bank Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Michael
Michael Wallack, the owner of Wallack’s Art Supplies & Framing, works at the store on Black Friday. The store is offering discounts to customers to stay competitive in the market. (Gwyneth Egan\/Reloading News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I don\u2019t offer a Black Friday deal and all my competitors do and I\u2019m the lone one out \u2026 I\u2019m just going to be the company that didn\u2019t do anything and didn\u2019t offer [my customers] anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s very few customers that are 100 per cent dedicated to one store, so we are always neck and neck,\u201d Wallack said. \u201cIt is very competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Wallack\u2019s store is participating in Black Friday sales, he said \u201cit\u2019s not just about being competitive on that lower price point or just being overly consumeristic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wallack said he sees his store\u2019s offers this weekend as \u201ca bit more than offering a discount.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It\u2019s like saying ‘Thank you,'” he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some local Ottawa businesses opted out of offering Black Friday sales this year to protest unethical practices and rampant consumerism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"Rachelle B\u00e9langer works at Purple Urchin on Black Friday. The store is opting out of Black Friday sales. (Gwyneth Egan\/Reloading News)","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[44,1,5],"tags":[83,9,84],"ppma_author":[25],"class_list":["post-621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-front-page","category-home","category-news","tag-black-friday","tag-ottawa","tag-stores"],"authors":[{"term_id":25,"user_id":5,"is_guest":0,"slug":"gwynethegan","display_name":"Gwyneth Egan","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221115_124731_847-scaled-e1668556060134.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/IMG_20221115_124731_847-scaled-e1668556060134.jpg"},"user_url":"","last_name":"Egan","first_name":"Gwyneth","description":"Gwyneth is an Ottawa-based journalist interested in long-form journalism and photography. She has lived in Ottawa for four and a half years and enjoys exploring the city's political and arts and culture scenes. Gwyneth's new normal includes binge-watching tv shows, drinking lots of tea and singing along to Taylor Swift. "}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":649,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions\/649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}