Buy Nothing Day is Friday November 27, 2009

We close every year on Buy Nothing Day - our attempt to give ourselves, and others a time to reflect on the impact of rampant consumerism in our lives.

We don't all have the ability to shut it down for the day, but if you do, why not give it a try?

There is lots of good info. at the adbusters website (adbusters.org), and of course, we have a store full of books that can also lead you to the conclusion that capitalism and consumption present our planet with a lot of problems!

From all of us at Octopus Books, we wish you a happy Buy Nothing Day, filled with friends, family, reflection and renewal!!

xo, your Octo-team

from the adbusters website:

Over the last few years, as people grow increasingly anxious about rising sea levels, melting glaciers and the possibility of a catastrophic tipping point on climate change  Buy Nothing Day has exploded into a global movement, inspiring the world’s citizens to live more simply and buy a whole lot less.

Designed to coincide with Black Friday in the United States (which falls on November 27 this year) and the unofficial start of the international holiday shopping season (Saturday, November 28), the festival takes many forms  from personal one-day fasts to relaxed family outings and from free, noncommercial street parties to politically charged public protests, credit card cut-ups, mall invasions and pranks and shenanigans of all kinds. Anyone can take part, provided they spend 24 hours without shopping.

“There’s only one way to avoid the collapse of this human experiment of ours on Planet Earth,” says Kalle Lasn, the co-founder of Adbusters Media Foundation, we have to consume less … Our culture of excess and meaningless consumption  the glorified spending and borrowing of the past decade  is at the root of the ecological and economic crises we now find ourselves in.