For Black Friday, the biggest US retail day of the year, retailer Patagonia took a full page ad in the New York Times to ask its customers NOT to buy this jacket and instead consider the cost of their consumption.
Patagonia are known for their environmental and social conscience and their ad included a description of the environmental cost of their product - “To make it required 135 litres of water, enough to meet the daily needs (three glasses a day) of 45 people. Its journey from its origin as 60 per cent recycled polyester to our Reno warehouse generated nearly 20 pounds of carbon dioxide, 24 times the weight of the finished product. This jacket left behind, on its way to Reno, two-thirds its weight in waste.”
Not sure how many consumers were prepared to listen to this type of arguement with overall Black Friday sales up 16% over last year.
PS – Black Friday (the 4th Friday in November) is so named because it marks the start of the season in the US when retailers move from being in the red to the profitable black.