Navigating Black Friday Sales: Australia
There are some absolute bargains to be had during the next Black Friday Sales in Australia, or so it seems. With the festive season on the horizon who wouldn’t want to take advantage of an opportunity to get a bargian! You’d be crazy not to.
Keep in mind that Black Friday is actually a retail event that’s designed to increase your spending, rather than your savings. That’s why it’s so important to make sure you navigate the sales to your personal advantage. Here’s your guide to coming out of the Black Friday sales in Australia with no regrets.
Make a List
To ensure you don’t accumulate stuff that will only end up in landfill, before you start, make sure you’ve made a list of what it is you’re after. Whether it’s gifts for the festive season, or a new outfit for the summer months, make sure you stick to your list. Failing to do so can cause enormous damage to your bank balance and even more to the planet. If your “bargain” buys turn out to be something less desirable, and they end up in landfill, it ends up costing everyone, not just you.
Double Check
Once you’ve made your list there are two questions to ask yourself before committing to it, especially for those spends that are for your personal use.
Question 1: Do I really need it? (How many of these do you already own and how often are you going to use it or wear it?)
Question 2: How long will this last?
Set Your Limit
Even the biggest bank accounts have a limit. To make sure you don’t get yourself into financial debt, have a good hard look at your bank account and set yourself a limit. Credit has changed from being seen as the Goddess of Eternal Happiness to the Goddess of Eternal Debt. It’s no longer cool. Save yourself a ton of grief by setting yourself a limit. And stick to it.
Think Sustainably
As you peruse those bargains, you’ll want to make sure that you’re not contributing to junking our planet by buying unneccessary stuff that ends up in landfill. Consider if the stuff you’re buying has been made in a sustainable and ethical way. Oxfam’s 2022 report on Australian fashion brands and how they’re doing in the ethical/fair pay stakes ranks the following: .
GOOD
Lorna G
Bonds
David Jones
Cotton On
Katies
Myer
Noni B
POOR to VERY POOR (Descending Order)
H & M
Zara
Best & Less
JJ’s
Just Jeans
Peter Alexander
Target
Kmart
Modi Bodi
Jeans West
Fair pay doesn’t necessarily mean sustainable production, but many independent fashion brands like Arnsdorf, A.BCH, autark, Citizen Wolf, Erik-Yvon and Solomon Street for example are doing both. There’s a growing list of labels like these that are mindful of their footprint on the environment. To find more, a good place to start looking is Ethical Clothing Australia.
Look for Alternatives
If it’s jeans you’re after you don’t have to buy them, you can now lease them. You read it correctly. Lease instead of buy. Ethical Dutch clothing company Mud Jeans, which has the highest sustainability ranking available, offers a repair and rental service where you can lease the jeans for a year!
We’d love to see more Australian brands following the lead by Mud Jeans. This year, as with most, they are doing something for Black Friday but it’s not the mad “BUY- BUY-BUY” insanity that’s swarming around us all. Mud Honey is turning Black Friday Blue, by doing the opposite to what many other brands are doing. Instead of yet another sale which will doubtless lead to an astonishing amount of wasteful purchases that will end up in landfill, they are closing their webpage and are only offering for sale returned vintage jeans. How’s that commitment!
Dye them Black
Meanwhile, brilliant Aussie brand CitizenWolf has turned Black Friday into its own annual “Black Fridye”. It’s helping to save the planet from excess fashion going to landfill by “extending the life of the clothes you already have”. Their easy 3 step system goes like this:
- Send them your Clothes
That means any item of any brand you own that could use a refresh! - Citizen Wolf will dye them black for a low $15, saving your time, mess (have you ever tried to dye your own?) and money.
- Your Clothes last longer!
Your clothes are returned to you looking refreshed and you’ll be able to keep wearing them for longer.
Go Vintage
Vintage outlets are also participating in a big way in the Black Friday sales in Australia, advocating that the best buys in fashion are the clothing that’s already been made. When you invest in recycled and up-cycled clothing, you’re extending the garment’s life by more than two years and help keep it out of landfill. Hemp and organic cotton are good buys because these fabrics are carefully produced and fully biodegradable.
For example, The Sustainable Clothing Co advocates:
“When you shop for secondhand clothing, you are giving a new life to the clothing that already exists and not continually perpetuating the production of new clothing. “
“When you shop for secondhand clothing, you are giving a new life to the clothing that already exists and not continually perpetuating the production of new clothing. New synthetic clothing is often produced with virgin resources taken from the earth, including crude oil, harmful toxic chemicals and dyes, and hundreds and thousands of litres of fresh drinking water, and when the fashion industry is producing 100-150 billion garments per year, just think of how much resources we are taking from the earth to produce fleeting “trends” or something that you wear once or in some cases not at all, just because it was “cheap”.”
Keep these easy pointers in mind and you will be able to care for the planet, your hip pocket and shop a bargain at the same time. And if you remember to buy local and support a small Aussie business, you’re probably doing a whole lot more good than you can ever know.
