Fridays are for celebrating.

Once a year, though, they’re for retailers to flog outdated stock using exaggerated discounts so we can buy things we don’t need.

Unless you do it right, of course.

Across the pond on Mud Island, Black Friday has a pretty powerful foe in the form of Prince Charles, who made his views clear when he spoke at an environmental summit on Wednesday.

Check out the Telegraph:

[He] says Britain must eliminate its throw-away society… [and] Britain needed to become much better at “un-making” and “re-making” clothes.

He said that with a new grandchild on the way, he did not want to miss out on the one-time opportunity to save the planet, which will be too late for the next generation.

But he’ll get driven around in a massive entourage, and flown across the world to cut a ribbon at some or other ceremony? OK then.

Also leading the anti-Black Friday charge was Mary Creagh MP, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, who called for a boycott of Black Friday:

“What was once a single day, now seems to be taking over November. It’s no longer just a bit of a scrum down the shops to grab the biggest and cheapest flat screen TV, now it’s about compulsively clicking online. Fast fashion retailers have been swift to jump on the Black Friday bandwagon. ‘Huge discounts’, ‘BOG off’, or even ‘up to 75 per cent off’.

“It’s a myth that we’re spending less on clothes because they’re cheap. People are buying more than they were – not spending less. We’re also throwing away more. Not only are the Black Friday bargains not all they are cracked up to be, the frenzy and psychological con-tricks are fuelling insatiable, unsustainable consumption and waste.”

“We need to rethink our relationship with fashion. We should be buying better, buying less, sharing, hiring, buying vintage and second hand, and keeping clothes for longer. Our inquiry is calling time on the unsustainable practices of unscrupulous brands and retailers. Fashion shouldn’t cost the earth. Until the fashion industry faces up to the social and environmental consequences of its business model, I will be boycotting Black Friday.”

[source:telegraph]