As Black Friday rolls in and promotional inboxes fill with big flashing ‘sale!’ signs, we find ourselves returning to the values that guide how we operate, and why we choose to opt out.
At The Corner Store Network, we choose to step back from the rush. Not because sales are bad or because we don’t want people to enjoy a good deal, but because the traditional Black Friday model simply doesn’t align with what we stand for: ethical consumption, fair pay, and transparency across the supply chain. The frenzy may look harmless on the surface, but its impact runs far deeper. Data points to a sharp rise in waste and emissions during this period. This includes a surge of product returns after Black Friday that can jump by more than 140%, and an estimated tens of thousands of tonnes of perfectly usable items ending up in landfill each year. It’s a pattern driven by urgency, overconsumption and short-lived purchases, and it places a disproportionate strain on people and the planet right at the start of the supply chain.
When we spoke with CSN co-founder Alice, her message was clear: “In big sales like Black Friday, it’s the farmers, the people at the very beginning of the supply chain, who end up losing out.”
Brands often pressure suppliers to drop their prices so they can offer massive discounts. Retailers still take their margins. Warehouses, distributors, and marketing teams all continue to earn their share. But the farmer, the person who grows and harvests the raw ingredients that make everything possible, is left absorbing the impact. Everyone profits except the people who make the product possible in the first place, and ethical business simply can’t sit comfortably with that.
This is also why we don’t go on sale. Our pricing is intentionally honest, reflecting the true cost of doing things properly: from paying our staff a liveable wage, to sourcing ethically and ensuring that farmers are paid fairly, to minimising waste by avoiding unnecessary packaging. When Alice says we’re already fairly priced, she means it. Slashing prices for Black Friday wouldn’t be doing you a favour; it would be compromising the principles that guide every choice we make.
Increasingly, we’re not alone in this. Brands around the world are choosing values over volume during Black Friday. Deciem, the parent company of The Ordinary, famously shuts down its website and stores on Black Friday. Patagonia has long rejected the discount frenzy, instead using the moment to spotlight environmental action. And REI continues its #OptOutside movement, closing all its stores and paying its staff to spend the day outdoors rather than selling more products. Their approach reflects a growing shift: a recognition that the race to the lowest price often comes at the highest cost.
Black Friday thrives on urgency and overconsumption, pushing people to ‘“buy now’” and then ‘buy again.’ But conscious gifting - the kind we believe in - begins from a different place altogether. It means taking a moment to ask who made the product, what it represents, and what ripple effect your purchase sets in motion. It’s not about buying more; it’s about buying better. It’s about choosing a jar of jam that keeps perfectly edible fruit out of landfill, or a bag of single-origin coffee that uplifts farming communities in Timor-Leste, or supporting a social enterprise that reinvests into people and the planet.
So rather than joining the Black Friday frenzy, we’re spending the day doing exactly what we always do: making preserves that honour rescued produce, roasting coffee that pays farmers properly, keeping waste low and impact high, and encouraging people to gift in ways that genuinely matter. Ethical consumerism is slow, thoughtful, and grounded in fairness, the complete opposite of the Black Friday rush.
And we’re proud to stand by that.
Written by: Yasha Barretto
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