Undiemeister opposes Black Friday, but supports homeless shelters

Under the credo "Time to make a difference," Undiemeister issued a statement on the Black Friday shopping fest in 2020. Black Friday is a phenomenon that came over from the U.S., where it is the next day after Thanks Giving. As to how Black Friday came about, "scholars" don't really agree. It ranges from a stock market crash on Friday, Sept. 24, 1869, to the start of Christmas shopping right after Thanksgiving. That is then the day when retailers would write black figures.

In the Netherlands, Black Friday is a discount party

But we do not celebrate Thanks Giving at all in the Netherlands and we do not start Christmas shopping until after St. Nicholas. Black Friday is actually an overblown excuse of retailers to attract as many customers as possible to their stores. And as you may understand, that always works well with discounts. Understandable, but Black Friday has gotten crazier year after year in the Netherlands. People start lining up early in the morning at the stores, only to snatch bargains out of each other's hands. Each man for himself and God for all, you could say. Not very nice and certainly not an expression of solidarity.

Some stand on the sidelines

Not everyone can participate in this shopping frenzy, even if they want to. They are happy just to have a roof over their heads. Occasionally. No means to buy all kinds of perks that, let's face it, no one really needs. In that sense, the "struggle" to get all kinds of nonsense items stands out rather sharply against the struggle for basic needs, which others are fighting. Like the needs of the homeless.

Noblesse Oblige (Nobility Required)

Not that Undiemeister feels of nobility, but Noblesse Oblige actually means: if you are better off, you have a moral obligation to help. And that's what Undiemeister has done, by donating a free pair of boxer shorts to the homeless shelter for every order. When you help, you do what you can. In our case, that's providing nice, clean underwear. It would be great if other parties, from their competence or specialty, would also do something along these lines. Then together we would change Black Friday from discounting to support. In our opinion, that gives a much better feeling than scoring a bargain. So here too: win/win.