February 28th Is Economic Blackout Day

Buy Nothing Day 2.0

Economic Blackout Day, something like Buy Nothing Day, calls on consumers to boycott various corporations that have rolled back their diversity initiatives—Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy, gas companies and fast food chains. Canadians will also participate, although with a different target, boycotting all American companies to protest US tariffs and threats against Canada’s sovereignty. (However, Canadians have been boycotting American products for a few weeks now.)

While many will find a day (or more) without shopping effortless, others will need to prepare. If you participate, I hope the following ideas motivate you on your quest.

Plan ahead

Even if you’re a hardcore minimalist who hasn’t bought unnecessary stuff for years, you’ll still need to eat on the 28^th. So cook something special.

The boycott falls on a Friday. By the end of the workweek, you may feel too tired to cook dinner and the lure of the McDonald’s drive thru could break your resolve. So consider doing a bit of meal planning and prep. You might decide to designate next Friday as pizza night. Cook the sauce on your day off—it keeps for several days. Ditto for the dough; make this sourdough discard pizza dough in advance. Or make pita pizzas; smear the pitas with sauce, sprinkle with your favorite toppings and broil. Go here for a pita bread recipe. Or just buy the pitas!

If you plan ahead, you’ll spend less time cooking and more time enjoying your meal. You also won’t need to rush out and buy that one ingredient you need to cook your dish.

Get motivated

Don’t think you can abstain from shopping at Amazon for a full 24 hours? Here’s an exercise: Spend an hour decluttering your junk drawer. Wasn’t much fun, was it? Remember that anything you buy on the 28^th will occupy valuable storage space in your home and will likely need to be decluttered at some point in the future. It’s exhausting! Give your future self the gift of time.

Keep it going

Saving cash and feeling good about taking action may convince you to extend your shopping freeze. Don’t think of buying less stuff as an exercise in deprivation but rather as one in mindfulness. Marketing has trained many of us to unthinkingly consume.

Support small businesses

Unlike Buy Nothing Day, which promotes, well, buying absolutely nothing the day after Thanksgiving, the blackout focuses on consumers buying nothing from the big guys. If you do need to buy something, try to find it at a locally owned small businesses. You’ll support not only a mom and pop, you’ll also support your community.

According to Indiebound.org, for every $100 you spend at a local store, $68 stays in your community. Spend $100 at a chain and only $43 stays. Similarly, the taxes raised in your community support your community. Local businesses also spend more on charity—twice what national chains spend!

Bonus blackout contenders

• Social media companies. Social media tempts us to buy stuff we don’t need. It also sucks up time we could spend doing other activities, like, say, reading a great book. Consider turning it off on the 28^th. (I use this app for Macs on my laptop every day to block sites for up to 24 hours.)

An excellent, eye-opening read

• Airbnb. The co-founder of Airbnb, broligarch Joe Gebbia, will join DOGE to help swing Musk’s wrecking ball. Go here for some alternatives. (Hotels work too!)

Looking for more? Yesterday, Forbes posted a list of companies that have rolled back diversity initiatives. They include:

• Pepsi and Coca-Cola. Did you know you can make natural sodas with a handful of simple ingredients and basic kitchen tools? Go here for a list of those and other homemade drinks. They save money and keep plastic bottles out of the oceans (and microplastics out of our brains).

• JP Morgan Chase. This bank is the world’s number one investor in fossil fuel companies. As a former customer, I have never regretted switching to a credit union.

• PayPal. Several broligarchs (Must, Thiel, Sacks) kicked off their fortunes in the PayPal Mafia. I didn’t realize I had a bit of money in my PayPal account until I wrote this newsletter and logged into my account. I withdrew the cash and closed my account. Why wait until February 28^th? Decluttering can apply to our digital lives as well.

Some of the organizations on Forbes’ list receive federal funding, such as The Smithsonian and PBS. They’re over a barrel. Personally, I love both and won’t boycott either one. As always, choose which ideas you like in this list—if any!—and skip the rest.

Happy Blackout!

Julia Child’s pots and pans in The Smithsonian