Greta Thunberg Tells Black Friday Shoppers: ‘Don’t Buy Stuff You Don’t Need’

Teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg urged consumers to avoid buying things they do not need on Black Friday.

“School strike week 119. Today is black Friday. Overconsumption is wrecking present and future living conditions and the planet itself. Don’t buy stuff you don’t need,” she wrote on Twitter:

School strike week 119. Today is black Friday. Overconsumption is wrecking present and future living conditions and the planet itself.
Don’t buy stuff you don’t need.#ClimateStrikeOnline #fridaysforfuture #schoolstrike4climate #flattenthecurve #FaceTheClimateEmergency pic.twitter.com/rMr02n0vwT

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) November 27, 2020

While many of Thunberg’s followers agreed with her, others did not.

“I hate to do this, but I NEED a PS5,” one user commented.

“I don’t take orders from clueless adolescents,” another person said.

Despite Thunberg’s warnings, consumer spending has been strong since the economy began reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic, writes Breitbart News’s John Carney:

Many consumers are feeling flush, their wealth boosted by a stock market that has pushed the S&P 500 up 65 percent since the lockdown low in March and soaring home values. Money not spent on trips, sports games, movies, or eating out has apparently gone into the purchase of consumer goods and contributed to savings accounts of many households.

“Black Friday was traditionally the day when many retailers first turned a profit for the year,” Carney noted.

However, those promoting Black Friday sales appeared not to draw the same size crowds this year as in previous years.

“While the hustle and bustle of the holiday season has not completely disappeared, it is demonstratively lower this year due to fears, protocols, and limitations caused by the Chinese coronavirus pandemic,” Breitbart News reported.

Photos and video footage shared online showed small crowds and a few relatively empty parking lots:

A very short line outside of Best Buy on Camelback near 16th Street in Phoenix on this Black Friday. Years past the line was hundreds of yards long. pic.twitter.com/MY5nGIOZUd

— Jim Cross (@Crossfire923) November 27, 2020

There’s actually a line forming at Old Navy now. Still no where near what we normally see on Black Friday, but it’s picking up a tad. pic.twitter.com/JgQD4xHz8l

— Kristi O'Connor WBTV (@KristiOConnor_) November 27, 2020

Fortune magazine senior writer Phil Wahba called New Jersey’s Newport Centre mall a “ghost town”:

Newport Centre, a major mall in a major metro area is a ghost town. I saw not a single shopper at sears (well…), very few at Kohl’s or JCP or clothing stores. Only semi busy store was Bath & Body Works. This feels more like an average Tuesday in April than #blackfriday2020 pic.twitter.com/jnhUS4fLsi

— Phil Wahba (@philwahba) November 27, 2020

In another tweet on Friday, Thunberg claimed, “The climate- and ecological crisis will only worsen by encouraging people to buy things they don’t need”:

We appreciate the effort, but we in #FridaysForFuture don’t wish to be linked to anything commercial.
Nor do we wish to gain from overconsumption.
The climate- and ecological crisis will only worsen by encouraging people to buy things they don’t need.
1/2 https://t.co/UqyWmZbs7W

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) November 27, 2020

She then urged her followers to donate to organizations and funds “supporting people in the most affected areas suffering from the climate- and ecological crisis.”