Black Friday and its corporate tendrils coated in cheap laptop deals are slithering towards the Ohio valley at an unstoppable rate. Louisville is a city which prides itself on break dancing to its own beat down a path no one has ever imagined. This city loves to tout how weird it is! Isn’t it weird that we have lots of local shops that we love to buy stuff from?
Our homogeneous tendency to offer self-love to Louisville and its inhabitants knows no legal limits. That being said, isn’t it even weirder that so many Louisville natives are going to spend their hard earned holiday savings in big box stores and malls this Friday?
The bland, beige and otherwise mainstream shopping rituals encouraged by corporations such as Best Buy and Walmart seem to still attract Louisville shoppers. Even those who self-identify as, “Weird,” may still find their way into Mall St Matthews on the day after Thanksgiving.
Mighty Kindness and Occupy Louisville are hoping to counteract this normalcy and non-weirdness with a rally on Shelbyville Road this weekend.
From the Facebook page for the rally:
Join Mighty Kindness & Occupy Louisville in encouraging Black Friday shoppers to "Buy American" and "Buy Local" when spending their money this Holiday season. We will stand near the Moby Dick on Shelbyville Road. Make a kind sign, wear a Santa hat and join us in reminding our fellow Americans that we can support jobs and our local economy by spending our money on USA made and locally produced gifts! Why reward the huge corporations for shipping our jobs overseas?
Protesters aren’t the only ones with a desire to keep Louisville-loving weirdos on task as they shop. LIBA, The Louisville Independent Business Association, is holding a contest to encourage people to buy local, by offering them a chance to win $1,000 to buy more locally sold stuff.
LIBA says:
This holiday season, consumers buying locally will have a chance to win $1,000 to spend at any LIBA member business through its Holiday Passport Contest. The rules are easy: collect a receipt from five member businesses and mail in the receipts or present them for review at either sponsor site (Feeders Supply and Highland Cleaners) by 1/6/11 to be entered to win. Once receipts are verified, they are returned to the owner.
So the moral of this holiday story is, keep your money where your values are, weirdos.
Find out more information about LIBA's contest at their website: http://KeepLouisvilleWeird.com
Visit Occupy Louisville’s website: http://occupylousville.org
Learn more about Mighty Kidness: http://MightyKindness.org
Louisville.com's The Arena section features opinions from active participants in the city's politics. Their viewpoints are not those of Louisville.com (a website is an inanimate object and, as such, has no opinions).
Images via: Occupy Louisville's Tumblr Page and LIBA
