The Catch Up: November 2024
November was meant to be my month of self-care. Spoiler: It wasn’t. Unless you count going to see Wicked twice as self-care, in which case I’ve aced the assignment. Apparently, trying to prioritise me-time during the busiest month of the year was ambitious. Lesson learned. As I’m sure you and your inbox are fully aware, Black Friday has just been and gone, and although we didn’t take part in the traditional sense we were still snowed under.
Black Friday is a tricky time to navigate as both a consumer and a business. It seems like every year the noise surrounding it gets louder- does anyone else find it really overwhelming? Often, ethical values in consumer behaviour are seen in a very binary way- you either care or you don’t. However, the reality is far more nuanced. I would consider myself an ethical consumer but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t take advantage of any Black Friday deals- I restocked some of my makeup and skincare whilst it was discounted as it was stuff I would have bought anyway.
As a small, ethical brand, the Black Friday conversation is… complicated. On the one hand, the overconsumption, scaremongering, and pressure to ‘buy now’ go against everything Catch Rhys stands for. On the other, a sustainable business is one that survives- and by not taking part we are missing out on much-needed sales. Businesses like ours need profits to survive. Unlike big brands with fancy pie charts and endless resources, we’re just trying to make it through each month. This year, Black Friday online spending in the UK hit an enormous £1.12 billion. The cold hard truth? We could really do with some of that cash.
This year, like last year we found a solution that worked well for us- holding an online sample sale. This enabled us to reduce waste by selling stock that would have otherwise gone unsold, and offer something to the consumer that aligned with the mentality of the Black Friday weekend. Thanks to you, it was a success! I’m not sure what the future of this chaotic weekend that comes around each year holds for Catch Rhys, the landscape is clearly much more nuanced than it may at first appear. One thing’s for sure: transparency will always guide what we do.
As for self-care? I’m making a note that November is not the one- January feels like a much better fit.
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