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The holiday season is upon us, which means that it’s once again time for the frantic gear-up to Black Friday and the ensuing Christmas shopping chaos. Everybody handles this time of year differently - for some the competition over the best deals and the midnight lines for super sales are a yearly highlight. Other people like to pretend it’s not happening at all. Many prefer to lurk online for sales opportunities, avoiding the insane midnight doorbuster crowds at all costs.
At Hippie Pants we’re asked each year if we plan to do any kind of special Black Friday sale. As a company we strongly believe that our prices should be fair to everybody involved. That means that we’re looking out for both our consumers and our producers. To maintain our standards we can’t offer steep discounts.
We love getting sales, and we work very hard to make sure that people love our products. We are so honored to hear back from customers who love their pants. However, we will never aggressively push promotions or encourage people to overconsume. It goes against everything we stand for.
We live in a capitalist society, and companies like ours are a part of that ecosystem. Consumerism, on the other hand, is not something we wish to be a part of. Consumerism pushes people to buy and buy. It has led to a huge reduction in quality goods and fueled the rise of abuse in the garment industry. Consumerism has created our present-day Black Friday, with stores now opening on Thanksgiving morning, depriving their employees of important family time. The same goes for online sales. Behind every big online blowout there are people working countless overtime hours during the holidays.
Our business is built on sustainability. We’re a holistic company through and through. We have many hardworking employees making our clothes in Thailand, and we pay them fair wages for reasonable hours. We’ve been growing steadily since we started, and it’s our slow growth model that allows us to maintain that sustainable production style. Huge single-day promotions make that impossible.
We aren’t calling out any specific companies for their Black Friday promotions. There’s been a huge pushback recently to reduce promotional periods and give people back their holiday time. We’ve seen major retailers slowing things down. This is all because there are so many consumers out there who are concerned about the ethical implications of Black Friday. They’ve been demanding better practices. We want you to know we’re with you.
To stay true to our values and business style Black Friday doesn’t make much sense for us. We know that our customers buy our products because of our commitment to ethical, quality clothing. We’re going to continue to provide that. It’s up to all of us to stick to our values to promote positive change in the industry.
Our promise to you is this: our prices will always be fair. Not just on special occasions. Our 2017 consumer prices are exactly the same as they were in 2016. We never add any extra fees at checkout for shipping or choice of payment method. We are committed to maintaining a happy balance between fair trade and fair prices. We’ve built all that in to the prices we show you on every item page. We want you to be able to access our products no matter where in the world you live!
We don’t doubt that our customers understand why we aren’t participating in Black Friday, but we felt it was important to explain our stance and hopefully provoke some thought on this yearly event. Have a happy holiday season!
All year fair prices helps everyone from farmer to consumer and l thank all of you for being transparent.