Buy from the Bush founders push to boycott Black Friday sales

Australians may be set to spend $3.8bn at Black Friday sales, but bush businesses say mass discounting doesn’t make sense.

Laura Hall, hatmaker, Scone NSW

Australians are set to spend $3.8bn at the mammoth Black Friday sales over the next four days, but there’s a growing backlash with some small businesses boycotting the US-inspired online retail phenomenon.

Grace Brennan, founder of the online marketplace for regional business, Buy from the Bush, said on Wednesday the 170-plus businesses on the website would not participate in the sales because the concept did not fit their mission.

“We are building a brand that is really meant to be Australian and authentic and more about community development outcomes than it is about commerce,” she said.

“It doesn’t make sense for us to be supporting the discount. I understand customers probably need a break too after the time that they have had but it is counter-productive for us.”

The push to boycott the sales has gathered momentum in recent years with reports this week from the UK that 85 per cent of independent retailers would not participate - the highest figure recorded by the British independent Retailers Association.

The boycott, which has been driven by a host of sites and posts on social media, has been fuelled by the anti-consumerist sentiment generated during Covid and the rising interest in sustainable fashion.

Ms Brennan, who is based in Warren in regional NSW, launched Buy from the Bush as a social media campaign in October 2019 to encourage people to buy locally. A year ago she set it up as a for-profit marketplace which operates on commissions paid on sales and now employs five part-time workers.

Grace Brennan, Buy from the Bush. Picture: Rachel Lenehan

She said Black Friday – which is held on the Friday after Thanksgiving in the US – “doesn’t make sense culturally because we are not celebrating Thanksgiving and we are a home-grown initiative”.

“(When we sell) we are asking customers to invest in that small business and the owner and their community. It is less price driven, it is less about skinny margins and more about impact.

“When people shop with a micro business from rural Australia often those same business owners are injecting cash back into the community or sponsoring a sports club. There are all sort of benefits that ripple through those communities that make it very difficult for them to offer 20 per cent off just because Amazon is doing the same.

“We are asking people to consciously spend their dollars in the bush and (promoting) the idea of shopping with purpose and knowing the power of your purchase to small communities.

“We may actually take a huge hit for not participating but we are willing to take the risk in trying to increase the awareness around the benefits to supporting small business.”

Laura Hall, who runs a hat making business in the NSW town of Scone, has joined the boycott because she’s “not interested in being involved in an American tradition”.

“Large corporates capitalising on Christmas expenditure is fine, but the expectation for a small local business to be involved is beyond the capacity of a company that has experienced 18 months of some of the hardest times we have seen,” she said.

Ms Hall launched her bespoke felt hat business, PHYLLI Designs, in September 2019 and now employs four production staff based in Scone and two other staffers. It operates online with a flagship store in Scone.

She took part in Black Friday in 2019 and 2020 but says: “There’s been a consistent message through Covid to buy local, invest local, support local so there is a contradiction when we then go and (discount) because everyone else in the world is doing it.”