GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK.
Well it has to be, right? £10bn is spent over 3 days of black Friday in the UK. If retailers all gave 1% to charity, we would be looking at circa £100m donated. That’s a lot of money.
Here at Generous APE we are putting our money where our mouth is and pledging 10% of our sales to charities across Animals, People & Environment. We have called this initiative GREEN FRIDAY.
Yes we have joined the discount race, but we are doing it the right way. We state “be the change you want to see in the world” and this is what we are doing, being and instigating that change. We know it’s not perfect – but it’s progress, and we must celebrate that progress.
So, what went wrong with Black Friday. In 2010, Amazon brought the day to the UK by introducing unusually big promotions to their site, mainly around electrical goods. It took fours years for other retailers to copy what Amazon were doing and it then got out of control when the Police had to be called in to control crowds at Asda who were literally wrestling for the best deals.
Black Friday has become an event driven by brands to maximise profits before the lead up to Christmas. Many of these retailers use this day as an opportunity to sell old stock, so that they can bring in new stock for December maximising full margin. resulting in hyper-consumerism.
The UK is the fourth largest producer of textile waste in Europe with each person throwing away about 3.1kg of textiles every year with half of that going straight to landfill.
At Generous APE Black Friday puts a huge strain on our business and many other small businesses. in order for us to run our business fairly and ethically, we trade off a reduced profit margin - But we are a unique business that sells many brands that also give back to our planet. So the more you shop, the more sustainable action is taken. For example, with every Ocean Bottle purchased, 1000 plastic bottles are saved from entering our oceans. With every purchase of Douvall’s, a percentage of sales goes to their co-operative helping women in Morocco have independence providing a fair wage, good working conditions, childcare and education. Our brands in action goes on and on. We are proud of what we are achieving.
So join us on our green journey as we also plan to fund 1,000 trees being planted in the UK, making the planet even greener still.
Don’t’ be Black Friday – be a Green Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Generous APE – where every purchase has purpose.
