Black Friday is serious business for retailers. But every year, the Unbelts team has a hard time embracing the shopping weekend. We brace for it instead.
There are a couple of reasons why we don’t love Black Friday. First, we feel weird about selling for selling’s sake. Do we want to make money? Oh, heck yes. Those dollars pay for our studio's rent, our inventory, our team’s salaries and our families’ health benefits. But we believe that most of us need less, not more, and the public interest in "Kondo-ing" /downsizing /decluttering indicates that you agree. So… if you don’t need belts and masks right now, we totally get it! We’d rather you shop with us on your schedule, not The Man’s.
Which brings us to reason number two. Those dollars that you trade us for products - we do a lot more with them than pay ourselves. We spend them on:
- Materials and labour from suppliers who believe, like we do, in paying workers living wages
- Materials that are made to last, and that are better for the planet
- The free repairs that come with your Unbelts’ warranty
- Surplus inventory so we’ve always got enough to donate back into our community
When we offer deep discounts, we lose the flexibility to fulfill our true purpose: to use business as a force for good.
That’s why, this year, we’re stepping aside this weekend and leaving the massive markdowns to the bigger businesses who’ve got a lot more padding in their budgets. Here's what we are doing instead, and we're really proud of it!
This has been a year of change - a lot of it painful, but some of it necessary... and even exciting. You’ve shown small businesses like us that you’re here to support us, and we promise that we’re here to do right by you. Starting down a different path, especially on the most important revenue weekend of the year, is a pretty scary leap. Our whole team thanks you for your trust in us.