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Customer at »Black Friday« 2019 in Cologne
Photo: NurPhoto / NurPhoto via Getty Images
The run-up to Christmas is also shopping time: especially on the upcoming Black Friday, retailers are luring them with discounts.
An alternative to this is the »Kauf-nothing-Tag« on Saturday (November 27th).
The idea comes from the USA and is directed against uninhibited consumption and its consequences.
According to the initiators, the aim is to only buy what you really need and thus to protect resources, the environment and the climate.
Florian Grünert, for example, is a co-founder of the first »rental shop« in Hesse.
A selection of almost 900 items is available to users, which they can borrow for a membership fee of two euros per month and a deposit.
Electrical appliances, party or camping accessories, gardening tools or tools that you rarely need you don't have to buy new, you can borrow them and share them, says Grünert (more information about the rental shop concept can be found here).
New trend in retail?
The number of users has been rising steadily since the store opened in Maintal four years ago; there are now around 300. They come from all over the area, including Frankfurt, which is 15 kilometers away.
The goal: less consumption and more sustainability.
"We live beyond our means in Europe," says Grünert.
Personally, he is particularly careful to only buy things that he will use over a long period of time.
For Grünert, owning less means freedom: "Then I don't have to worry about things", he says.
At the same time he saves money.
Concepts of conscious and sustainable consumption have become an increasingly broader trend, as Theresa Schleicher, retail expert at the Zukunftsinstitut (Frankfurt / Vienna) says.
Companies can no longer avoid this and develop offers.
Lending and circular concepts, for example in the fashion industry, and recyclable or reduced packaging in online retail are examples.
beb / dpa
