I’m a simple girl. My idea of fun is an annual event in which people are crushed in pursuit of half-price Christmas decorations. But those days have passed. Welcome to the era of the always-on sale.

If you’re into capitalist nightmares, you might like EOFY sales, Oh No We Forgot EOFY sales, SOFY sales, Father’s Day sales, AFL grand final sales, and “my boss doesn’t want me to send this email” sales. Then we go headlong into Australia’s Black Friday sales, which start around the beginning of November and last until January, as is tradition (though not ours).

In fact, there is no longer a reason to leave anything on the shelf. Every minute of every day, something is marked down and waiting for your card details, as long as you’re willing to compromise your moral and ethical obligations to the planet and those who live here. Full price is dead, long live the sale.

We’re now in the throes of Prime Day, an event that defies the laws of time and space to inhabit a full week and is expected to generate US$23bn in sales for Amazon and its third-party sellers. For a mere 168 continuous hours, shoppers are given the option to support a global capitalist behemoth as it asks the question, “Do you need a walking desk, cat food and a 30-pack of crew socks?” To which we reply, “Yes but only if you massively accelerate climate change by delivering it tomorrow.”

I remember a time when Prime Day (which 10 years ago lasted only 24 hours, like human days) was duly criticised by the press, at least in this country. Australia of old was proud of its anti-capitalist image. We didn’t need newfangled gear with “batteries” and “screens”. We wore the socks our grandmother gave us on our 10th birthday. When our kettle broke, we went to the shed and taped it up again.

No longer. TikTokers, YouTubers, bloggers and other taste makers – including serious news outlets – have jumped on the chance to scour Amazon’s endless library of cheap labour to find the best deals. It’s running ads like editorial. Prime Day isn’t just a sale, it’s fodder for desperate content factories – again, including serious news outlets – looking for literally any topic that could become clicks that become Meta revenue that becomes sweet affiliate link cash.

Now, for the everyman, there’s no denying the bargains. Everything you could never need is here. Phones. Perfumes. TVs. Baby wipes. Scrolling the long, long, long – long long long – list of sale items is overwhelming to the point of delirium. Luckily, if you can’t decide what to buy, Amazon’s personal assistant, Alexa+, can make suggestions. Your phone? Too slow! Your treadmill? Too bulky! Your energy drinks? Not bulky enough! And where does your old stuff go? Who cares!

It’s easy to criticise Amazon. It pays little tax. In 2023 its US warehouse workers were allegedly injured on average twice as often as its competitors. Almost a hundred private planes flew into Jeff Bezos’s Venetian wedding. It’s an enormous contributor to the global waste problem – according to one source, to the tune of 599m pounds of plastic packaging waste in a single year.

That’s Prime Day – week, year – in a nutshell. A wasteful company wastes people’s money to generate more waste. Thousands of product thumbnails gradually blur together to form one giant garbage pile floating in the Pacific Ocean (if you’re not sure what that is, there are books about it on Amazon).

High-income countries – like the US and Australia, where it’s possible to get same-day delivery yoga pants – produce more than one-third of the world’s waste. Globally, over the next 25 years municipal solid waste, like homewares, clothes and electronics, are expected to increase to 3.4bn tonnes.

Prime Day has no regard for these numbers. It’s a crude marketplace in the spirit of perpetually closing-down rug shops and video game stores. It’s designed to bamboozle. It disguises itself as a social event, encouraging us to plan our wishlists, share our carts with friends and post haul videos to prove the sickness consumed us. It’s built to confuse us into thinking we need a second air fryer or a hedge trimmer or an automated bird feeder. And it insults us if we disagree: oh human, just let our AI shop for you.

I’m not a sale prude. I live for the dopamine hit of a bargain. My postie knows me by name and parcel frequency. And, full disclosure: I have an Amazon account and occasionally order sports bras and nail polish. But I cannot, as the youth say, fuck with the heavy-handed push towards junk I don’t need to replace stuff I never wanted.

If there is a solidarity on Earth tighter than “bored middle-aged mothers in a clothes shop”, I don’t know what it is. Whether in Primark, Urban Outfitters or H&M, the crowd is always the same: some teens are in gangs and they are having a fine old time; others, sometimes in sibling pairs, are with their mum, presumably because they have yet to find a way to detach her from her credit card. It’s like that bit in an action movie where you need a guy’s fingerprint to open a vault, so you cut off his arm, except, regrettably, in this case, they have to take the entire body.

Some of us are too hot; others are too embarrassing to be believed and have been told that multiple times between each clothes rack. But the main thing we have in common is that we are all incredibly bored. It’s one of those things about youth that I don’t miss at all, along with paralysing social anxiety and blackheads: the ability to parse the difference between one T-shirt and another for hours; to look at the same pair of jeans for 15 minutes straight, your imagination running riot over what they might look like across every jumper combination and landscape. This is not a spectator sport, yet spectate you must, because ultimately you will have to give a view, so that, whatever you say, they can do the opposite.

Last time, I tried on a load of stuff myself, just to be subversive – a velvet revolution, if you like, except whatever that highly flammable material was, I don’t think it was velvet. What I really want to do is amass the mums and create a norm of spontaneous chat, some cross between a salon and the earliest days of the trade union movement. It’s so obvious from looking around how much we would find to talk about. We don’t want to be mean about our kids, obviously – we want to talk about ideas, describe our feminist awakenings, swap recipes; maybe someone could bring finger food. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to do this.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

Read more:

• Savers is a thrift store – and we’re in a cost-of-living crisis. So why is the US chain dividing Australian shoppers?

Culture

1 If you sign up to secret seat-filler sites such as Show Film First and Central Ticket, you’ll be alerted to last-minute tickets at rock-bottom prices – sometimes nothing at all. The only catch is you have to keep this on the quiet to maintain the illusion that performances are packed with paying punters.

2 Want to read the New Yorker article everyone’s talking about, but don’t have a subscription? You can do so for nothing with many library memberships and the Libby app, which gives access to pretty much every magazine you can think of, with no loan limits. Libby and a similar app, BorrowBox, also lend thousands of ebooks and audiobooks; read or listen on your phone, iPad, Kindle or laptop.

3 An underutilised benefit of Amazon Prime is Prime Reading: hundreds of free Kindle books and audiobooks are included, as are magazines such as Grazia and Radio Times.

4 Bagging tickets for concerts and festivals has never been more competitive. Tools such as Visualping alert you as soon as a webpage has changed – so you can be first in the queue when seats are released. It’s also handy for securing a table at hot restaurants, knowing when a sought-after pair of trainers is back in stock, or alerting yourself to events such as the Eurostar flash sale.

5 Don’t let theatres fool you into thinking restricted view seats are a false economy. For instance, the end-aisle seats for Hamilton in London’s West End are consistently rated five stars by users of the site SeatPlan, who report that, as Hamilton is primarily performed at the centre of the stage, you won’t miss any key plot points or songs. SeatPlan collates hundreds of thousands of seat-view photos, so you can check the vantage point before you buy.

View image in fullscreen

6 You should rarely be paying full price for the latest blockbuster either. Sky Cinema customers get free Vue tickets, Amazon Prime members get discounted Odeon tickets, Tesco Clubcard holders can spend their points at Cineworld, and Lidl Plus members get membership of the Cinema Society, with 40% off many screenings. Buy your insurance through comparethemarket.com and Meerkat Movies gives you two-for-one on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at a range of cinemas, including Picturehouse.

7 “JustWatch is a brilliant tool that shows the different places you can stream shows and films, and how much they might cost you,” says Francesca Steele, culture critic and writer of the Trash Culture newsletter. “For example, you might assume you can only watch the latest season of The Last of Us if you have a Sky subscription. But the JustWatch site shows that you could also sign up to a free seven-day trial on Now, or buy the series on Apple TV.”

8 The Dice app lists cultural events in cities across the UK, which you can sort by price. It’s a quick way to discover free or affordable gigs, live comedy, podcast recordings or new art exhibitions.

Eating out

9 Work out when the hardest-to-book restaurants open their reservations and set an alarm (or use an AI monitoring tool). For example, Gymkhana in London’s Mayfair releases tables at 6am two months in advance; for Tom Kerridge’s The Hand and Flowers in Marlow, it’s six months to the date you’d like to book. Sign up to restaurants’ email lists too: some offer early access to loyal fans. L’Enclume, Simon Rogan’s three-Michelin-star restaurant in Cartmel, Cumbria, sends priority booking invitations and cancellations via its newsletter.

10 Follow chefs, restaurants or front of house on social media to hear about last-minute tables. Oisín Rogers, landlord of the much-hyped and usually booked-solid Devonshire pub in Soho, London, has been known to announce cancellations on his Instagram Stories.

11 Sushi chains Itsu and Wasabi sell off whatever is left from the day at 50% off 30 minutes before closing.

View image in fullscreen

12 Before you book a restaurant, check for money-off vouchers on the new breed of restaurant discount apps, says Amelia Murray, money expert at becleverwithyourcash.com. “There are a few to choose from, including TheFork, which is free and offers discounts of up to 50% off your meal, plus you can earn points every time you use it, which can be redeemed against future bookings.” Or try EatClub, co-founded by Marco Pierre White, “as a way for restaurants to optimise spare capacity and generate predictable revenue”; it has just launched in London and offers discounts of up to 50% off your bill.

13 Get wise to “menu engineering”. This is a whole area of expertise that helps restaurateurs boost their profits, and it pays not to be taken in by the tricks. “The top-right corner of a menu is prime real estate,” says Ben Floyd, a chef and the managing director of Lumière Consultancy. “That’s where your eyes tend to land first, so you’ll often find the most profitable dish there. You’ll rarely see pound signs any more – they remind people they’re spending money. And often there’ll be a ‘decoy’ dish – something expensive to make the rest of the menu seem more reasonably priced.”

Travel

14 Before booking any element of your holiday via a third-party site, have a look at what you could get by going direct. On flights, online travel agents often charge more for seats or bags than the airline itself. As for hotels, Zanna van Dijk, a travel and fitness content creator, always books direct: “You often get better rates, they might throw in breakfast and you’ll have a higher chance of an upgrade on arrival.”

15 Speaking of upgrades, if it’s a significant event – a milestone birthday, say, or a honeymoon, or if you just want to try your luck – email your hotel at the time of booking to say why you’re looking forward to your stay and ask for an upgrade. If you don’t ask, you probably won’t get.

16 The same hotel room may be significantly cheaper booked on a mobile phone rather than a laptop, but you’ll be none the wiser unless you check. Sites such as Booking.com offer mobile-only deals; some hotels will give bigger discounts if you download their app or join their mailing list.

View image in fullscreen

17 That’s not to say that boutique travel agents don’t earn their commission, especially if you’re travelling with kids. Francesca Collinson of Tiny Travelship, a family-focused travel agency and hotel directory, says, “We have the insider intel on when luxury hotels have sales running, when the best time of year to book flights is – 11 months in advance. We can unlock free transfers, free creche sessions, or complimentary upgrades to room and board.”

18 Hiring a car for a foreign trip? Going to the car hire company’s website in your destination country can save you money (just replace the end of the url with the relevant country’s top-level domain), but typically only if it includes like-for-like insurance cover. Be sure to check the small print before booking.

19 A local bus can be a cheap way to see the tourist sites. Lonely Planet rates the 101 that runs along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia, towards the scenic rock stacks making up the Twelve Apostles. I rate the number 7, down the hill from the Tuscan hilltop city of Fiesole into Florence, Italy, which costs less than €2.

20 Before you travel overseas, open a Monzo or Starling bank account if you don’t already have one. You can do it with a quick selfie video and a picture of your passport, and you’ll get a card in the post within a week, which you can use for all holiday spending, free of currency conversion charges.

21 Luton airport lets you skip queues, without any cost, by prebooking security. But don’t automatically pay in advance for fast-track access at all other airports: for example, Manchester and Stansted will let you buy it on the day.

Shopping

22 When buying any item online, try adding it to your basket then sleeping on it before you hit pay. Not only is this the best way to reel yourself back from a late-night emotional spending binge, but you will very likely wake up to a discount code in your email inbox from the retailer who wants you to complete the purchase.

23 Use a discount code or get cashback on your purchases. Coupert, an AI-powered shopping assistant available on Google Chrome, automatically tracks prices of products and tells users when discounts are available, or there are cashback sites such as topcashback or quidco.

24 “Type into ChatGPT: I have a loyalty card (use any example you want). Are there any hidden benefits I can use here, such as double-points days, referral bonuses or rewards?” advises Harriet Meyer, consumer journalist and creator of AI for media. “I found I had £50 worth of Nectar points I didn’t know I was entitled to. Or try, ‘I’m buying XX. What’s the best combination of cashback sites and discount codes to maximise savings?’” You could also upload an image of your supermarket shop and ask how you can save money on your food bills.

25 Supermarkets have taken the obvious expiry dates off fruit and veg to reduce food waste. But if you’re buying food and you would like it to last for as long as possible, you can hack their codes. According to Which?, at Asda and Tesco, look for a letter followed by a number: “A” is January, “B” is February, “C” is March, while the number is the day of the month. For example, the best-before date of an item with the code “I27” is 27 September. Sainsbury’s codes begin with “J” and end with “S”, standing for J Sainsbury, and contain the date in the middle. So the best-before date of an item with the code “J0910S” is 9 October.

26 As former operations director with butchers The Ginger Pig, Lynsey Coughlan recommends buying meat on the bone, which is always cheaper, to save money when cooking at home. “If you buy chicken breasts, you’re more or less paying for the whole bird, and you can use the carcass for soup and the thighs for curry. The same goes for any kind of meat. Ask your butcher to bone it out, and keep the bones for stock.” Sausages can be a cheaper substitute for mince. “With Italian sausage, you’ve already got the perfect fat balance, you’ve got all the seasoning to make a proper ragu and it’s a time saver, too.”

27 The packaging for many household products seems designed to make it impossible to use every last drop. That’s why everyone needs a tube-squeezer key (for toothpaste, moisturiser, puree; try Lakeland) and a foam pump bottle, which reduces liquid soap use by turning it into foam (try Muji).

View image in fullscreen

28 If you take at least five empties to be recycled at Boots – these have to be packaging you can’t recycle at home, such as mixed metal and plastics, or old mascara wands – then spend £10, you’ll receive 500 Advantage Card points (worth £5).

29 Price tags are not set in stone. The thought may make you shudder, but you can haggle at many high-street shops. Martin Lewis reports that a member of staff at a big DIY store told him that if anyone asked for a discount, they would automatically give them 10% off. Of those who dared to try, 57% of people got a discount at B&Q, 49% at Currys and 38% at Waitrose, according to a survey a few years ago by Money Saving Expert.

30 Monitor Vinted or eBay when there’s a popular beauty subscription box or Advent calendar on sale. You can pick up a bargain when people resell unopened makeup or perfume that doesn’t suit them. Last year that included dozens of Le Labo Rose rollerball perfumes, from Liberty’s Beauty Advent calendar, for £20 or so (they’re £78 new).

31 Shops discard skincare, hair care or makeup products when external packaging is damaged or opened, even if the product is untouched. Sites such as This is Beauty and Boop buy them up and sell them on, often at a 70% discount, to avoid landfill. The product is quality-checked and it’s made clear what is wrong.

Household bills

32 It’s frustrating that with some bills – water and council tax, for example – it’s impossible to shop around. Martyn James, a consumer-rights expert, says there is one way to ease the pain of your council tax payments, “and it’s so simple, you’ll kick yourself. Almost all of the local authorities in the UK will bill you over 10 months, so you get February and March for free each year. But you can ask your council to spread the payments over 12 months instead. If you’re paying £1,800 a year, then over 10 months you pay £180 per month. But over 12, you pay £150.” When it comes to water, if you have the same number or more rooms than people living in your house, a meter will most probably save you money. This is because you’re being charged for the actual water used rather than an estimate based on the rateable value of your property. Look on your water company’s website for water-saving gadgets; some are free. A tap aerator can reduce water consumption by up to 50%.

View image in fullscreen

33 Before paying for software – or signing up for trials you might forget to cancel – look for the open-source alternative. Gimp is the free rival to Adobe Photoshop; Audacity lets you record, edit and manipulate audio files; and KeePass is a free, open-source password manager.

34 The best deals on mobile contracts are available from smaller companies that use the same infrastructure as the big four, such as Lebara (on Vodafone), or 1p Mobile (EE). Both score higher in Which? customer satisfaction ratings, too. You’ll feel extra smug on holiday: while three of the big four now have roaming charges in the EU on their standard packages, many of these small companies don’t.

35 University libraries are peaceful but vibrant co-working spaces, at a fraction of the cost of a WeWork. The University of Manchester, for instance, offers annual community membership for free, with access to its 2,000 study spaces and guest wifi, and it’s open into the evening. Members of the public can get reference access to UCL libraries from £7 a day, £30 a month or £200 a year – less than the cost of just one month at many private co-working offices – giving access to study space across all campuses in London, including Senate House, as well as the subsidised student canteen.

36 Buy discounted gift cards online, or through cashback websites such as TopCashback. You can then use them to pay for your normal shopping, services such as Spotify and Uber, food prep services like HelloFresh, and most supermarkets and chain coffee shops. It’s a faff, but will work out a little cheaper as long as you don’t forget to spend them.

37 Comparison sites are constantly competing for business, so they offer generous freebies. “I got a £20 Sainsbury’s voucher and a monthly free coffee at Greggs when I bought car insurance via confused.com,” says Clare Seal, a financial coach and presenter of the podcast Help Me, I’m Poor. She also rates the app Sprive, which lets you overpay your mortgage using cashback from everyday spending, “potentially knocking years off your term”.

38 Don’t pay for mobile data you don’t need. Switching on low data mode on your phone saves battery life, but also bills, if you have a low-data package, by reducing how much you’re using. Adjusting your app settings to lower the default video quality and turning off auto-play on social media helps, too.

39 Got a parking ticket? If a car park operator is not a member of the British Parking Association (BPA) or the International Parking Community (IPC) and they leave a ticket on your car, they can’t access your details from the DVLA. Citizens Advice says you can choose to do nothing, if it’s a private parking firm, as it’s a civil rather than a criminal matter.

Personal finance

40 The best interest rates on savings often fall away after a year and providers bank on their customers not having time to shop around. By signing up to a platform such as Raisin UK you can easily move your money between different accounts when rates fall or rise, without having to fill out new application forms each time.

41 If you open a bank account with a subscription fee jointly with a partner, you can both take advantage of add-ons, such as mobile phone and travel insurance, for no extra monthly cost.

42 Check if you can access financial advice through your employee benefit scheme for the whole family. One money coach says that she offers the opportunity for employees to bring a partner to one-on-one coaching sessions, free – though hardly anyone takes her up on it.

Sadiq Khan has said he will pedestrianise Oxford Street “as quickly as possible”, after two in three respondents to a public consultation backed plans to ban traffic from London’s central shopping area.

The mayor’s office said there was “overwhelming public and business support” for the proposals to regenerate the street, whose lustre is slowly returning as department stores muscle back among the sweet and souvenir shops of dubious repute.

More than 6,600 businesses, individuals and groups responded to the formal consultation on plans announced last year that included full pedestrianisation of a 0.7-mile strip west from Great Portland Street; improving the area; and allowing street cafes and outdoor events.

Khan said: “Oxford Street has suffered over many years, so urgent action is needed to give our nation’s high street a new lease of life.

“It’s clear that the vast majority of Londoners and major businesses back our exciting plans, so I’m pleased to confirm that we will now be moving ahead as quickly as possible.”

The Labour government has said it will approve a mayoral development corporation (MDC) to push through plans, after previous attempts to pedestrianise the street were knocked back by Westminster city council. An MDC could now be established in early 2026, including representation from the council, which even now under Labour control has opposed the scheme.

Cllr Adam Hug, the leader of the council, said: “While the mayor’s formal decision today was not the council’s preferred outcome, it is far from unexpected, and it is now important for Oxford Street’s future to move forward together.”

He added that since 2022 the street had “roared back to life after the pandemic” and said the council would work with Khan to see it “reimagined” in a way that worked for visitors, shoppers and residents.

Oxford Street is already largely restricted to general traffic but is a key route for London buses and taxis. Steve McNamara, the general secretary of the LTDA, which represents black-cab drivers, thought the plans would worsen congestion in the capital. “Putting this traffic down surrounding streets will cause chaos – we’re already Europe’s most congested city, maybe we’ll now get the world title,” he said.

Detailed traffic proposals to reroute buses and ban all traffic will be released and consulted on later this year.

Khan added: “We want to rejuvenate Oxford Street; establish it as a global leader for shopping, leisure and outdoor events with a world-class, accessible, pedestrianised avenue. This will help to attract more international visitors, and act as a magnet for new investment and job creation, driving growth and economic prosperity for decades to come.”

Angela Rayner, he deputy prime minister, said: “We want to see Oxford Street become the thriving place to be for tourists and Londoners alike, and that’s why we welcome the mayor of London’s bold proposals to achieve that.”

The big retailers on the street, including Ikea, which recently opened its a store there, also backed the mayor. The chief executive of Ikea Uk and Ireland, Peter Jelkeby, said the pedestrianisation plan was a positive step that would “create a more welcoming and accessible space – bringing wide-ranging benefits to visitors, shoppers, businesses and the wider community”.

The executive director of Selfridges, Meave Wall, said the department store was “hugely energised by the renewed commitment to make this area more enticing and attractive for locals and visitors from around the world”.

The New West End Company, which represents 600 businesses around the area, said the consultation results were an important step forward.

Explicitly, Bryant, 54, singled out Target – which, among other things, had pledged to invest $2bn in Black-owned businesses by the end of 2025 as corporate reparations after the murder of George Floyd – for going back on its word. He urged the “conscientious Christian community” to link arms with his 10,000 church members and commit to a 40-day “fast” from the company starting on Ash Wednesday.

A month earlier, a number of activists and civil rights leaders had protested in front of Target’s Minneapolis headquarters, calling for a nationwide boycott. But Bryant’s clarion call cut through, perhaps because it invoked a history that Trump has also placed in the crosshairs.

“What we learned from the Montgomery bus boycott is that racist America doesn’t respond to speeches, it responds to dollars,” Bryant intoned, urging parishioners to liquidate their Target stock while acknowledging the risk he was taking in fomenting this protest as Trump was embracing authoritarianism. “I’m saying this before they got a new FBI chief that calls us a terrorist organization. We doing it in decency and in order. Target, you got 40 days to pull it together.”

When those 40 days passed and Target followed through on its DEI rollback, Bryant upped the ante on Ash Wednesday and called for the #TargetFast to shift to a “full-out boycott”. He challenged Black Americans in particular, who are among the big box chain’s most loyal customers, to hold the line. “We are engaged in this battle because you don’t get to walk away from your public commitments to Black people and think there will not be consequences and repercussions,” Bryant said at a town hall meeting in April. “Somebody is going to accept the price, and we don’t accept layaway in 2025.”

Fueled by the strength of 200,000 petition signers and Black business leaders and activists such as the Rev Al Sharpton, New Birth’s Target boycott has rivaled the global backlash against Tesla in its political urgency. It’s also cost the retailer significant sales and foot traffic. (“We’re not satisfied with these results,” CEO Brian Cornell said in a call with reporters last month.) Throughout the boycott, Bryant has not hesitated to call out Cardi B and other would-be allies for betraying the cause.

It’s quite an achievement for a pastor’s kid and preacher-influencer who has long maintained an interest in serving the greater good. Ten years ago, Bryant thought about running for the congressional seat held by civil rights hero Elijah Cummings after Freddie Gray’s killing rocked his Baltimore home town, before taking over as the senior pastor of New Birth in 2019. He’s also reinvented himself as a podcast host and has become an incidental guest star on the Real Housewives of Potomac. (Gizelle Bryant, a lead cast member, is his ex-wife.)

Days after Bryant announced the next phase of New Birth’s consumer challenge, a nationwide fast from Dollar General, he talked to the Guardian about his boycott demands, the Black entrepreneurs who find themselves caught in the middle, and backing the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture over the Juneteenth holiday.

You have pointed out how much Black Americans spend at Target – $12m a day, by your reckoning. By calling for a boycott, you’re challenging them to make a drastic change in their behavior. Were you challenging yourself, too?

I’m a #GirlDad to four, including three who are in college, so I had to absorb them protesting: “Please, don’t take it away! We go in every week at least for lip gloss.” But when I began to walk it to the disservice that Target is doing to the community, it became a no-brainer. They become some of my greatest disciples on college campuses. That’s been really infectious to a lot of people in the community who didn’t understand that we were not looking for charity or a favor from Target. We’re looking for a partner – even though Black people love Target so much that we’ve already invited them to the cookout and given them a nickname: “Targét”.

What specific demands does the #TargetFast have?

We asked for four things.

The first is because we spend $12m a day, we want them to invest $250m into Black banks so people can have access to capital for home ownership and entrepreneurship.

Second, we asked that they would adopt six HBCUs that have business programs so that young entrepreneurs can learn how to scale and build big box businesses. The reality is we’re 70 years from the Montgomery bus boycott and still have no national chain owned by Black people.

View image in fullscreen

Third, we’ve asked in no uncertain terms, that they would honor their commitment to George Floyd’s family, that they would invest $2bn into entrepreneurs so that their businesses might be able to thrive. So far, that’s the only thing that Target has agreed to.

Lastly, we gave them a blank canvas and said: “Reimagine DEI, even if it has a different name or definition.” I understand the pressure and the weight of this Trump administration, so if you have to pivot and package it differently, I’m amenable. But I’m also mindful that the top beneficiaries are white women. Even though Black people lag behind, we have demonstrated, through our largesse and altruism historically, a willingness to serve the greater good.

There’s been a fair bit of skepticism within the Black community about singling out Target instead of including Walmart, Amazon and other major retailers. How sensitive were you to that criticism and did it factor into the decision to go after Dollar General next?

So this is the 15th week of the Target boycott. I announced Dollar General in the 13th week. I was of the mind that we had not done organized or unified targeted spending in 70 years, that we really would not be able to see the full brunt of our impact if we went after 14 companies at once. The African proverb says you eat an elephant one bite at a time. Now we have momentum: 50,000 people signed our covenant not to go into Target. We have a directory of more than 150,000 Black businesses we made with help from the US Black Chamber of Commerce that we’ve shared with more than 250,000 email supporters. We just had to start small in order to get real traction. And also you have to be mindful that this boycott wasn’t called by a historic civil rights organization – not the NAACP, the National Urban League, Rainbow Push or the National Action Network. It wasn’t called by a Black church denomination. It was a singular church: New Birth.

In its first quarter earnings report, Target reported over a half-billion-dollar loss in year-over-year sales and a sharp decline in foot traffic. Do you take any encouragement from that, and does this suggest that they may be ready to listen to New Birth’s demands?

We take it as a victory. I’m grateful that the Kwanzaa principle of cooperative economics is seeing itself in the 21st century. It’s because we’re organized, unified and singular in our focus.

Has Target CEO Brian Cornell reached out to negotiate a detente at least?

Cornell and I had one meeting the Thursday before Easter, with the Rev Al Sharpton in New York. Then the Tuesday after Easter he was summoned to meet with the president at the White House. We had not heard anything since, which is why we moved to the “canceling” of Target.

For as much buy-in as you’ve gotten from the Black community for the Target boycott, you also have Tabitha Brown – the actor and healthy living influencer who has a lucrative brand partnership with Target – urging would-be boycotters to consider the effect their actions have on entrepreneurs like her. What do you say to that?

I’m disappointed in her. Tabitha didn’t build her brand from Target. She built it from social media. We love Tabitha, but it’s not true that the only way we can support her is in Target. You can open up a drop-ship, and we’ll buy from you online right now. People can still support Black brands outside of big box establishments. I want to see Tabitha thrive. I just want to see us move in a different direction.

Why did Dollar General make sense as the next retailer to go after?

People don’t realize Dollar General has roughly three times as many stores as Walmart and Target combined. Seventy-five percent of Americans nationwide live within five miles of a Dollar General. They hire part-time staff so they don’t have to pay out benefits. They inundate impoverished communities and rural areas with 20,000 or fewer residents, fancying themselves as a stopgap solution in food deserts. But most of the food they sell is processed. Those issues combined with the preponderance of Black and brown people who shop at Dollar General and the fact that minorities comprise just very little of their executive leadership are why they came next in the pecking order.

What do you say to shoppers who live in food deserts who figure to be vastly more affected by a Dollar General boycott than boycotting Target?

For those in rural areas or food deserts, we’ve asked them to do an electronic protest, where we give you a sample script to email or deliver over the phone. They can use the #TargetFast hashtag on social. We by no means want to starve families and seniors. If that’s their only option, we’re asking them to take full advantage. But those who have options, we’re asking to pivot.

Has Dollar General responded?

We understand they released a report suggesting they expect business to beat last quarter’s projections. Good morning, Vietnam.

Who’s next? Walmart? Amazon?

We’re focused on the two we have now, but I don’t want this to just be a boycott movement. Between book bans, funding cuts to schools that teach Black history and threats to pull support from HBCUs, there’s so much more at stake. There’s also the immigration issue that affects many Caribbean and African transplants as well as Hispanic Americans. On Juneteenth Sunday, we’re challenging 2,000 churches to raise an offering to support the National Museum of African American History, which is also in the administration’s crosshairs. I’m hoping that what happens with Target and Dollar General will be a wake-up call for AT&T, Disney, Levi’s and other companies that have initiated DEI rollbacks to re-evaluate their positions.

How can allies in the Black diaspora and beyond get involved with this movement?

I was recently in Paris, and people were stopping in the streets to say: “I’m not going to Target.” Great, but y’all don’t even have one! It just shows you the global reach of what it is that we’re endeavoring to do.

Why do you think Target and other companies are so inclined to underestimate the power of the Black dollar?

Again, they’ve not seen us move like this in 70 years, and they don’t know that they’ve awakened a sleeping giant. Black people are now alert, mobilized and conscientious about what’s taking place. And we’re not going to spend our dollars with companies that don’t treat us with dignity.

Interview edited for length and clarity

• This article was amended on 11 June 2025 to correct the date of when Jamal Harrison Bryant announced the Target “fast”.

Thrifting was made for times like these.

A prolonged period of high living costs and consumer pushback against the excesses of fast fashion has led to soaring interest in buying secondhand clothes and pre-owned homewares.

Big business is tapping into the trend, drawing mixed reactions from thrifters accustomed to spending their money at charitable op shops.

For-profit expansion

Late last year, the private equity-backed Savers, a firm listed in the US, opened a store on Oxford Street, one of Sydney’s primary shopping precincts. Months earlier, it had unveiled a sprawling superstore in the city’s west.

In the next few months, it plans to open stores in Sydney’s inner west on the bustling Parramatta Road, and in the city’s outskirts in Marsden Park.

The Sydney expansion builds on the outlet’s long-term presence in Melbourne and Adelaide.

Savers, the biggest for-profit thrift retailer in North America, has found financial favour in Australia, with quarterly sales jumping to US$30.7m in the March quarter, up almost 12% from a year earlier.

• Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Overall, the company generated US$1.54bn in sales in 2024 through its network of more than 350 stores, mainly located in the US and Canada.

Caitie Pridmore, a longtime op shopping enthusiast, says she is more inclined to shop at charity-run op shops than Savers, but any arguments against for-profit thrift stores should be nuanced.

“It comes down to … the intention as the consumer, and then the intention as the retailer of the op shop,” she says.

“With Savers, it’s an interesting one. I feel less compelled to shop there.”

Pridmore says while there is a charitable element to the way Savers operates, she prefers to spend her money in op shops where she knows her contributions are going to have “more of an impact on the community”.

For-profit thrift retailers tend to do well in markets where customers are conscious about their spending, but not under so much financial pressure that they stop buying altogether.

This is representative of conditions in Australia, where households are grappling with cost-of-living pressures, but most people have a job, with unemployment at a low level of 4.1%.

Michael Fisher, the managing director at Savers Australia, said in a statement that secondhand shopping served as a meaningful and sustainable way for consumers to stretch their dollars in the current economic climate.

“We are competitively positioned in the retail sector with a hyperlocal model, an average price per item of less than $10, and a fresh assortment that provides exceptional value to consumers,” Fisher said.

For-profit model

The Savers model relies on donations of clothes and small household items to its charitable partners, including Red Nose, Wounds Australia and Diabetes Victoria, which are either collected by the not-for-profits or through donation centres attached to the stores.

Savers then pays the charities for those goods.

The Wounds Australia chief executive, Jeff Antcliff, said the organisation had been “thrilled with the exposure” the partnership had brought and that the relationship provided revenue to support the organisation’s work in advocating for those living with chronic wounds.

Savers’ charitable partners, including Wounds Australia, said the rates paid by Savers were confidential.

In the US, Savers has faced questions over the transparency of its relationships with nonprofit partners, and the rates it pays.

The office of the Washington attorney general said in 2017 that Savers’ parent company was paying one of its charitable partners as little as four pennies for every pound of clothing. Other goods, like housewares, earned the charities 2 US cents per pound.

Savers did not respond to questions about the per-kilo rate it pays in Australia.

Fisher said the company had paid its Australian not-for-profit partners about $20m for secondhand goods over the last five years.

“Last year alone, we found a reuse for over 9.1 million kilograms of secondhand items,” Fisher said in a statement.

One of Savers’ partners, Diabetes Victoria, disclosed in financial accounts that about 4.8m kgs of clothes and other products went to Savers in 2024, and that the charity had earned $2.98m from its collections business.

While this would imply a rate of about 62c per kilo, the calculation could be complicated by donations of different types of goods attracting different rates.

The Diabetes Victoria chief executive, Glen Noonan, said the Savers partnership had “played a vital role in advancing our efforts to raise funds for much needed diabetes programs, advocacy and world-leading diabetes research”.

Sustainable shopping

The thrifting sector has changed significantly from the days of being almost exclusively run by charities.

Another for-profit model, consignment stores, allows people to sell unwanted clothes for lower-than-retail prices if they don’t want to give them away for free.

Bec Brewin, a keen op-shopper who creates thrifting content for social media, says e-commerce platforms like Depop facilitate a more sustainable economy, even though “you’re not donating to a charity, you’re donating to somebody’s wallet”.

“As long as you’re aware of the fact that you’re shopping at a for-profit thrift shop or op shop, it’s fine. You’re still making a more sustainable choice,” she says.

Vicky Weatherlake, who runs an online thrifting community I Love To Op Shop which includes a Facebook group with more than 122,000 members, says she supports the Savers business model.

“I’m not wasting time criticising Savers for not being not-for-profit when we have [fast fashion platforms] doing huge environmental damage,” she says, referring to mass market retailers selling ultra cheap clothing.

“Is [Savers] competitive with op shops? Yes, certainly – but from my personal point of view, it’s more environmentally friendly.”

“We’ve got far bigger fish to fry than pulling Savers up on being a for-profit business, when it actually gets through so much goods that people are just not wanting any more,” she says.

Annual results, released on Wednesday, showed a 22% rise in pre-tax profits in the year to 30 March. Overall sales were up 6% to £13.9bn with fashion and homeware increasing 3.5% to £4.2bn.

However, there are now concerns that a recent cyber-attack could derail its fashion strategy. Since Easter weekend, customers have been unable to shop for M&S clothing online. The CEO, Stuart Machin, described in-store clothing sales as “softer than we would like”. The disruption, which is expected to continue until July, could lead to £300m in lost profits, two-thirds of which is pegged to lost clothing sales.

Pippa Stephens, a senior apparel analyst at GlobalData, described the retailer’s upward trajectory as “under threat” with a long-lasting impact beyond declining profits. “The stealing of customer data during the cyber-attack could undermine its hard-won gains in brand reputation and customer loyalty,” Stephens said.

View image in fullscreen

Strong clothing sales figures have been driven by wardrobe basics such as underwear (more than half of women in the UK wear a bra from M&S) alongside more fashion-forward categories such as partywear.

The retailer’s director of womenswear, Maddy Evans, who joined the brand in 2019, has been instrumental in its turnaround. She previously spent 20 years at Topshop under the stewardship of Jane Shepherdson, who was once described as the most influential person in high street fashion.

Since joining M&S, Evans has pivoted the brand towards a more fashion-focused 35- to 50-year-old age demographic. Shoppers can still find skinny jeans, but next to them are more contemporary cuts such as carrot and horseshoe shapes. The retailer sells 10 pairs of jeans every minute.

Its latest holiday edit features classic linen separates alongside sparkly mesh dresses designed to be worn over a variety of swimwear styles, from one-pieces to bandeau bikinis. It also introduced standalone brands such as Nobody’s Child and Jaeger, which M&S bought out of administration in 2021.

There have also been unexpected designer collaborations. After joining forces with Sienna Miller on a sell-out collection of broderie anglaise blouses and slinky trouser suits, M&S enlisted the British knitwear designer Bella Freud to create a capsule collection riffing on her signature slogan crew necks. It sold out in 24 hours. In March the retailer persuaded the luxury loungewear designer Olivia von Halle to create a £55 take on her three-figure pyjamas.

Evans has also reduced M&S’s design time to market, meaning it can react more quickly to catwalk trends. The retailer has developed a knack for high-quality dupes – cheaper versions of high-end products. In January, a pair of £55 suede loafers similar to a £770 pair from Saint Laurent repeatedly sold out. A £45 pair of leopard-print jeans amassed a 12,000-strong waiting list. Padded bum shorts were quickly followed by a bra with built-in shoulder pads, an idea that came directly from the model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who launched her bestselling lingerie line with the brand in 2012.

View image in fullscreen

Now, a red bubble skirt and square-toed flat shoes are experiencing similar viral success. However, therein lies the catch. Virality stems from the internet. If a shopper cannot easily click to buy as M&S grapples with the hack, they could be dissuaded from buying at all. Shoppers could not even browse on Thursday morning, with the entire site briefly down.

Many M&S customers have taken to the brand’s social media fashion account (which has 500,000 followers) to vent their frustrations. Shoppers point out they are left without a local option after the retailer closed several stores. Smaller outlets also do not offer the same range of product or sizes as those found in bigger stores typically in city centres.

Jonathan Pritchard, a retail analyst at Peel Hunt, said the cyber-attack would force loyal customers to try other brands they can easily access online. “There’s a chance that some of the momentum that M&S has built is lost as a consequence,” he said. He described the impact of the cyber-attack on the retailer’s strategy as “a bump in the road, yes, but not derailed”.

Retailers are looking to capitalise on the TikTok and Instagram trend for skincare and makeup ranges from South Korea – known as K-beauty – by opening physical stores and launching brands in a push to get consumers to pick up products that havegone viral online.

While some of the ranges have been available on specialist beauty websites for some time, British shoppers are now getting the chance to try them out on their skin and assess their supposed wondrous effects.

View image in fullscreen

The trend is another example of South Korea’s growing cultural prominence where food, film, TV and K-pop, with its international stars such as the boyband BTS, are becoming big business as companies expand into large consumer markets such as Britain.

K-beauty’s positive reputation stems in part from Korea’s tradition of using natural substances in products, making them gentle on the skin, and its strict rules around labelling. The industry is also known for novel formulations and unexpected packaging (sometimes animal-shaped), although many shoppers discover brands such as Beauty of Joseon and Laneige through reviews by influencers.

Georgia Stafford, of the market research firm Mintel, says: “Social media is the driving force behind K-beauty’s popularity in the UK, where 34% of users have bought a beauty or grooming product after seeing it on social media, rising to 58% of Gen Z users.”

A fifth (21%) of Gen Z consumers (aged 13-28) use K-beauty products, according to Mintel, compared with 8% overall. They are more likely to follow the complex 10-step skincare routines popular in South Korea, or try to get the “glass skin” look beloved by the beauty industry, where your face is drenched in moisture to give a dewy, luminous look.

K-beauty products have previously had a “relatively limited audience”, according to Stafford, as they were unavailable on most high streets. However, online popularity could now translate to in-person purchases.

Shoppers can now buy products such as Cosrx’s skin essence containing snail mucin – slime to the uninitiated – at Superdrug and Boots. The latter store also sells Anua’s face serum with PDRN (polydeoxyribonucleotide), which contains DNA fragments extracted from salmon sperm and is claimed to hydrate the skin deeply.

K-beauty products are “typically a fraction of the cost” compared with those from established premium brands, says Stafford. “Experimenting with new products and ingredients is therefore accessible to consumers. PDRN is a standout example. The ingredient promotes collagen production and its source is a real conversation starter!”

Boots, Britain’s biggest beauty retailer, sold a Korean skincare product almost every 15 seconds between December and the end of February and in recent months has expanded the range of products it stocks.

While consumers may be tightening their belts in other areas, spending on pharmacy, health and beauty has emerged as an outlier. Figures from Barclays show spend in this area was on average 10.2% higher during the first three months of the year, compared with the same period in 2024.

View image in fullscreen

The Korean retailer Moida (which translates as “to gather” or “to collect”) launched its first UK store in west London’s Westfield shopping centre in December and opened its second in the capital this month.

The new shop, fitted out in pink and red and located near Leicester Square, is close to its fellow Korean beauty retailer PureSeoul, which now has eight outlets across the UK – including Birmingham, Manchester, Oxford and Cambridge – and is opening a further two this year.

Meanwhile, the Korean beauty rival Skin Cupid has signed a 10-year lease for a UK outlet in central London close to Tottenham Court Road after the success of a nearby fortnight-long pop-up during the festive season.

The electronics giant LG is best known for its smart TVs and washer dryers, but the company’s first product, launched in 1947, was a moisturiser called Lucky Cream. LG hopes to ride the boom in interest in all things Korean through the expansion of its beauty arm, LG Household & Health Care (LG H&H). It launched its K-beauty brand Belif in the UK at the start of May, initially at online retailers and two London branches of retailer GlamTouch.

LG is also looking at opening physical stores, says Steven Jeong, the managing director of LG H&H UK. “While our initial strategy focuses on online channels, we believe that in-person experiences are an essential part of the skincare journey, especially when it comes to texture and personalised consultation.” The company hopes to “establish an offline presence” from June, he says.

Many consumers are also drawn to K-beauty as part of the wider rise in interest in Korea’s cultural exports, known as the Korean wave (hallyu). K-beauty is forecast to be a $18.3bn (£13.7bn) global business by 2030, according to a Straits Research report, growing at a rate of 9% each year from 2022 to the end of the decade.

View image in fullscreen

“I watch K-drama,” says Ike Lawson, 28, browsing the shelves of a central London PureSeoul store with two colleagues during her lunchbreak. “K-beauty products work for me, like the snail mucin serum. I went to Korea in 2023 to raid the skincare, but mostly for the food,” she says.

Lining the shelves of PureSeoul are stylish tubes and bottles of products, many boasting ingredients unfamiliar to the British market, ranging from mung beans and mugwort to propolis, which is extracted from bees.

Lawson’s colleague Georgia Spooner, 27, who has just bought a £22 sunscreen stick for her upcoming holiday, says she has noticed “more shops popping up”, after first discovering K-beauty on social media. “It’s more mainstream now.”

This Charing Cross Road branch of PureSeoul is something of a Korean hub with grocery shops and restaurants. Such locations appeal to retailers when choosing a space, says Matt Peters, a specialist in retail in the London office of the property company Savills.

“Whilst these brands are looking to focus and showcase their product to a western audience, a lot of them will like to align with other Asian-focused businesses within a location,” Peters says.

View image in fullscreen

K-beauty retailers are among those filling in gaps on British high streets, according to Savills, with some signing 10-year leases, signalling their intention to commit to a location for a considerable period.

Peters says: “These retailers see this as a long-term movement, this isn’t a flash in the pan. K-beauty has been in the UK for over five years now. It’s a sector that is increasing in terms of product sold over different retailers.”

As shoppers prioritise spending on wellness and cosmetics, property analysts expect K-beauty retailers will continue to eye up other areas outside London based on the location of their most loyal online shoppers.

Moida is planning further expansion across the UK and intends to take a step outside London, taking its snail slime and other skincare novelties to Manchester in the summer.

Re your article (‘You sold it – now recycle it’: the protesters mailing worn-out clothes to the shops they bought them from, 29 April), a significant percentage of the used-clothing waste stream consists of plastic zips and buttons, nylon ribbons and mile upon mile of polyester sewing thread, which will still be plastic even when it breaks up into microfibre. This is all devastating to wildlife, on land or sea.

Incineration plants are used to dispose of much of this modern clothing trash, but they come with a bad track record. Furthermore, the petrochemical industry saw disinvestment from fossil fuel on the horizon decades ago, so its promoters headed towards every other business that could use it, resulting in a huge move towards plastic packaging and manmade textiles, even though it would lead to industrial-scale pollution.

It would be useful for articles to progress from shoppers’ difficulties in making eco-friendly choices to compare clothing manufactured from natural materials. These do incur an environmental cost, but should be easier to dispose of, except that the fibre must be unblended, stitching must be cotton or linen, and the final garment unadorned with manmade features such as fasteners, care labels, and embroidered logos.

The social cost of our clothing must also be reckoned with. Sweatshops and child labour are involved in the processing of cotton. The supply chain is global and difficult to trace. There are healthier ways to stock our wardrobes and it would be a positive contribution if the Guardian could write about more that aren’t cripplingly expensive.
Jane Eades
Truro, Cornwall

I started mailing plastic packaging to CEOs and MPs in 2007 to highlight frustration at having plastic imposed on consumers and then paying in our council tax to landfill or incinerate it, both of which produce toxic residue. The “polluter pays” policy doesn’t seem to apply to retailers, who blame manufacturers while extolling the virtues of plastic for keeping food undamaged as it gathers food miles.

I’ve bought most of my clothing secondhand all my life, but charity shop textiles have gone downhill. Even the new stuff is unwearable. I am reminded of Brentford Nylons in th 1970s – sweaty bedsheets, gaudy patterns and static shocks. I now buy better-quality, natural textiles that last, and I mend what I can for as long as I can. In times past, two sets of clothes sufficed and were left in your will. That does sound extreme, but maybe we should start by simply consuming less while finding new ways to repurpose material.
Helen McDowall
Bampton, Devon

While I take the point that shops shouldn’t sell this stuff, I can’t help think that it is also down to consumers to take responsibility. Shops sell what people want to buy. For all those sending clothes back in outrage, it would be interesting to know how many other synthetic items they’ve purchased since the offending item. There are many natural material choices available that can be easily recycled if you check the label before purchasing.

Buy a cotton sheet, not polycotton. Denim without elastic is available if you go for non-stretch versions. Maybe if people favoured natural fabrics with their purchasing power, and bought less in the first place, it would be less of a problem.
Ellie Clarke
London