sadly since i am poor (yes like those people you read about in the guardian, darling) and have been living below the "official poverty line" for all of my life, i doubt any one would be willing to swap their clothes for mine.

this would work great for those who already have nice clothes and just wish to swap them for some different nice clothes but if you're clothed in stuff you got from the scope shop six years ago (and no not a swanky one full of hardly worn designer gear) its pointless bothering to go.

every year this whole "buy nothing day" really pisses me off. reminds me how nobody would notice if i decided to buy nothing on one day since i barely ever buy anything other than food anyway and even that's on a budget of £70 a week to feed five hungry mouths. and by the way i didn't breed any of them but had to take them on when my brother died to keep them out of care.

it is yet another "protest" dreamed up my middle class twats with more money than sense for whom not buying something for a whole 24 hours is some kind of big deal.

before you ask, i am typing this from my night shift at work, we don't have tv or pc. yeah, i know, hard to believe, for you lot who have the time, equipment, money and education to create these swanky flyers only relevant to those with money to chose not to spend.

if i was in charge of topshop i personally would not feel threatened or protested at in any way by this happening in my shop. i would probably view it as "cool" and think it would add to my store's fake counter-culture marketing bullshit. plus anyone into their clothes and shopping enough to take part is at least 50% likely to buy an accessory while they're in there to go with there new clothes (or maybe return a few days later when their mates aren't looking to purchase things they spotted in there on buy nothing day).

i could go on, but my boss is doing 15 minutes checks on us and the next one's due in 3.

"I doubt any one would be willing to swap their clothes for mine."

I don't have any doubts on this myself. I know nobody would.

Is it cool to buy a crowbar or a pair of bolt-croppers on Buy Nothing Day? Or should you wait til the next day?

Seems to me, the best thing about all these buy nothing day actions is that they tie up all of the security dealing with the actions. Whenever the Hijackers or other groups tend to do things, the alarms on the front of the doors start ringing from opportunists ;-)

I think a space in the centre of town where a free exchange of goods and ideas takes place is something we should strive for, on BND and the rest of the year. Consumption of new goods is what keeps the powers that be in place, a break in this cycle is important, one mans rubbish is another mans treasure. Our cities are build as shrines to cheap throw-away goods, this has to change. I see the swap shop as a nod towards where we should be going.

Obviously the idea of 'buy nothing day' has several massive flaws, perhaps it should be 'steal something day' instead, however that's not really the point. As I see it, the message is to poke a whole in the spectacle of consumption that the majority of the general public take for granted every week. When TopShop's security inevitably intervene and eject the Hijackers and others (probably some general public too) then the "spend or leave" attitude of the economy and the security that back it up can be seen much clearer.

What is up with the movement lately?

Pissed off said... ''if i was in charge of topshop i personally would not feel threatened or protested at in any way by this happening in my shop. i would probably view it as "cool" and think it would add to my store's fake counter-culture marketing bullshit.''

No Pissed Off i believe your very wrong there. I doubt it would be considered as ''cool'' but instead very ''pointless''.

Someone in my family works for TopShop. (not the Oxford street store) The staff are under paid and over worked and have enough shit to deal with during the day than a bunch of idiots coming into the store and causing havoc. I'm unemployed at the moment and signing on, it just so happens that there is a job going at one of the stores in the stock room (no this isn't the Oxford street branch) Ive been umming and arring for the past two weeks whether to accept the job, as the hours are crap as well as the wage.But it just about beats signing on... even if it is for a high street store that i don't shop in.

Like someone else said there should be a space sent up in the middle of the high street, a place to swap clothes with people passing by instead, make a big pretend ''swapshop'' shop sign or something, surely that would make much more sense.

I now hear that this 'event' is being advertised on frigging Facebook! ... i rest my case.

"The staff are under paid and over worked and have enough shit to deal with during the day than a bunch of idiots coming into the store and causing havoc."

Quite right too! The best way to improve matters for the workers in TopShop is for them to just keep quiet and get on with it. Any attempt at disrupting the system as it stands is pointless.

Rubbish!

"there should be a space" - yes there should but there isn't, so we're going to make one appear in the middle of TopShop. Come along.

As I see it the audience for this action isn't the activists on indymedia etc, but rather the people who spend saturday afternoons shopping in Topshop for more throw away fashion.

Buy Nothing Day action always get grief from the left, along the lines of "well I only buy what's essential anyway, what's the fucking point". The fucking point is that the majority of people who grace Oxford Street have no comprehension of the sweatshop produced landfill mess that they are responsible for. BND isn't about preaching to the converted, but trying to interact with people who have no comprehension of activist ideals.

True, the shop workers, much like the sweatshop labourers and the poisoned cotton farmers are being shafted by the corporate fashion industry as much as anyone else. The point of the action isn't to piss them off, but rather their bosses.

yes it may attract more footfall to TopShop, but there is also going to be plenty of information circulated about their business practice and the destruction caused by what they do, through their labour practices, their harm to the environment and the misery through the relentless advertising (you're not pretty, buy this) that they push out.

I'll be along, stripping off and getting in a tussle with security, but then again mainly because I love getting pushed around by burly men whilst half naked x x x

Both topshop and facebook are instruments of popular culture. Most people are immersed in both.

So if you want to engage in a bit of outreach to people who aren't already activists, it makes sense to agitate through those channels.

And as for the topshop workers, the action won't cause them any more emotional stress than working in topshop oxford circus on a saturday would already.

Disrupting the flow of capital is a good way of expressing your distaste with it's machinations. That's why you have it in a shop.

''True, the shop workers, much like the sweatshop labourers and the poisoned cotton farmers are being shafted by the corporate fashion industry as much as anyone else. The point of the action isn't to piss them off, but rather their bosses''.

Well there bosses are Arcadia there the ones who own TopShop... not the people in work in the fucking shop!!

Give the staff a fucking break... Yes they work in a fucking heat magazine reading shitty high street store... But i don't know if you've noticed but there isn't that many other jobs around lately!

Yes there are uninformed public who do go and shop in these kinda stores who without knowing it are helping to shaft the sweatshop labourers.... But surely this is a case to take up with Arcadia but the fucking underpaid stressed out shop floor staff!