Buh-Bye Black Furday, Hello Slowvember.

This year we're ditching stressful panic buying, and taking things slowwww. We know choosing the right pet food is one of the most important decisions we make for our floofs. Which is why we want you to make this choice stress free, without the pressure of FOMO from urgent offers, and with the time to review what’s right for you and your furbaby. Buy what you want when you want and need it. Here's what's wrong with Black Friday, what Slowvember is all about, and why we're doing it.

What is Black Friday?

The phrase Black Friday was first coined back in 1869, when two American businessmen tried to take over the gold market, resulting in the market collapsing. 

It wasn't until the 1980s when it started being used to describe the retail period after Thanksgiving. And it was only in 2010 when the idea crossed the Atlantic and became an event in the UK too. Black Friday was primarily introduced by Amazon, who offered hefty online discounts to their British customers.

It's now one of the most-hyped shopping events of the year, responsible for over £2.5bn being spent in a single day and extreme "slashed prices", offering limited time and of course the crowds and mobs we've grown used to seeing. The more observant might spot that these "offers" aren't as strong as they purport to be compared to pricing across the rest of the year. 

What's So Wrong With Black Friday

We all want to get the best bang for our buck, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. However, it's become increasingly impossible to avoid and ignore the social and environmental impacts of the holiday. The four main issues being:

1. It encourages unconscious, panic buying

Due to the limited time offers we're pressured into making decisions more hastily than we typically would. This means we think less about whether we really need, or actually even want, and more about just getting it so we don't get FOMO. The result? That we buy products, only use them once or twice, then chuck them. Shockingly, it's estimated that up to 80% of items, including the packaging they arrive in, end up as waste.

2. It's the most polluting holiday of the year

More products being purchased = more products being shipped worldwide = more products being produced. It's no wonder therefore that EcoCart reported that Black Friday is the most polluting event in the year, with the Dirty Delivery Report estimating roughly 429,000 tonnes of carbon emissions are released on one day from the deliveries alone.

3. We're in the midst of a supply chain crisis

With the rapid growth of online sales, it's easy to forget the vast number of hands responsible for getting your goods to your doorstep. This supply chain is already under a huge amount of strain due to the aftermath from the pandemic, ongoing labour shortages, container shortages, ship shortages, power shortages, oh and massive cost price increases to top it all off. By condensing such a vast amount of sales into a singular day, all these hands have to increase their productivity by over 300%. This includes some workers shifts increasing from 8 hours a day, to 12-13 to meet demand.

4. It hurts small businesses

Finally, the real winners from Black Friday tend to be huge businesses of the likes of Amazon. Small businesses simply can't compete with the offers, reach, or even increase in demand like these whopping companies can, so ultimately lose out. 

What We're Doing Instead

We're saying Buh-Bye to Black Furday and welcoming Slowvember into our lives. Slowvember is all about ditching the time-sensitive offers and ridiculous discounts, instead encouraging mindful decision making and chilled out sexc vibes.

1) Removing any time pressure

We want our customers to feel cool as cucumbers this month, so our offer is available all month long. Not only removing any pressure on them, but on our full supply chain too. Our lovely packers have already said a big thank you!

In fact we want you to feel even cooler than a cucumber, we want you to feel as cool as Toby and Otis... #goalz

2) Providing muchos information 

We've designed our range of cat and dog food to be suitable for all cats and doggies, no matter their lifestage or breed. Even so, we know some have specific needs or textural preferences that we don't yet offer, so we only want pet owners to buy our products if they're right by their fur baby. To help them make this decision, we're sharing in-depth information throughout the month about our products and brand. Make sure you're signed up to our emails to receive it!

3) Sustainable savings

We're offering 20% off all month, a number specifically chosen as it still gives our customers the chance to trial our products at a lower price, but isn't so high that we're not able to absorb the cost. One of our core values has always been that good food should cost the earth, enabling pet parents to access better food at better value and being mindful of our impact to the planet. That's why on a £/kg basis we're more affordable than our competitors. We support our customers with an ongoing 15% saving for our subscription service and 20% offers from time to time for ad hoc orders. Alarm bells ring for brands and products that offer heftier discounts, how can they afford it, and does that mean the price is inflated the rest of the time? 

4) 1% from every order to environmental causes

By participating in our Slowvember event, you're helping give back to the environment we and our floofs love so much. To date you've already helped us raise over £112,000 which has gone to charities such as Rewild Britain to reintroduce beavers into the UK countryside, and London Wildlife Trust to maintain their 36 nature reserves around London.

Outside of 1% for the Planet we also closely support several charities including Street Vets and All Dogs Matter who work tirelessly rescuing, rehoming, and providing invaluable care to vulnerable cats and doggies. Providing both food and financial donations.

By joining in our Slowvember event we simply want to help pet owners make better choices for their pets in a . And of course, if you don't want to shop with us, you're very welcome not to.

Make sure you're subscribed to our emails to make the most of our Slowvembver event!