Yes, it’s back Friday. Loads of box stores are hocking outrageous deals. But we know all of you would rather get your goods and wares from companies that have human beings and the Earth’s well-being in mind. So, for this week’s Friday Finds, we’ve rounded up 5 eco-friendly businesses you should check out today.

1. Undies at Good & Fair

I am a firm believer in gifting underwear for the holidays… Just not underwear that comes in a five-per pack. We love Good & Fairs’ selection of panties and boxers. Why? Because they are attractive, comfortable, and would make amazing stocking stuffers for the one you love. Good & Fair makes our list because the company is dedicated to creating fair trade clothing that uses environmentally sustainable materials. Priced at $12.

2. Love Your Lips Treatment Balm at Eco Diva Beauty

Everyone knows that winter is totally brutal on lips. So, make certain that you are armed to the gills with therapeutic lip balm. One balm you should definitely carry in your bag come below freezing temperatures is Dr. Alkaitis’ Love Your Lips Treatment Balm. It’s filled with organic ingredients, rejuvenating abilities, and anti-inflammatory properties. This balm is priced at $35 from Eco Diva Beauty, a company that doesn’t “sacrifice style and design to be socially responsible.” The business  sells products that are free of parabens, phthalates, sulfates, and synthetic fragrances, too.

3. Houndstooth Print Top in Black at People Tree

We love this sweater because the pattern is simple — it can go with almost anything. This classic sweater also is made from 100-percent fair-trade certified cotton. If you dig on the look of this print jersey top but don’t need another black sweater, it also comes in burgundy. Priced at $59.99. People Tree specializes in goods that are made sustainably and ethically. So, go ahead and shop without guilt!

4. Clarks Heels at ThredUp

Chunky heels are in this season, and that’s why we think it’s awesome that ThredUp, the store that’s known for re-selling pre-worn items in great condition, is selling these shoes. These heels are attractive and would look wonderful with any outfit. Priced at $33.99.

5. BFF Pizza Necklace

Yeah, we know you know about Etsy, but how could we not include this amazing shop? Etsy is filled with amazing pieces that are made by incredibly talented artisans. For example: this BFF friendship necklace. Get as many slices as you want and split with your friends, priced at $3.43 each from Etsy shop Fairy Fountain Gifts.

Related on EcoSalon

EcoSalon’s Fair Trade Fashion Guide

6 Hottest Online Natural Beauty Shops

5 Gorgeous Fashion Brands that are Affordable and Eco-Friendly

Image of woman shopping from Shutterstock

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Black Friday started early this year as stores opened their doors (or rather—never closed them) around 5PM on the Thursday of Thanksgiving. But, a new study shows Black Friday’s decline over time. What’s behind the loss of popularity of this formerly trendy shopping day? 

This year Black Friday came early, on Thanksgiving to be exact.

The jump start wasn’t because of early waves of holiday cheer sweeping through the nation, but because retailers are compensating for the economic hit they will most likely suffer this holiday shopping season. For 2013, the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is six days shorter than usual. It is estimated retailers make half of their entire yearly income during this time, so every day counts. Due to the truncated time period, retailers are afraid those six days will cause large financial losses. Their strategy? They started Black Friday on Thanksgiving evening—and some stores even controversially stayed open on Thanksgiving, forcing workers to labor on the holiday.

Perhaps all the panic from retailers is warranted when on paper they’ve lost six days of shopping, but was Black Friday in decline already?

A new study, by CFI Group, shows the hype around the bargain-hunting tradition of Black Friday might be on its way out. The study found fewer than 25 percent of people will spend more than half their total holiday shopping during Black Friday.

They also found only 21 percent of Millenials say they will go shopping at all during this time, and nearly half of shoppers nationwide will skip the Black Friday lines completely by having begun their shopping way before Thanksgiving.

“Consumers began their holiday shopping earlier in the season,” said Sheri Petras, CEO of CFI Group. “And as behavior is shifting beyond traditional Black Friday spending, those who focus solely on Black Friday-centric campaigns will miss significant sales opportunities.”

With this season’s retail race making up for lost time, we have to ask ourselves, is the rush really worth it? Consumers trends aren’t leaning towards the cheapest choices anymore. Only one third of shoppers are motivated by sales and coupons and more people are buying experiences as gifts, forgoing more “stuff.”

And, according to the New Yorker, those discounts aren’t as great as we think they are (or used to be): “Black Friday doesn’t even necessarily offer the best discounts, contrary to what retailers want their customers to believe. Rather than selling most merchandise at full price and marking down what doesn’t sell, stores now engineer their prices, so that the “discounted” prices are actually at the level they had wanted all along,” writes Amy Merrick. 

So what was the rush to move Black Friday into Thanksgiving? Maybe it wasn’t worth leaving the dinner tables early this year to partake in a tradition that might be on its way out.

See Also: 

Beyond Black Friday: Neuromarketing, Your Brain and Your Wallet

Vintage Shopping Tips from an Industry Pro

Zady: An Artisan-Powered Platform for Socially Conscious Shopping

image: Michael Holden

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Put that leftover turkey to use.

In my family, the day after Thanksgiving means one thing, and it isn’t Black Friday. No, I’m talking about something far more fulfilling and far less damaging to your bank account: leftover turkey sandwiches.

Back home, we keep it simple. Turkey, dressing, and a few slices of organic whole wheat bread. But other post-turkey day eaters go nuts, throwing in avocado, gouda, and even the occasional waffle. Here, seven great turkey sandwiches from Foodspotting to inspire a little culinary creativity this day-after-Thanksgiving.

Turkey Sandwich @ Torrisi Italian Specialties

Turkey Avocado & Pesto Waffle Sandwich @ Dash Cafe

Turkey & Provolone Sandwich @ Jestine’s Kitchen

Smoked Turkey Sandwich @ Panera Bread 

Roasted Turkey And Gouda Sandwich @ Museum of Science

Turkey Pesto Sandwich @ Fresh Cafe 

Thanksgivin’ Dinner Burger @ PYT

In Foodspotting Friday we highlight one of Foodspotting’s – or our own – top picks from our Foodspotting guides. Be sure to check them out and tip us off to your own favorites in our Readers’ Picks guide. Want to start spotting food on your own? Join Foodspotting and take part in the food spotting revolution. It’s visual, it’s positive, it’s global and we are in love with it.

Images: Pei Ketron, ScottySauce, Lizz Spano, Eliahoo, Daynah, Moriza, Jedi Pearce, Ed Morita

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Shop safely, America. But do shop.

The Christmas shopping season is almost upon us, ready to claw open our clamped, unwilling mouths and cram them so full with cheer that we collectively choke on our own merriment and saliva. Many retailers have maximized their potential hours of profit by opening their stores in the morning before closing the night before, including 80% coupons in the small plastic bag of giblets found in most frozen turkeys, chaining cashiers to their stations with lightweight chromium steel “efficiency tethers” and allowing would-be shoppers to sublet entire portions of parking lots for tent cities, RVs, and small condo shares.

Of course, you can and will do at least a portion of your holiday buying online, but the safe point-and-click of the Internet shopping cart carries with it none of the thrill of victory, or the savage pleasure that comes from hearing the pathetic, mewling shrieks of the defeated. Black Friday unites the twin American obsessions of waiting in line and staying inside, while elevating the act of purchasing bargain electronics to a savage yet sublime battle of wills. With that in mind, here are a few tips to ensure that this year you crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women. You know, secrets for shoppers.

10. Prepare for distractions and have an exit strategy. Let nothing deter you from achieving your goal. “Can you please move these trampled corpses out of the aisle? They’re blocking the Call of Duty display.”

9. Odds are that things will get violent, and that sooner rather than later. Bring a knife. They’re best for close-quarter combat situations, like jockeying for position in line at the Best Buy. A knife can also double as a box-cutter if you reach a display before the employees have had a chance to remove the products from their manufacturer’s casing, and of course, nothing’s going to push that mother of three away from your iPad 2 faster than a quick, lateral thrust to the kidneys.

8. Plan your route. Is it more practical to take your own vehicle, or commandeer somebody else’s once you take to the streets? If you take your own, you’ll have to do your own modifications, and active protection systems don’t grow on trees. What kind of self-propelled artillery will you need? Do you plan on plating your vehicle with composite armor or are you sticking with steel? Bearing in mind that every major transit artery will be blocked solid from now until January, does it make more sense to fund and develop helicopter support? These are things you should be thinking about now, not when you’re trying to navigate the fume-filled and gang-dominated blood mazes that once comprised your local downtown area. Of course, you may already live in Los Angeles.

7. Hydrate. Forget the Sunny D; these times call for Gatorade. Get it in you.

6. Shed your innocence. If you think you’re going to find a single parking space without screeching horrific obscenities at numerous elderly disabled veterans, then you don’t have the stomach for this. Why don’t you just stay home? You could order all your presents a week before the holidays and present everyone with a printed invoice (“So it was supposed to ship on the 22nd, but I guess something in the warehouse got tied up – anyhow, I hate to spoil the surprise, but here’s the receipt – you should be able to expect it by mid-January, the lady on the phone said”) or knit everyone an incredibly itchy scarf. Accept your limitations.

5. Hone your focus. What do eye contact, verbal speech, and the human ability to experience the feeling of mercy have in common? There is no place for them this day.

4. Remember that this is a marathon, not a 5k or even a half-marathon. Promotional sales have been extended over the last few years from Friday-only to cover the entire weekend. Some even begin on Thanksgiving Day, an absurd and tragic reminder of the arbitrary nature of brand pricing.

3. Multitask. Worried there may be a better deal online than what you’re being offered in the store? Oh, my friend, you had better believe that there is an app for that. Now you can shop online while you are shopping in person. Efficiency. Singularity. Unity. Soon, our gracious corporate overlords will find a way to make every day like Black Friday, and every technological device a potential Target. We’ll always be shopping. All things single, all things alike. It’ll be like the movie Groundhog Day, only real and wonderful and full of bottom-priced DVD box gift sets of Sex and the City with all nineteen movies and interactive Stanford Blatch-voiced Crocs.

2. Retain the element of surprise. Upon retiring for the evening, steal your family members’ cell phones (or alarm clocks, for the older set) and reset the time. Won’t they feel like suckers when they wander downstairs as late as 7 a.m. only to see you surrounded by your numerous purchases and covered in the blood of strangers.

1. Alternately, keep your head down, pick up a drink, and pray for January. Better make it two drinks, just to be safe. It’s going to be a long winter, but all winters eventually come to an end.

Image: afroboof

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I never liked the term “Black Friday.” It makes me think of evil and bad things like the Black September terrorist outfit of the 1970s or the “Black Tuesday” stock market crash that ushered in the Great Depression. Moreover, it seems odd to me that marketers would describe a shopping day – nay, actually promote a shopping day – with a term that has to do with retail profits (i.e. “getting into the black”) rather than consumers making out well. Who would buy into that?

Well, many of us do. We might second guess them, but marketers know lots of stuff that we don’t. In fact, with access to the latest in neuroscience, it turns out they know stuff about me that I don’t even know. It even has a name: neuromarketing.

Here’s a good definition of the practice from Neuromarketing, a blog focused on the field, authored by consultant Roger Dooley. (Consider that they make no secret about what they’re up to. They don’t have to. They’re that good.)

“Neuromarketing includes the direct use of brain imaging, scanning, or other brain activity measurement technology to measure a subject’s response to specific products, packaging, advertising, or other marketing elements… neuromarketing also includes the use of neuroscience research in marketing. For example, using fMRI or other techniques, researchers may find that a particular stimulus causes a consistent response in the brain of test subjects, and that this response is correlated with a desired behavior (e.g., trying something new).”

So what does this mean? That Mad Men are busy figuring out how we subconsciously process product and are tapping into parts of our brain through adverting and marketing techniques that we’re unaware of? Well, of course they are. And they’re getting better at it every day.

According to Denise Corcoran, CEO of The Empowered Business, neuromarketing recognizes that there are three “main parts” to the brain. These include, she writes at Business Know-How:

• “The ‘Human’ (‘New,’ or outer-most) Brain: Most evolved part of the brain known as the cortex. Responsible for logic, learning, language, conscious thoughts and our personalities.
• The ‘Mammalian’ (Middle) Brain: Also known as the limbic system. Deals with our emotions, moods, memory and hormones.
• The ‘Reptilian’ (Old) Brain: Also known as the R Complex controls our basic survival functions, such as hunger, breathing, flight-or-fight reactions and staying out of harm’s way.”

“While neuromarketing is still a young field with many unanswered questions, one finding is clear,” Corcoran says. “The reptilian, or ‘old,’ brain drives your customers’ [heads up people. She’s speaking here to marketers] buying decisions.” This part of the brain, now heavily targeted by in-the-know-how marketers includes, she writes, a sophisticated (not!) focus on emotions triggered by sensory stimuli, simple gain versus pain tradeoffs, and “beginnings and endings.” I’d use terms like “knee-jerk” and “super duper impetuous” to describe my reptile brain. Not really that part of me I want in charge of my wallet.

(Keep in mind, by the way, that we’re not just talking about buying product here. Lots of decisions come made by This Old Brain. Anyone around this last election day? The neuromarketers were.)

So, as we round the shopping mall turn into The Season, what are some examples of how they play us during this last month of the year? Here are two classics designed to plug into our neuro(tic?) habits, according to Dooley:

You want it? We got it! At a ridiculously low price! Just come on down and…

“A staple of Black Friday promotions is the limited quantity loss leader item,” Dooley explains. This is when a store loudly advertises a known-to-be desirable item (say, a flat-screen TV) at an incredibly low price. In fact, so low the store’s going to lose money.  Sound like a good reason to cue up? After all, the advertisements says, “At least 5,000 available chain-wide!”

A lot for a little? “This pitch is neuroeconomic perfection,” he says. “Consumers see the product, and are shocked by the amazingly low price. At the same time, neuroeconomics research tells us that people aren’t good at translating odds and percentages into real-life probabilities… most consumers wouldn’t have a clue that a particular chain might have, say, a thousand stores. And, if every store gets just a few units, the chance of actually being able to buy one is very low. Still, many make the trek into the store early on Black Friday hoping to do just that.”

What’s left behind when the smoke-and-mirrors-screen clears is what Dooley calls “an atmosphere of savings. If people are lining up at 4 AM to buy stuff, the prices must be incredible, right? This savings frenzy may carry over to other products and even infect shoppers not pursuing the limited-supply items.” Wow. Such language! “Atmosphere of savings!” “Frenzy!” “Infect!” I don’t mean to pick on Dooley, who’s just doing his job, but yikes.

But wait! There’s more!

Buy now, pay… well, who cares when? Just buy now!

Another big end-of-the-year play is to promise no payments until next year. Never mind that that might be just a few weeks away. Oh hell, you know that! How about no payments until, say, next summer? Or maybe, “No interest for a year! You can pay it off by then. Can’t ya?”

This is what Dooley calls the “No Payment, No Pain” approach, another “brain-based technique” that minimizes current cash outflow while maximizing overall cash outflow. “The possibility of immediate gratification with very little in the way of ‘paying pain’ will no doubt close more deals. (The mere enabling factor of these offers is important, too; some consumers simply can’t pay for the product in full.)” Again, note that this marketing consultant is talking to The Man (or Men or Women, or whoever wants you cash) and not to you.

So yeah, buy now, pay later. From the mouths of neuromarketers: “Some of these financing offers make sub-prime mortgage lenders look downright sensible and cautious.”

Enough. We and our oh-so-easy-to-read brains get the drift. Many of us are no match for the cross-fire of high-level sales techniques. (As a cha-ching FYI, an estimated $45 billion was spent at retail stores on Friday and $1 billion was spent online Monday.) I say, though, that a little awareness goes a long way. So heads up out there in the marketing kill zone this season. Consider the value of your own (In the) Black January and opposed to surrendering to your inner reptile.

Image: Oran Viriyincy

The post Beyond Black Friday: Neuromarketing, Your Brain and Your Wallet appeared first on EcoSalon.