Perfume company Abel shuts down website in anti-Black Friday protest

For shoppers around the world, the lure of Black Friday deals will have people spending up large on things they do not need.

But one New Zealand company - Abel Fragrance - has closed down its website for the day in protest of the event.

• Follow RNZ's Black Friday liveblog here

The perfume company's founder Frances Shoemack told Midday Report the firm creates with intention, not excess.

It was the seventh year in a row the company had a website blackout for a whole day, she said.

"It's just our way of pushing against something that we think is harmful across the board."

The first year they shut down the website, she was "petrified" - but the reaction from customers had been "overwhelmingly positive".

"We're very mindful of our retail partners, customers who wait for that discount all year, but ...the ugly truth is that 95 percent of the shopping that happens on Black Friday is eating into retailers' and brands' margins right ahead of the holiday season, and it's people buying things they don't need or want.

"It's that FOMO, impulsive kind of behaviour," she said.

Shoemack added the company had "unwavering ethics and transparency that are ... the core of who we are" and they had a "gut instinct" years ago that Black Friday was not something they wanted to be part of.

"It's a toxic kind of trend."

When clicking on Abel's website, a video of Shoemack appears, in which she says: "The inconvenient truth is that these consumerist holidays go against everything we stand for at Abel.

"Come back tomorrow and shop our perfume - but please do so with intent."

The company had noticed other brands - as well as retailers - also refusing to do Black Friday deals, she said.

"We don't really want to be out there on our own. The first year it felt like, 'Oh my gosh - what's going to happen?'

"And then literally by the second time we did this, we saw other brands and some of our own retailers who messaged us in the weeks leading up [to the event], saying, 'Hey we're gonna do the same.'

"There's a little bit of a movement and I think that's a really positive thing."

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