SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) -- As many people flock to sales Friday and this weekend, a San Francisco collective wants to flip the script on Thanksgiving and its super sales that follow.
Started by three women in the city, "Reclaim Collaborative" organized a campaign this weekend to reclaim Black Friday for Black and Indigenous groups.
One of the founders of reclaim collaborative is the owner of this store - Tonle.
She, and several other businesses, are choosing to forgo the Black Friday markdowns and instead redistribute a percentage of sales this weekend to Black and Indigenous-led organizations.
Big sales and long lines characterize the day after Thanksgiving - and while that's been the norm for many, many years, a San Francisco collective, known as Reclaim Collaborative, wants to change all of that.
"We can't just treat this like another shopping season even though as a business it's been a very hard year, I think for me as running a small business it's really important to be in values alignment," Rachel Faller said.
Faller who owns Tonlé - a zero waste and sustainable brand in San Francisco says she never felt great about the capitalism of Black Friday - even though it's a time where businesses make a majority of sales. She says the mark ups, then mark downs often came at the cost of cheaper labor.
This year, she's joining a dozen other businesses in forgoing Black Friday sales and instead redistributing 15% of sales at her store to black and indigenous organizations.
"Chosen to redistribute a percentage of our sales to the black farmer fund that's based out of New York that funds small black owned farms."
Faller, along with Manpreet Kalra and Chloe Jackman-Buitrago founded reclaim collaborative a couple months ago, and are starting with a powerful first initiative to reclaim Black Friday.
"First we're asking white owned businesses to take the redistribution pledge which is essentially this idea that we recognize that there have been years of oppression and privilege that many white owned businesses have benefited from."
As an anti-racism educator, Kalra says education about the thanksgiving holiday is crucial. Co-founder Jackman-Buitrago agrees.
"Been told this history through the lens of colonizers and of course they're going to make it all rosy and beautiful but lets talk about the real truth."
Jackman-Buitrago says she was blown away to find other brands in San Francisco like Bryr studio which sells handmade clogs that were willing to join the cause and believed in the same message.
The reclaim Black Friday campaign will redistribute a minimum 10% of sales from Thursday through Sunday.
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