Here comes a long post, thank you in advance for taking the time to read! This is our perspective on the matter, our reality. We hope that you can consider our arguments and think about it. Should it be that you actually like what we write, we'd like to recommend a wise woman who is a great role model for us. Her name is Johanna N and she works with sustainable fashion. Please follow her for more sustainable small business insights. https://www.johannanilsson.se/
Unfortunately, it's not enough to hate Black Friday once a year, even if it's popular to distance yourself from Black Friday on social media! 
. It's also not enough with a White Monday to compensate or show your "goodness." All the days of the year count, all the money we spend counts, and it's what we spend it on that determines, not which day it is or what offer we get.
If you choose wisely, locally produced, organic, reused, and plastic-reduced, then together we create a much better world, and this applies 365 days a year. Help create opportunities for a local manufacturer, your local farmer or REKO ring by buying lots of GOOD stuff during Black Friday! Who knows, during Black Friday, you might find an offer that does good for your wallet, the environment, and your local community.
Why do we stick our necks out and say: Shop during Black Friday? -Well, because without your support and your active choices, local, small businesses will not survive.
During the Corona pandemic, it has become very clear to all of us what happens when we are without local producers and stores. When we consistently choose to buy cheap from faaar away, we create these strange structures where our cows in the Nordics eat soy-based feed from the other side of the globe. If you want to be able to buy locally produced, then you have to buy locally produced, reused, or products produced in a way that you like. .
Do you know that most small businesses, trade, services, and production struggle with the economy? Profitability very rarely comes just from registering a company with the Swedish Companies Registration Office. Unfortunately, many people think that all entrepreneurs are "rolling in it." That is not the case for the vast majority. Many of us struggle significantly with our ideas, finances, and our companies.
Many small business owners sacrifice all their spare time, their savings, and work much more than 8 hours a day. Because it is difficult and expensive to hire in Sweden, many small business owners work alone until they absolutely cannot take it anymore. The obligations you have as an employer and the costs with fees and insurance in addition to the salary you pay are so large that it is a very big decision and heavy responsibility to hire someone.
To give a concrete example, it is the case that if you as a business owner pay out 100 SEK in salary, you have to calculate X (times) 1.85 = 185 SEK is therefore the actual cost including all fees. Note that this does not include a possible cost for an administrator / accounting firm that handles payroll so that it is correct, because there is much else to keep track of as well (vacation days, vacation pay, etc.).
This is what makes many companies, even state-owned ones, choose to bring in staff employed by foreign companies or to outsource operations to other countries. This is our reality, and when you choose to boycott us small business owners in Sweden on Black Friday, you also reduce our opportunities to continue with our companies and to perhaps be able to employ someone locally and actually pay and do right by them. So remember when you shop: what you buy from companies with production in Sweden, then that includes what is usually called the "Social Contract." That is, the company has paid everything that we have agreed to do in Sweden. If you boycott all companies during Black Friday, you also boycott what we have described above... Black Friday is the day when many small businesses have the opportunity to go from red figures (loss) to black figures (profit). After eleven months of struggle, we thus have the opportunity to turn things around at this time. Now that you have read this, we hope that you can consider shopping wisely during Black Friday and supporting someone who is doing something you find wise and good instead of spreading online hate that hits the small, local businesses that are struggling...
You might ask, "Online hate?" -Yes, unfortunately, online hate does exist out there. Sometimes it's internet trolls who are just out to be mean to everyone who crosses their path, but there are also, unfortunately, quite a few people who believe that we companies and business owners should not be allowed to exist. -Yes, it's true! There are people who, for political reasons, despise and hate all private initiatives, and it's not so fun to encounter this, but it's part of everyday life. We at Västerbottenssåpa, for example, get to hear that: "We shouldn't make ourselves special over something that 'womenfolk' have done at home in all the world's times (soap-making)" or that "you shouldn't make money from reuse, that it's immoral to reuse something that someone else bought and paid for before." If that's your opinion, that's okay, but please keep it to yourself in that case. We don't agree, and we fight every day with regulations, employer responsibilities, and everything else around it. .
We love what we do, and we firmly believe that we MUST reuse things; we only have one planet, and we cannot constantly extract new raw materials from nature. We are also convinced that local, small-scale production is good. The example we wrote about before, cows in the Nordics that have South American soy as their main feed, that's not sustainable if you ask us... We will continue to manufacture our reused product, Västerbottenssåpa, as long as it's possible AND it's you, dear, wonderful customers, who make it possible! Therefore, we will give you our very best offers during Black Friday!