In the United States and in Canada, "Buy Nothing Day" supporters celebrate on the day after American Thanksgiving Day. That day, often called "Black Friday", is one of the busiest shopping days of the year. In other countries it happens a day later, on a Saturday.
Critics argue that it is a feel-good, liberal, middle-class activist non-event, insulting to the millions of people worldwide who are too poor or marginalized to be considered consumers. Others argue that, on the contrary, the whole point of "Buy Nothing Day" is to focus on the plight of the world's poor, and on the wasteful consumption in the first world that threatens the stability of the planet we share with them.