buy nothing?

Darren Barefoot posts some thoughts on Buy Nothing Day, Fri Nov 26. I agree that buying nothing for one day of the year does little, if anything, to effect change.

What would make more of a change is something like what was posted on the Nervous blog shortly after the election: Spend your money with small businesses every day. Stay away from Wal-Mart (a store which, I am proud/smug to say, I have never set foot in), Eckerd, Home Depot, Kmart, Radio Shack, Gap, Friday's, Target (I love Target). But what about Amazon? (I love Amazon too!)

And what about the stuff you buy from the small businesses? Is it even possible to avoid buying Cheez-its? New Balance sneakers? Skippy? (ugh) Microsoft?

Update: My point in this post is not to say that nothing can be done. Instead, it is to point out that reducing my dependence on national retailers may not be enough. Plus, if I'm going to stop buying national brands, I'm probably going to pay more, and travel farther for it. And that won't be easy to accept. The gospel of convenience and cheapness are drilled into our heads from childhood.