Must have missed it
It turns out the day after Thanksgiving is "Buy Nothing Day". (Actually if you follow the previous link, there seems to a little confusion about what day Buy Nothing Day actually is, except that it is near the end of November.) It's apparently an ecoweenie and wingnut holiday. Newsday covered the NYC march in On 'Black Friday,' protesters urge consumers to "buy nothing.''

The day after Thanksgiving has long been touted as "the busiest shopping day of the year," but upholding a long-standing tradition, colorful protesters marched down Fifth Avenue on Friday urging shoppers to "buy nothing."

Carrying signs reading "Stop the Marketing of Oppression," and "What Are You Paying For? $Human Exploitation, $Animal Torture, $Environmental Destruction," the roughly 100 protesters went from store to store, handing out fliers and railing against corporate greed and blind consumerism.

"No matter what your cause is, no matter what your philosophy, we all have one common enemy," said organizer Adam Weissman. "That is an ideology of corporate greed, that believes that an animal's body is a product and that a forest should be bulldozed for a cocoa factory."

The protest, which in past years had grown rowdy resulting in broken shop windows, drew a large police presence. But with a somewhat carnival-like atmosphere, it was a mostly peaceable affair Friday.

The line of protesters was led by a group of performance artists who pretended to be "consumer drones" following a man wearing a cardboard television on his head to represent "The TV God."

I didn't spot any of these colorful types this morning at the local Ace Hardware's "One Day Sale". Just some older gents in overalls and feed caps. There must have been some blind consumerism though, since they hoovered all the free (after rebate) sawblades and screwdrivers before I got there.

However, up in Canada they gave the day a new twist - Rampage of thieving feared on 'Buy Nothing Day'

City police say they fear Buy Nothing Day scheduled for today may degenerate into Steal Something Day.

Buy Nothing Day is a day proponents have set aside as a protest against commercialism .

A more radical faction has dubbed the occasion Steal Something Day, police Sgt. Alan Cochrane said yesterday.

Last year, groups of rowdies swept through downtown Victoria, stealing merchandise, terrorizing shoppers and diners.

Didn't see those around here either. Our Ace Hardware is kind of old fashioned - it sells ammunition.