Holiday Shopping Guide
As we head into the holiday season, figuring out where to put our dollars may be harder than you think. We banded together and boycotted ABC and Hulu to demand the reinstatement of Jimmy Kimmel. Target has lost over $12 billion in revenue after abandoning its commitment to DEI. And now, we are closing our Spotify accounts and turning to Lowe’s over Home Depot.
Now, a grassroots movement is urging Americans to pause their spending during the busiest shopping period of the year, from November 25 to December 2. This effectively shuts down Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The movement encourages supporting small, local, and Black-owned businesses to keep economic power within their own communities. Stock up on supplies before the week, plan ahead, and avoid overspending before or after this period to prevent overcompensation.
Fortunately for us, The Woke Ginger has created a Shopping Guide to assist us during the holiday season! There are also websites like Goods Unite Us you can use to check their political affiliation. In the end, we encourage you to do your own research and feel confident about where your money is going.
*Article excerpted from Variety.com
Candi Carter launched Shop Red Bag, an online marketplace that began this past June on Juneteenth, featuring a curated selection of household goods from a diverse group of independent suppliers. The site aims to encourage consumers to make more intentional choices about directing their dollars to businesses that reflect their values and principles.
“One of the things that was important to me as somebody who tells stories for a living is to make sure that their voices were heard,” Carter told Variety. “This isn’t just a website. This is a movement. This is where people can change their habits and defer their dollars.”
“It’s to support and uplift the brands, but it’s a two-fold mission,” Carter explained. “One is to get money in the pockets of these brands because by doing that, you then build the community. We’re in a precarious situation right now where all DEI is bad. My thing is, we’re not victims. As African Americans, if we can redirect our dollars to our community, then we can be quite prosperous over the next four years and beyond.”
For three decades, Carter worked as a producer and executive producer on some of daytime TV’s most recognizable shows, including “The Tamron Hall Show,” “The View,” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” However, venturing into e-commerce was familiar ground for her, as she developed a specialty in producing shopping segments for daytime talk shows. Now, she promotes the integration of content and commerce as a way for networks to discover new revenue streams.
“E-commerce is found money,” Carter said. “If you embed products in your shows and content, you’re not competing with ad time. Whatever you make from people buying while they’re watching your content is just a cherry on top.” Carter founded her innovative e-commerce platform, Cistus Media, in 2024, empowering networks and content creators to effectively monetize their audiences by showcasing curated brands through personalized online storefronts.
As media companies explore new revenue streams, the rise of shoppable TV is beginning to change how entertainment and e-commerce connect. Unlike traditional channels like QVC and HSN, Carter sees shoppable TV as the future of shopping and entertainment, since it combines buying directly into the viewing experience through streaming, live broadcasts, social media, and other platforms where audiences watch content.
“I help people get that shirt the first time they see it at the point of discovery, when they’re sitting in the movie theater,” Carter said. “If you look at different shows, you’ll see Reddit threads with people saying, ‘Where did they get that in that one TV show?’ or ‘I’m looking for this purse from this show.’ Pop culture heavily influences the way we shop. You’ll see more integration of that in the future, and we hopefully will be leading the pack.”