Сауда орталықтарындағы үнсіз қарсылық акциясы

Whirl Mart is a culture jamming tactic aimed at retail establishments, typically superstores. Whirl Mart consists of a group of "Whirl Marters" who congregate at a large superstore (usually a Walmart, Asda, or Sainsbury's) and slowly push empty shopping carts silently through store aisles. Participants will not purchase anything and seek to form a lengthy chain of non shoppers, continually weaving and "whirling" through a maze of store aisles for up to an hour at a time. Participants describe their actions as "a collective reclamation of space that is otherwise only used for buying and selling". Whirl Marters seek to mimic and mock what they perceive as the absurdity of the shopping process.

The activity was founded by the group "Breathing Planet Troupe" at a Walmart store in Troy, New York on April 1, 2001. The group was seeking to respond to an article from Adbusters magazine that called for foolish activities in conjunction with April Fool's Day. Since then, Whirl Mart activities have spread to many other countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom.

In addition to the act's satirical and comedic value, Whirl Mart provides a legal, non confrontational outlet for would be protesters to address consumerism and materialism. Whirl Marters do not aim to block store aisles or interfere with legitimate shoppers, and typically will not speak unless addressed. Their aim is to basically create a silent, non violent protest or mockery of consumerism. Participants are typically non confrontational, seeking to make themselves silent examples rather than active propagandists. One variation of the Whirl Mart protest involves filling carts but either simply abandoning them or, while checking out, either returning everything or claiming to have forgotten the money to purchase the items in the cart, leaving the full cart for the employees to clean up. However, this is usually not preferred, as this tends to affect regular employees, not the store's management. This also implies the Whirl Marter was a regular shopper who would have purchased those items anyway, decreasing the effectiveness of the tactic. Whirl Marters are often very loosely organized, describing themselves as open to anyone wishing to participate.

Whirl Marters, when confronted by security or store management, typically do not admit to being protestors, generally replying in a tongue in cheek manner that may subtly attack consumerism or the store itself. Alternatively, they may pretend they are regular shoppers who are "still looking for something to buy" after spending up to an hour wandering aimlessly through a superstore. Whirl Marters claim they can talk their way out of being removed from the store (though the involvement of law enforcement officials in removing Whirl Marters is not unheard of). When confronted, Whirl Mart participants may sometimes scatter to various store aisles, forcing management or security to confront them individually. Participants will very rarely admit to or even address commercialism, materialism, or any other reason they are actually there. Whirl Marters often wear an identifying outfit, typically consisting of plain, featureless clothing or clothing with ideological slogans or symbols. Some Whirl Marters may wear hoodies and face masks to hide their identities, though this tends to attract the attention of employees. Some Whirl Marters have attempted to document their activities with video cameras or phones. Stores typically do not permit recordings (aside from their own security cameras), so recordings of these instances are often seized by store authorities, if they are even recorded at all.