Buy Nothing Day 1999:
Report from San Francisco

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November 29, 1999

Buy Nothing Day in San Francisco was a small but significant success, I think. I and my associate, Paul Kim, handed out 300 envelopes labeled only with the word "Nothing." Inside was a gift exemption voucher and a modified Buy Nothing Day poster with some information on the day and why it is important. We stood next to a sign saying "Free Gifts." I approached people by asking how their shopping was going that day and saying that the gift in the envelope would change the way they thought about shopping for ever. Many people took the "gifts," and judging by their reactions, indeed got the message. We also engaged as many people as we could in conversation about Buy Nothing Day and what it means.

Paul Kim and I also went on a California radio show called "The California Report" and were interviewed for 8 minutes. The show was heard twice last Friday across the entire state of California. Several people we saw during the day mentioned having heard us that morning.

On Friday, I also was interviewed extensively by CNN. We faxed the CNN offices a couple of days ahead of time to let them know about our activities. They took interest and came to record our effort. There were some pictures here: http://www.jps.net/fmg/bnd

I plan to convert our radio interview to RealAudio or WAV for posting to the Web as well.

Thanks,
Clark Scheffy

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