Buy Nothing Day (idea)

I heard of a few good Buy Nothing Day demonstrations that were organized in 2000.

• An Oakland, California group set up a table outside of their local Starbucks and handed out free coffee, tea, and pastries.

• Another group burned CD copies of illegally downloaded Metallica songs and snuck them into the bins of chain record stores.

• Satan Claus handed out gift exemption certificates, entitling the bearer to opt out of a compulsory gift purchase.

Nothing, of course, could match the best stunt of 1999: activists climbed to the top of the Mall of America and suspended 30-foot-tall anti-consumerism banners from the ceiling. They ended up getting off on misdemeanor charges.