As thousands of shoppers hit Marin's malls and downtowns today for the Black Friday kickoff to holiday shopping, people worldwide are celebrating the 20th anniversary of doing exactly the opposite.
International Buy Nothing Day was organized by Canadian anti-consumerist organization Adbusters in 1992. The campaign morphed in recent years and became attached to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Its creators sought to address criticism that Buy Nothing Day simply shifted consumer spending to the next day by launching a post-Black Friday Occupy Xmas campaign focusing on all holiday shopping.
We want to know: In wealthy Marin that is home to a slew of shopping malls and downtowns hoping to cater to the holiday shopping crowd on Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and the holiday month ahead, does Buy Nothing Day and Occupy Xmas stand a chance here?
