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#VendorWeek 2020: Seattle street paper Real Change challenges local celebrities to try being vendors for a day

By Jenna Minser

For the third year in a row, Real Change celebrated #VendorWeek with the annual Real Change Day of Heroes, tasking local celebrities with selling the Seattle papers alongside Real Change vendors. As past years have shown, it’s harder than it looks!

The Real Change Day of Heroes echoes other campaigns around the world for #VendorWeek, including The Big Issue Australia’s annual CEO Selling event, which invites business leaders across the country to try their hand at selling the paper.

This year, Real Change celebrity vendors included Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard (who sold 50 papers with regular vendor Canada), comedian and Seattle Process host Brett Hamil, and founding director of Real Change Tim Harris, who has consistently participated in the event over the years.

“Building global community begins with taking small, everyday risks and caring enough to connect,” said Harris. “Supporting our vendors is one simple way to change our world from the inside out.”

Last year, the celebrity vendors used their platforms to sell hundreds of papers. Stone Gossard, who participated in 2019 as well, and Darrell Wrenn sold 115 papers between the pair of them. Harris, however, had a harder time and sold just two papers in the hours allotted for the event, demonstrating the difficulties vendors can often face.

Participating vendors were also giving away prizes throughout the day to a few lucky customers. As always, all the sales from the papers during the event will go directly to the partnered Real Change vendors.

Read more coverage of #VendorWeek 2020 here