The changes have to be saved after implementation... tell application "Contacts" set countPeopleBefore to count of people repeat while (count of people) is greater than 0 set thisPerson to person 1 delete thisPerson end repeat set countPeopleAfter to count of people save (* This line makes the difference *) end tell

Developer  My Mac Name  Automatically Show Web Inspector for JSContexts This nailed it. Brilliant. But actually all the other stuff you ended up explaining is really interesting and helpful. It'll take some time to get a handle on it, but very much appreciate all your help. SOLVED. Thank you!