'Cash mobs' the new way to support local businesses
Officially, flash mobs began sometime back in 2003, but chances are you didn’t hear the term until 2009, when that great T-Mobile video from the London train station began circling the ‘net.
Yet while the origins of the flash mob are of some dispute, there’s this new viral thing going around called the “cash mob.” And everyone knows when these babies began.
What’s a cash mob?
Read below to find out.
A cash mob, as it’s been recently coined, is a new wave of supporting local businesses, an initiative that’s sprouted to date across a few U.S. locales.
*Bing: Watch the web’s best flash mob videos
The first, back in August in Buffalo, was organized by an engineer, who riled up neighbourhood residents to descend on a small-town store, armed with cash. Each participant brings, say, $20 to spend, and in the organized troupe goes and infuses some much-needed money on struggling businesses.
“There are a lot of independent businesses that are having a hard time trying to creatively figure out a way to pay the bills,” one of the cash mob organizers told MSNBC.
Added another cash mob founder: “If one person goes into a local business and spends $20, that’s great. That’s $20 that went to a local business. But if 40 people go into a local business and spend $20, that’s $800 that just went to that local business.”
You’d stop short of calling cash mobs charity cases, though they certainly are a pick-me-up in times when, frankly, they’re needed at most stores not named Walmart.
“To see our store full of people who are looking and shopping and admiring is fabulous,” said one owner whose store was the site of a cash mob this month.
By Jason Buckland, MSN Money
Posted by: Nick | Feb 17, 2022 8:07:50 AM
Cash mobs mean absolutely nothing if the products being purchased have not been produced locally. It's really a short term solution that does not do any good in the long run. Spending money is not what drives an economy, but rather production. People have gotten too carried away with the idea that consumer spending is the solution. The focus needs to be on local production and savings, because then there would actually be capital.
Posted by: Best Professional Dslr Camera | Feb 17, 2022 11:27:38 AM
I always beleive in supporting local businesses