A great update and a question from Webster, MA:

Andrew,

I’ve brought your Cash Mob concept to our little town of Webster, Massachusetts.  We had our first successful Mob event at a Bookstore in Webster on August 11, 2012. We had about 35 turn out in total for the event and the shop made $500 over what she normally pulls in on a Saturday.

I heard of the Cash Mob from a news story that was done on a local station and while moderating a resident political forum on Facebook I was sick of all the people complaining about everything wrong in the town.  I put up a post suggesting a cash mob on that forum and I guess I wasn’t the only one who was tired of the negative and looking to do something positive.  The idea took off from there and while I did some research and learned about you, I’ll be honest I didn’t find your WordPress blog until the night before the mob.  I then learned that your first mob was at a bookstore and it felt so good knowing that, especially since our first event was also going to be at a bookstore.  It was just good Karma.

Anyway our little mob has garnished a great deal of attention and these past two weeks have been a whirlwind of newspaper interviews, emails from interested venues, and our membership numbers have grown exponentially. Here is a link to our Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/webstercashmob/ .

The one think I’ve learned is that all these groups have great motto’s and some have the same motto, so I wanted to be different.  Our motto is “Loyal 2 Local” and when I posted the mockup design one of our members came up with a gang hand symbol and posted a photo of him and his kids doing it.  This sparked several members of our mob to have their kids “flash the sign”.  I’m telling you, there is so much engergy in this group we’re just taking off and not looking back.  For the next mob we’re hitting a place called the Gift Gallery and they specialize in glassware knick knacks. Since posting the invite last week we have 35 confirmed participants.  In addition to that the big newspaper in our city is going to do a story on the mob to be featured in the business section of the Sunday paper following the event.  This paper is owned by the NY Times so who knows????

I had never even thought to go to a local watering hole after the event but b/c of your blog I’m working on an “after the mob” event to be held at a local restaurant/bar.  Our group needs T-Shirts and I’ve solicited to this establishment that if they sponsor the cost of the shirts, we’ll put their restaurant logo on the back.  I really didn’t want to go this route but since we aren’t a revenue producing organization I see sponsorship for these shirts as our only feesable solution.

I do have a question for you.  There are several businesses that we realistically couldn’t mob. There are barber shops, tattoo parlors, and other niche’ businesses.  Have any of the mobs you’ve seen since starting this found a way to include these types of businesses?  I considered doing a “mob poker walk”, which is similar to a poker run but these niche businesses will be provided with playing cards.  Then the mob will choose which business they visit to get the playing card that will make up their 5 card poker hand.  They’ll pay the owner a few bucks for a card, they’ll check out the establishment, and then they’ll move on to the next location.  This is just a thought of course.  Another option was maybe if the mobster wore the tshirt into one of these establishments they would get a discount, but that of course goes against what the cash mob goal is, so I haven’t given that much thought.  So I guess we can’t be everything to everybody, but I would like to find a way to cater to these niche businesses as well and any input you have would be appreciated.

Thank you again for this great idea,

David O’Connor

What do you think?

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PS Please check out our Indiegogo Campaign!

I know we’ve been a bit silent recently…well, ok, we’ve been completely silent.  Radio silence.  -9db silence.  But there’s a reason.

We’re planning the next phase.  And it is exciting.  The only thing is, we’re going to need some money to get there, so we’re launching an Indiegogo campaign.  It’s like a cash mob, but it’s the cash mob of all cash mobs.

Please go here to learn more.  We’d love to have you along for the ride at any level.  With 1,000 people we can get to our goal; any more money we raise will go toward organization and doing whatever we can to support our communities.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far; we couldn’t have done it without you!  And thanks to everyone who gets us to the next phase – just know that you are helping to change the future of our communities, and because of you our future is brighter than our past.

Love,

Andrew Samtoy

PS Seriously.  You can pretend to be Ludacris.