I’ve Got a Mob Mentality

Now don’t worry, I’m not skipping Thanksgiving dinner to wait in line for Best Buy or rushing to the latest liquidation sale so I can save a whopping 10%. My mob mentality is focused on something very specific – the Cash Mob.

I’m sure you’ve heard that the economy is in the toilet. No need to get into all that mumbo jumbo. Well, since small businesses are especially hurt by this someone has come up with the awesome idea of the Cash Mob. Basically, through social media (facebook, twitter, and the like) various groups are organizing mobs throughout the country to support local businesses. The organizer will choose a specific date and time, they’ll alert the masses online and then everyone meets to mob the business and spend some money.

Now I know that I’m usually encouraging you to save money and not spend it, but this is a definite exception. And it’s not like you have to spend a lot. The cash mobs I know of only ask you to pony up $20. That’s not too much and you get to spend it on whatever you want at the location.

When I heard about this idea I was instantly smitten. I love supporting local businesses and couldn’t wait to try it. Luckily, last Sunday I got my chance. My local chapter, Los Angeles Cash Mobs, organized one to support one of my favorite places – Galco’s Soda Pop Stop.

Galco’s is a store that sells hundreds of varieties of soda (and beer and tea and wine and basically most beverages). How do they get all these varieties? They seek out small bottlers, regional bottlers, international bottlers, old time bottlers…basically anyone who’s making soda that’s not your standard Coke or Pepsi. It’s such a cool place so I was totally excited that it was going to be mobbed.

And it was so easy. I just showed up at the corner of 57th and York in Highland Park (where the store is located) and met with a bunch of other people who were ready to spend. When the crowd was a good size we descended on the store and shopped away.

It was so fun! Every time I had been there before I had been one of only a handful of customers. Now the place was jumping! The aisles were jammed and everyone was filling their baskets. I went a little nuts and grabbed basically whatever I wanted. That turned out to be quite a lot.

Since then I’ve been working my way through the drinks and man are they good:)

Oh, and since this is the latest and greatest thing The Today Show just happened to be there to film it all. Unfortunately, my beauty wasn’t captured in the video. I suppose my film debut will have to come a bit later.

So, find your local Cash Mob and join in the fun! If you live in SoCal be sure to like Los Angeles Cash Mobs on Facebook to find out when the next one’s going to be.