About Us

What are Cash Mobs?
The general idea is to encourage people to go into small, local businesses and spend their money, en masse, to give the business owner a little bit of economic stimulus. We’d help businesses grow, we’d make people happy, we’d get stuff for ourselves, have a great time, and maybe we’d get a drink to celebrate afterward.

Who Started Cash Mobs?
Andrew Samtoy, an attorney at Dworken & Bernstein and member of the Bridge Builders Class of 2012 in Cleveland, OH, organized our first “Cash Mob” on November 16, 2011.  Although at the time we thought the name was original (and some in the media gave us credit for it), we later learned that the first gathering called a “Cash Mob” appears to have been held in Buffalo, NY, on August 5, 2011, and was organized by blogger, Christopher Smith.

Since then, Cash Mobs have been sprouting up all across the U.S., Canada, and around the world.  While organized by many different groups of people, all appear to have the same goal in mind: to support local businesses that they love!

Who Is/Are Cash Mobs?
“Cash Mobs” isn’t a political or social organization, a corporation, a movement, or meant to be an answer to economic crisis. By and large, those that organize Cash Mobs are simply people trying to make a positive impact on the businesses in their communities (and have fun while doing it)!

Where do we see Cash Mobs going?

A few people have asked us a new question recently: “Where do you see Cash Mobs going?”

What they usually mean is, is this something that is going to continue?  Is it going to evolve and change?  What will it look like in six months or a year?

The answer is, quite simply: we don’t know.

We certainly see this continuing; there’s a lot of momentum behind the Mobs already going.  Lisa Gilmore in Los Angeles just doubled the size of her first Cash Mob; she has been pushing the idea harder than pretty much anyone, going so far as to hand out fliers and set up booths at farmers markets.  We’ve had two in Cleveland; the list of other mobs around the world is growing by the day.  The neat thing about having all of these people acting independently and doing things their own way is that it becomes sort of like a Federal system – a whole bunch of people are experimenting, changing rules, and doing things their own way – or not.  They’re learning about what works and, what’s probably as important, what doesn’t work.

What we’re hoping for is that everyone will share their experiences here, on the blog, the good and, more importantly, the bad.  We really, REALLY want to know what you think contributed to the success of your Cash Mobs and what you would do differently in the future.

Let us know, either in the comments or by emailing us something we can put up as a stand-alone post!

We created this site to share our experiences, offer ideas and a template for others who may want to organize their own Cash Mobs, and offer a forum for others to share their ideas and experiences as well. We hope you enjoy, and we encourage you to follow us on Twitter @Cashmobs. You can also email us, or you can bookmark www.cash-mobs.com. Check out the rules and, if you want to start your own Cash Mob, we’re here to help.