With National Cash Mob Day 2013 behind us, it’s time to start looking forward to the future to other Cash Mob opportunities we can join efforts on a national or international scale!

Summer is near and it’s the perfect opportunity to come up with new and creative ways to keep support going for mom-and-pop businesses.

Have a couple of ideas that can help create a fresh approach to the cash mob movement.

Dish mob: Dish Mobs have been springing up since late last summer when Restaurant.com teamed up with cash mob organizer Andrew Samtoy. Like a cash mob, a dish mob is designed to get people to eat out mom-and-pop restaurants. We’ve had several dish mobs in Kansas City since November, and is one of the things that a community could use to fuel the shop local movement. You could take the dish mop concept a little further by choosing food things every month with your mob. For example, you could mob a food truck one month and maybe Bob a steak restaurant another month. Possibilities of combinations are endless.

Farmers market mob: I know there have been a few farmers market mobs, but farmers market week is August 4-10. Most farmers markets do pretty well, but in our quest to keep things local I think it would be a great idea to form a mob to go to a farmers market on a Saturday and help our local farmers. I would definitely like to see a national push during this week to create a frenzy with mobbing farmers markets.

Outdoor events Mobs: There are many mom-and-pop outdoor event places but I could use business. I like it would be great for a little creativity during the summer too. Mob at some of these locations such as family-owned swimming pools, Rec centers or sporting areas.

Those are just some of the ideas that I have. I’m curious to know what ideas you have as far as creative cash mobs. Leave your comments below!

Today won’t be as big of an event as last year, but we want to start the tradition of hosting an annual cash my bank to encourage people to shop mom-and-pop businesses and to bring communities together to organize cash mobs in order to bring awareness about the importance of shopping local.

A tough economy for retail businesses over the past few years has taken its toll on mom-and-pop businesses. Mom-and-Pop stores all over our nation are shutting down, unable to compete with the large chain stores and struggling economy.

It takes a community to keep a store in business and more than ever we need to pull together as a community to ensure that future generations of people will be able to realize their entrepreneurial dreams.

At the heart of every mom and pop business is a person with a dream, and few things are sadder than realizing your life will fall short of your dreams. Each of us can make a big difference to a mom and pop business and help an entrepreneur’s dream come true.

If you’re hosting a mob today, please post your comments and let us know how your event was. If you’re documenting the event with photos or videos, please share those as well

I hope everyone has it successful mob today!

We realize that we may not have gotten the announcement out to members of the cash mob community, but we at least wanted to lay the groundwork for making this an annual event.

Many of you are aware of the challenges mom-and-pop businesses are facing in our current economy. Many are struggling in a few businesses close their doors. We want to keep the cash mob movement strong because these events allow Encourage people to get out and support these businesses in a way that will keep them around for many years to come.

Leave your responses below, we are looking forward to hearing from you.

1. Spread the word to your local media.  Contact newspaper and television stations in your area to share this event.  One of the things that has helped us at the Kansas City Metro Area Cash Mob was to connect with news personalities on Facebook and LinkedIn. For several Cash Mob related events, the media contacted us rather than us reaching out to them.

2.  Get the ‘target’ of the Cash Mob to share the event with their friends and fans and make sure they are promoting it too.  These are the people who will form the foundation of your ‘mob’ Customers and fans of the business are already in love with the brand and want to see the brand succeed.  They will be your most important ‘voice’ in spread the word about this event.  If you get a viral reach with the people who are in love with the business, you are almost guaranteed a successful mob.

3. Get people to volunteer to document the event.  Taking photos and video are essential to a Cash Mob because it helps promote the event and gives the mom and pop business much needed exposure.  Turn to companies that specialize in photography and video and let them ‘watermark’ any photos or videos that they take for your event.

Let’s make this event a big success!

For information about the KC Cash Mob, visit our Facebook page by searching “Kansas City Metro Area Cash Mob”, following us on Twitter at @cmkansascity or contact one of our volunteers below:
Burton Kelso: burton@integralcomputerconsultants.com or (888) 256-0829
Kelly Dobyns Ziegler: kziegler@ziggyfranz.com or 913.209.9967

The Cash Mob movement has slowed down a little and even disappeared in many areas, but the need for people to come together and rally support for mom and pop business still exists.  A tough economy for retail businesses over the past few years has taken its toll on a mom-and-pop businesses.  Mom-and-Pop stores all over our nation are  shutting down, unable to compete with the large chain stores and struggling economy. At the heart of every mom and pop business is a person with a dream, and few things are sadder than realizing your life will fall short of your dreams. Each of us can make a big difference to a mom and pop business and help an entrepreneur’s dream come true.

We want this event  to serve as a reminder to people everywhere about the importance of shopping local and to help our mom and pop businesses survive this tough economy. Join us and organize a mob in your community for that day. It can be an all day event or more like a Flash Mob If you haven’t planned a mob in your community for a while, try to get one together for National Cash Mob Day!

Towns across the nation have seen cash mobs pop up in their communities. Businesses have welcomed Cash Mobs with open arms as they see an increase in sales during a cash mob day. While all Cash Mobs vary in size, the goal is simple; Shop and support our mom and pop businesses rather than national chains and give them more exposure to the masses. The more people who attend and frequent mom and pop businesses equals greater success in supporting our local businesses and our communities!

New mob or old, we hope you will join us on Saturday April 27, 2013 and know that other people are doing the same thing as part of this Cash Mob Community to help our mom and pop businesses in this tough economy!

For information about the Kansas City Metro Area Cash Mob, visit the Facebook page by searching “Kansas City Metro Area Cash Mob”, following us on Twitter at @cmkansascity or contact one of our volunteers below:

Burton Kelso: burton@integralcomputerconsultants.com or (888) 256-0829
Kelly Dobyns Ziegler: kziegler@ziggyfranz.com or 913.209.9967

Something skeptical people sometimes say is, “You can’t fix the economy.”  That’s entirely true.  I can’t fix the economy, and you can’t fix the economy, and your mayor can’t fix the economy.  President Obama can’t; President Hollande can’t; Prime Minister Cameron can’t; President Hu Jintao can’t.  

But what we can do is our part.  When I lived in Cardiff, the Tesco I went to had a big sign that said, “Every little counts.”  I was always confused by it until my dear friend Patrick explained that it meant, “every little bit counts.”  He thought it was a relic of one of the Wars, and was being used to solicit donations for Tesco charities.  But if you think about it, every little bit counts, and everything we do counts, and maybe we can’t solve everything, but we can solve what is in our power to solve and help the people and causes that are in our power to help, and as we improve our community businesses, our communities will improve, too.  

This Saturday, we’re having a Cash Mob at Cleveland’s West Side Market.  Just over 2,800 people have RSVP’d, and we got permission to use another parking lot to accommodate the mobbers.  The reason: the market was closed after a stall caught fire, and all of the vendors lost out on weeks worth of earnings while the market was being cleaned.  The WSM is a hub for the community; if it fell apart, or vendors closed, all of Ohio City would be affected.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a stark example of how important small  businesses are to the area in which they are located.  If you’re around, please stop by and help out.  Do your weekly grocery shopping there.  Just do something.  Do your part.  :)

Feel free to discuss it on the Facebook Event or here in the comments.  Regardless, we hope to see you on Saturday for the biggest Cash Mob in history!

Cash Mobs usually help support businesses that are doing well; we don’t prop up businesses that are struggling. However, this is a unique situation – the businesses aren’t struggling because of a bad business model, they are struggling because of catastrophe. So when we heard about the fire, we immediately decided we had to Cash Mob the West Side Market to help the vendors get back on their feet. Ohio City Incorporated jumped on immediately, and we started planning.

We’re tentatively planning for March 2, 2013; we still don’t know when the Market is going to open again. However, whenever it does, we’re going to Cash Mob it on the first Saturday we can. The rules are simple: show up with $20 to spend, talk to three people you didn’t know before, and have fun. We’re working on getting something together to thank mobbers – maybe coffee and cookies or something – and we will post details as we get them.

Last time we mobbed a market, 300 people put $9,000 into Nature’s Bin.  Let’s see if we can beat that.  Save the date and tell your friends and lets make this the best Cash Mob of all time to support the best market in America!

(Facebook invitation here.)

Cash mobs are not designed for the organizers to earn money. Organizers do it for the love of their communities and the positive changes that they want to see. If you own a store and someone approaches you about organizing a cash mob in exchange for pay, do NOT agree!!! Get their contact information and let us know about it.

We are getting information about this instance in Oregon and will let you know if anything can be done. Meanwhile, hopefully this person is stopped, and perhaps the business should receive a mob to help them recover the money they were cheated of?