Cash Mobs
If you’re out shopping this weekend and the store is suddenly inundated with customers, don’t be surprised. Birmingham is the latest city to experience a phenomenon called a “cash mob” As WBHM’s Andrew Yeager reports, supporters of the concept hope it’ll have people buying local.
On a recent Saturday morning Cindy Thigpen whips around plants and garden decor in the shop she co-owns with her husband. She doesn’t really stop as she bags a ceramic garden figurine or greets people entering the store.
She’s particularly excited because Charlie Thigpen’s Garden Gallery is experiencing a cash mob.
Here’s how it works. A group of people commit to spend at least $20 at a small, independent business. They descend upon this store at a set time, usually over a 2 hour window. Cash mobs are generally organized informally through social media such as Facebook or Twitter. The first one occurred last summer in Buffalo, New York, before the idea spread to other cities and a few foreign countries. There have been at least four cash mobs so far in Birmingham. This particular one was sponsored by ShopBirmingham.com. CEO Emily Lowery is pleased with the initial response.
“When you look out here everyone’s sitting and having conversations with each other either about plants or buying locally and it’s not, you know, a big box kind of let me check out and not talk to anybody kind of experience.”
Shop Birmingham did add an incentive with prize drawings. Customers could also get a free cup of coffee at a nearby shop.
The same morning just a few miles away, Brooke Fleming awaits the start of a separate cash mob at her store – City Arts Boutique in Woodlawn. This one was loosely organized through a Facebook group called Birmingham Cash Mob. There’s no outside sponsorship or prizes, although Fleming has set up a self-serve lemonade stand near the check out. She says since this is a burgeoning, grassroots phenomenon, and her business is just a few months old. She’s keeping her expectations low.
“I would be happy with just a handful of people actually. It doesn’t take much to make me happy.”
UAB business professor Robert Robicheaux likes the cash mob idea. He says buying goods and services from local vendors keeps more money circulating through a local economy. However for the specific businesses being mobbed…
“The individual isolated instances where they might generate a few hundred dollars are really not going to impact the business all that much.”
What Robicheaux does see is a novel use of social media marketing. While it’s not clear whether cash mobs are actually reaching new customers, he says social media expands further than one might think.
“The number of middle-aged folks and senior citizens who are very, very active in social media…I just made the mistaken assumption that it was all young people and it was the millennials who were gonna dominate this media and it’s not.”
At Charlie Thigpen’s Garden Gallery, Mandi and Jeremy Welman exit the shop with their haul. Some plants, garden accessories and a ceramic flying pig.
“Yeah, look at that! There’s our flying pig. Gonna go on the porch.”
The Welmans just got back from vacation the day before. So if it weren’t for the cash mob and an e-mail reminder from the store, they probably wouldn’t have been here.
“They mentioned free coffee, didn’t they? That’s always a perk. No pun intended.”
Since cash mobs are a recent development, most data is anecdotal. Cindy Thigpen says the event generated a lot of buzz and her store doubled its sales over the previous Saturday. While she saw many familiar faces, she estimates a third of customers were new. At City Arts Boutique, owner Brooke Fleming says five sales were probably due to the cash mob and she finished the day with more sales than normal. A “nice pop” she calls it for a business just starting out.
Future cash mobs are planned for the Birmingham area. UAB’s Robert Robicheaux says cash mobs will probably morph into something new. What that is exactly, he doesn’t know. But you can probably find out, by keeping an eye on Facebook, Twitter or your inbox.
Guantánamo plea deals for accused 9/11 plotters are canceled by federal appeals court
A federal appeals court has canceled plea deals with three men accused of orchestrating the 9/11 attacks, deepening the legal morass surrounding the long-stalled case.
Nigeria says it won’t accept U.S. deportees: “We have enough problems of our own”
Nigeria's government is pushing back against U.S. efforts to send them migrants and foreign prisoners, with Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar quoting Public Enemy to drive home his point.
Judges to weigh request to put Alabama under preclearance for a future congressional map
Black voters and civil rights organizations, who successfully challenged Alabama’s congressional map, are asking a three-judge panel to require any new congressional maps drawn by state lawmakers to go through federal review before being implemented. The Alabama attorney general and the U.S. Department of Justice oppose the request.
Sumy, a center of Ukrainian culture, lives in the crosshairs of a new Russian offensive
The northern regional capital has become a frequent target of Russian drones, missiles and guided bombs. Now, Ukraine's top general says at least 50,000 Russian troops have massed across the border.
Part war propaganda, part comic strip, Bayeux Tapestry to return to U.K.
On a state visit, France's president announced the loan of the tapestry embroidered with scenes of the 1066 Norman invasion. It will return to the U.K. for the first time in more than 900 years.
State Department undergoes deep cuts in sweeping reorganization
The State Department is slashing hundreds of jobs in what's being called its biggest shake-up in decades — drawing sharp criticism from former diplomats who say the cuts risk gutting America's diplomatic muscle.
