anyone want to join a carrotmob?

[SpongeG]

Main Street coffee shop courts mob

Jeremy Shepherd, Special to Vancouver Courier
Published: Wednesday, May 05, 2010

They target an environmentally friendly business, plan the right day to strike and buy stuff.

Originating in San Francisco in 2008, Carrotmobs are designed as a reverse boycott, encouraging consumers to patronize stores attempting to reduce their ecological footprint.

Omar Mutashar, the founder of the Vancouver branch of Carrotmob, hopes the first swarming of a local store May 16 will attract at least 200 extra customers to Salt Spring Coffee on Main Street. The Carrotmobbers plan to patronize the store near Main and 27th Avenue between 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Mutashar said his group interviewed several coffee shops on Main Street about the idea. Following the interviews, video clips from the most intriguing eight coffee shops were posted online, leaving the final judgment at the fingertips of voters.

Salt Spring Coffee, which pledged 110 per cent of the day's profits to make its store's lighting more efficient, was the winner. "They really showed they wanted to make their stores environmentally friendly," said Mutashar.

Charles Tremewen, director of marketing for Salt Spring Coffee, said his company's commitment to social responsibility and environmental sustainability fit nicely with the Carrotmob philosophy. "We just want to be mobbed," Tremewen said.

He hoped the day's crowd would be big enough to help the store install lower voltage lighting. "All you have to do is just buy coffee," stated Mutashar, who said the simplicity of the Carrotmob was part of its appeal.

Emily Jubenvill, one of the organizers of the event, said the concept was a great way to remind customers about the power of their wallets. "I think the Carrotmob is a really great way to hand power back to the consumer," she said in an email.

Mutashar hopes the mob at Salt Spring Coffee will begin a local trend. "It's the first one, not the last one," he said.

Discovery Coffee in Victoria was the site of the first Carrotmob in B.C. last October. "I think it opened us up to a new audience," said Logan Gray, the owner of the coffee shop.

The event tripled Discovery Coffee's usual sales for the day. Gray said the store has attracted a younger, more ecologically aware clientele since the event, boosting his sales by a small amount. Wannawafel, a Victoria waffle shop, attracted a Carrotmob March 12. Krista Marchand, the co-owner of the restaurant, said she was "not prepared for how busy it was."

Marchand said business has been up by at least five per cent since the Carrotmob, and she's considering buying a dishwasher to make the store more efficient. Mutashar, who moved to Vancouver from Malaysia two years ago, said his first idea was to work with liquor stores. "Drink booze and save the planet," he explained.

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