On a sunny Thursday evening last month, more than 25 people made their way into Tribal Connection Market with $20 in their pockets, eager to pick up a few goodies from the store.
While many shoppers have regular, favourite locations, the stop was unplanned for a majority of the group who were all there to participate in a monthly Okotoks “cash mob.”
Organizer Trina Boyd began the mobs in September of last year. The idea is that residents band together and each commit to spending a minimum of $20 at a specific local business. The Tribal Connection location was the ninth mob that she’s held, and so far Boyd has received a great response from the public and business owners.
“Everyone seems to be really keen on it, just really happy to be a part of it, something new something different,” Boyd said. “We did Monkey Mountain, we’ve done Homeworks, Walkers Western Wear, it’s a variety. I’ve been trying to go to different places.”
Since the word of the cash mobs began to spread, Boyd has had a number of people nominate businesses that they’d like to see mobbed. She then gets in touch with the business beforehand to set everything up for the monthly mob, but the location is left as a surprise for the participants.
“That’s the whole point of the cash mob, if you don’t keep it secret what happens is someone might say ‘Oh I don’t want to buy anything at that store’ say if it’s a pet store and they don’t have pets,” Boyd said. “But, if you don’t know and you go and you’ve committed to spending your $20 you could donate it. The whole point is to inject that business with some money.”
Okotokian Kristal Gale has participated in four cash mobs. She is also the owner of pet health store Chow Bella, which was has also been mobbed.
She said her store is a great example of the way the mob is supposed to work. Even though some participants didn’t have pets, they were all happy to make pet-friendly purchases.
“It was so cute, the people who didn’t even have pets would either buy a present for a friend, everyone knows someone who has a dog, or they would buy something and ask me to donate it to a local rescue organization,” she said.
While participants are only asked to spend a minimum of $20, Boyd said they’ve been averaging $900 spent per cash mob event, even with 20 people participating. Gale said most people end up spending more than their $20. In the case of her business, the cash mob attracted new regular customers and continues to bring in sales.
“A lady came in and spent $250 at my store just [during the cash mob], I don’t think I’ve seen her since, but the $20 is just a bare super minimum,” she said. “It’s the repeat customers too, I got so much more than $20 out of these certain customers, they’re back every single month.”
Gale added that the extra exposure is just as valuable as the $20 people plan to spend.
“I guess it allowed the opportunity to see new people and retain those people too that wouldn’t have come in on a regular basis because it’s out of the way or you have these preconceived notions of what these businesses are,” she said. “Then you realize that they’re just hardworking people. These aren’t big box stores, they’re families that are just putting food on the table.”
Information about upcoming cash mobs will be posted in the Cash Mob Okotoks group on Facebook, and the events also occasionally take place in High River and Black Diamond.
