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thedailywhat:

Restored Faith In Humanity of the Day: A new trend aimed at helping locally owned mom-and-pop businesses is reportedly gaining traction across the country. Unlike their flashier counterpart, however, “Cash Mobs” don’t involve a song and dance routine — just a bunch of people eager to invest in their community.

The blogger who started it all, Buffalo-based engineer Chris Smith, explains that cash mobs are “sort of a reverse Groupon” in that people support local retailers, but instead of getting a discount, they pay full price.

Smith says he hopes cash mobs lead to a “longer-term relationship with customers” who gain new-found respect for locally owned stores.

So far cash mobs have been organized in 32 states. There have also been international efforts in Canada and the UK.

A website called Cash Mobs aims to help people organize local events. They’ve even set March 24th as National Cash Mob day.

“It’s not just about the money that comes in that day, it’s about a real small business that doesn’t have a lot of money and a marketing budget,” says Smith. “They get a little earned media coverage they wouldn’t normally get that allows them to establish themselves a little bit more.”

[pri / photo: wbur.]