The Rundown

• Supporting local businesses primary goal of cashmobs.
• Some hope participation will pay off through more businessmembers.
• Effort helps mom and pop shops continue to compete againstlarge chains.

When supermarket giant Whole Foods Market opened a store in aSacramento neighborhood, a local food co-op immediately noticed adip in customers.

While students at nearby University of California-Davis flockedto the natural and organic food grocery store, businesses like theDavis Food CO-OP experienced a slight drop in sales after thedefection, said Chris Blackman, marketing manager at the $205million Yolo Federal Credit Union in Woodland, Calif.

“They're located in a kind of a unique and weird corner andsometimes, people may forget that it's there,” Blackman said.

It was part of the reason that Yolo FCU linked up with the DavisChamber of Commerce and the Davis Downtown Business Association tohost a cash mob last November in the G Street Shopping Center inDavis, Calif.

Patterned after flash mobs, which generally involve a group ofpeople gathering together in a public space to dance or engage inother activities to unsuspecting onlookers, with cash mobs,participants storms the doors of a preselected mom-and-pop businessto buy products and services in an effort to support local firms,according to CashMob.com.

Over the past year or so, credit union, league and CUSOemployees and members have caught on to the growing trend by eitherhosting or participating in cash mobs. For many of them, the goalis to show support of small businesses while opening upopportunities to court and ideally, sign on new businessmembers.

Blackman acknowledged how difficult it was to initially judgehow successful last fall's cash mob was, but after talking with afew of the businesses days after the event, she got a betterpicture.

“I was on site, and I saw an influx of people. Days later, weheard from businesses who said they saw more new customers comingin the door,” Blackman said. “It was valuable because it got theirname out there.”

The owners of Monticello Seasonal Cuisine, a local restaurant,are members of Yolo FCU, Blackman noted. While getting morebusinesses to sign on with the credit union would be a plus, it'snot the motivation.

“We just think it's the right thing to do. Cash mobs are goodfor the communities because for some they're competing with largercorporate stores. These are small family businesses who rely onrepeat customers.”

The $53 million Ohio Health Care Federal Credit Union in Dublin, Ohio, hosted acash mob last summer at Gallo's Pit BBQ as part of a year-longinitiative from the Central Ohio Chapter of Credit Unions to boostsales at businesses throughout the region.

As a result, the restaurant was able to increase sales on Aug.16 last year by 66% over the previous sales one week earlier onAug. 9, said Nikki Gallo of Gallo's Pit BBQ.

“It's right in our backyard. We're not reaching out to afranchise. We're looking for those businesses that started from theground up,” said Jaime Crooks, marketing director for Ohio HealthCare FCU.

While the credit union made a strategic decision not to offerbusiness loans or services a few years ago, Crooks said the cashmob not only shows support for local firms, it may indirectly helpthe cooperative stand out among its bank competition.

“We have extreme competition with one specific bank because theyreach out to the health care industry. That's our core,” Crookssaid. “Banks are taking a very aggressive stance by setting up atvarious sites at health care companies and by opening accounts onthe spot.”

Ohio Health Care FCU takes a softer approach by encouragingonline services in an industry where employees tend to work avariety of nontraditional hours, Crooks said. By having a membertie-in either through a select employee group or a member that ownsa business, the cash mob is another way to build presence.

“It's a great way to support businesses especially when theeconomy went through rocky times,” Crooks said.

In late April, the $152 million Mountain Credit Union in Waynesville, N.C., hosted its firstcash mob at Baabals Ice Cream and Coffee Shoppe. The cooperativestarted creating buzz for the event through its Featured Businessof the Month highlight on its Facebook page, said Chris Angel,business development director.

Mountain CU wants to support businesses that currently haveaccounts with the credit union and going forward, take the cashmobs to the 10 counties that make up its field of membership.

“We don't have a huge amount of business accounts but we want tokeep it going about every other month,” Angel said.

Mountain CU has 133 business checking accounts totaling $1.1million, according to Dana Thompson, marketing director. The creditunion does not offer business loans, instead, choosing to see howlegislation to raise the current 12.25% of assets member businesslending cap to 27.5% will play out, said Angel, who has beeninvolved in lobbying efforts in Washington.

Meanwhile, Mountain CU is gearing up for its next cash mob andhas no problem with referring members seeking business loans tolocal banks, Angel pointed out.

“We refer folks to them for loans and they refer folks to us forthings like car loans. We all feel like a community. There's amutual understanding.”

With more in the credit union industry participating in cashmobs, it may still be too early to quantify if the events will payoff in the long term with more business members joining and howmuch of their dollars they're likely to bring over.

Still, credit unions in Michigan offered a glimpse of just howpowerful cash mobs can be. More than 56 of them signed on tosupport CU Lunch Local last October, said Jessica Richardson-Isenegger,a public relations specialist who helped coordinate.

The statewide effort also involved the Michigan Credit UnionLeague and Michigan CU Capital, an entity that helps credit unionswork together to share the costs and expertise of offering businessloans.

“When we did the post event conservative estimate on dollarsspent we reported that tens of thousands of dollars were spentacross the state,” Isenegger said.

For instance, the $567 million Dort Federal Credit Union inFlint, Mich., purchased lunch for their more than 160 employees onCU Lunch Local day. Staff at all nine branches of the $333 millionElga Credit Union in Burton, Mich., received the sametreatment.

Employees at the $285 million Christian Financial Credit Union in Roseville, Mich., took it astep further by writing down their thoughts on what CU Lunch Localmeant to them. Patty Campbell, president/CEO of the cooperativeoffered a $10 reimbursement to those staffers who participated inthe cash mob, said Rebekah Monroe, marketing manager at ChristianFinancial.

“A lot of employees were surprised at how much they alreadysupported local businesses,” said Monroe, who pitched the idea of acash mob during a meeting last spring with Isenegger and others onhow to promote the idea of credit unions supporting smallbusinesses.

In fact, a local Lebanese restaurant that has an account withChristian Financial is a favorite dining spot for some of thecredit union's employees, Monroe said.

“Our goals are two-fold: we want to show small businesses thatwe are here and we can offer them loans and other services becausewe know we're probably not always top of mind,” Monroe said. “Onthe other hand, we support businesses. It's not like we give you aloan and you never hear from us again.”