Mob Mentality, For Good

Okay, so its not Brooklyn, but a great idea for any city.
Brent Schulkin, a 27-year-old Stanford grad living in San Francisco, had an idea: encourage profit-hungry companies to do good by promising to spend more money with them. But he wouldn't be making all the purchases himself; he'd bring a mob.

That was the inspiration for Carrotmob, his loosely organized group of conscious consumers. The goal was to make an environmentally friendly store. Schulkin visited 23 liquor stores in his Mission District neighborhood, and asked each one how much money they'd be willing to set aside for energy efficiency improvements from the profits of Carrotmob's spending. The bidding started at 10%, and increased slightly until K&D Market offered the winning bid of 23%.

Next experts came in to inspect K&D and to offer suggestions for energy improvements. Hundreds of people turned out and spent over $9000 at K&D. (You can see footage from the event on www.carrotmob.org). With the profits made, which were double what K&D had anticipated, the store owners will be able to completely redo their lighting system. Plus lots of goods were donated to the San Francisco Food Bank.

This initial Carrotmob campaign had an environmental bent, but Schulkin plans to expand.

The rest of the story: DailyGreen