'Cash mobs': Flash mobs go to bat for small local businesses

[IDemo]

By msnbc.com staff and NBC News

Emery's 5 & 10 is believed to be oldest family-owned five-and-dime store in the U.S. But the store is struggling, the victim — like its neighboring businesses — of the economy and a bridge construction project that has diverted traffic away and turned the stretch of Chapman Road in Knoxville, Tenn., into what the mayor himself acknowledges is a "ghost area."

Then came last Friday.

Beginning at 10 a.m., nearly 800 people streamed through the doors at Emery's 5 & 10, ringing up 526 sales — many multiples of the store's usual take. The checkout line wrapped through the store, leaving barely enough room to move, said owner Ron Emery, the third generation of Emerys to tend shop there since the business opened in 1927.

"It's beyond our imagination," Emery said.

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/14/10400367-cash-mobs-flash-mobs-go-to-bat-for-small-local-businesses

[mdmc]

1. we just had a cash mob in Newburgh..

[SDjack]

3. The mob can be continued by

going to [link:http://emory510.com/| and making a purchase. See the unique stuff in "George-Approved" Gadgets.

[mmonk]

2. Interesting. A new way to save small businesses?