Carrotmob

On Saturday 13th  November, the Albion Budget Supermarket in Brunswick West was taken over by a global grass-roots environmental movement called Carrotmob.

The Carrotmob concept is simple: Nominated businesses are promised a mob of consumers on a particular day, in exchange for spending some of the revenue on making green improvements to their business.

Over 100 shoppers 'mobbed' the supermarket from 10am - 2pm bringing extra business to the store. In return, the store's owner, Medhat Ghaly, pledged 50% of sales revenue from the event to making green improvements to his business.

• Despite the pouring rain on Saturday, over 100 people came to 'mob' the Albion Budget Supermarket to shop for sustainability. The mob made a massive impact, more than doubling the store's average Saturday sales in just 4 hours.
• The Supermarket owner, Medhat Ghaly, has committed 50% of sales revenue from the event to making green improvements to his business - $700 was raised to make energy efficiency changes in store.
• With the help of Moreland Energy Foundation, Carrotmob will be working with the store to change their light globes and potentially reduce their energy usage by 25% per annum. On top of this the Supermarket is also investigating the option of switching to a new, cheaper, energy plan which includes a percentage of GreenPower - thanks to Carbon Down's free cost-comparison service: www.choosegreenpower.com.au
• Two bands played outside the store and helped bring the vibe to the event...Cloud Mouth and Matt Witney were the artists
• A giant Carrot was even spotted drumming up support on local 55 trams and at a local fair!

The Carrotmob movement was spawned in San Francisco in 2008 and is rapidly spreading across the globe, with almost 100 Carrotmob campaigns organised to date. It aims to harness the power of the consumer dollar to support a local business to take steps to become more sustainable.

Carrotmob Melbourne organiser and Head Carrot, Helen Barclay, said: "Carrotmob is a win-win situation for all involved. We believe reward - or dangling a carrot - is a great way to encourage businesses to go green. It's a new form of positive activism - it's the opposite of a boycott."

Helen continued: "We were confident that the Brunswick West community would come out to support the Albion Supermarket in its quest - despite the rain - and create the collective consumer power needed for green store improvements."

Medhat Ghaly, owner of the Albion Budget Supermarket, said: "When we heard about this great idea we jumped at the chance to be involved. One of our biggest overheads is electricity so our pledge is to contribute half our sales revenue from the mob towards improvements such as buying more energy efficient fluorescent light tubes. I hope the 'mob' of shoppers enjoyed being part of the Carrotmob on Saturday"