August 2008 | On Our Radar
Mob Mentality
By E.B. Boyd
Here’s an idea: Instead of trying to bludgeon companies into doing the right thing by threatening them with financial penalties via boycotts, how about enticing them to do the right thing by promising them financial rewards via buycotts?
That’s the concept behind Carrotmob, a fledgling Bay Area organization started by Brent Schulkin, a twenty something impresario, merrymaker and social entrepreneur. Global warming and other environmental problems have been caused in part because “corporations will do anything for money,” Schulkin says, looking pointedly into the camera of his online promo. “But,” he continues, “what if the solution were that corporations will do anything for money?” His brainchild, Carrotmob, was partly inspired by the “buying mob” phenomenon in China, where groups of buyers descend upon stores and use their collective power to wrangle deep discounts on products like washing machines and stereos. Carrotmob gives the idea a twist: Get companies to vie for the collective patronage of groups of consumers by ponying up investments in social goods.
Schulkin, whose last job was organizing “murder mystery”-style corporate team-building events for the Go Game, took the idea out for a spin last March. He told 23 convenience stores in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood that he would bring a posse of shoppers on a certain Saturday to the store that pledged to devote the greatest percentage of that day’s earnings to energy improvements. One store responded by bidding 10 percent of the day’s earnings. Another said 15 percent. The winning store was K&D Market on 16th Street, which promised to use 22 percent.
On March 29, dozens of people in Schulkin’s personal and professional networks showed up and spent over $9,000 at the store — simply by buying the stuff they’d be buying anyway: milk, toilet paper, cereal, booze. As a result, K&D redid its lighting system and replaced all the gaskets on its refrigerators. Estimated energy savings as a result of the changes: 0.887 Kw.
Last month, Schulkin and software entrepreneur Steve Newcomb created a for-profit company, Virgance, to manage Carrotmob and similar projects. In particular, they are building a suite of online tools to enable groups everywhere to create similar “buy-cott” campaigns. Schulkin hopes the approach will end the traditional hostility between activists and businesses. “The system works because the businesses are getting real value out of it,” he says. carrotmob.org
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