‘Cash mob’ helps family-owned hardware store

[woo me with science]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/10225098-418/cash-mob-helps-family-owned-hardware-store.html

‘Cash mob’ helps family-owned hardware store

By AMY SANCETTA Associated Press
January 25, 2012 9:04AM

It began quietly, as an email to 40 friends....But when a steady stream of customers began coming through the door before the family-owned Chagrin Hardware had even opened for the day on Saturday, it was clear that it had turned into much more than that.

The idea started with Jim Black, a resident of Chagrin Falls, a close-knit village in Cleveland’s eastern suburbs that is part artist colony and part bedroom community. Black posted the email to a group of his friends. “Let’s show our support for one of our local businesses,” he wrote. “I challenge everyone to spend AT LEAST $20 at the hardware on the 21st.”

....
Black’s note was forwarded and forwarded and forwarded again. Calls started coming in from folks out of state who wanted to make a purchase over the phone.

And when the day came, so did the shoppers — one by one, with dogs on leashes and children in tow, hour after hour until the hardware was teeming with customers.

....
(more at link)

[FreakinDJ]

1. Love my local "Family Owned" Hardware store where they know me by name

Owner's son even comes over after hours with the store's 8000 lb forklift to unload machinery for my shop.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Great story, but 98.71% White Chagrin Falls is anything but representative of American communities.

Really, it's a great story and I love the name and the concept, and I think our own local Ace Hardware is going to need a cash mob real soon or they'll go under.

But Chagrin Falls is pretty wealthy and cloistered. Not gated, it's very old, but not typical at all of American neighborhoods today.

Here's their police blotter: http://www.cleveland.com/chagrin-falls/index.ssf/2012/01/resident_complains_about_sledd.html

That it's demographic is 98.71 white tells you that it's not at all representative.

Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagrin_Falls,_Ohio

I'm not buying this story entirely, I suspect it's a case of rich helping out the rich so as not to lose their convenient store.

I can more easily picture a really poor community helping a local business, a bodega, for example.

[Spoonman]

3. Seriously?

Some people would bitch about a 50lb gold bar being too heavy to carry if it was given to them.

Not everything in life should be "racially compared".
What, white people are not allowed to support a local business?

I guess they should have all gone to Home Depot!?

[NYC_SKP]

4. Yes, seriously. I just knew somebody would have a fit about my pointing out that figure.

It is what it is.

You probably haven't been to Chagrin Falls, I have.

Think "South Hampton", "Martha's Vineyard".

I looked for a different number like average household income but didn't find one.

The "percentage white" figure is a pretty fair indicator of nonrepresentation, it's not a racist thing to point out.

[cmsmiley]

5. Careful what you say

Pointing out that Chargin's minorities are significantly underrepresented is not racist, but you act like the high percentage of whites tells us everything about the community.

Assuming that the town is rich simply because it has a high percentage of whites is racist. Not every all white community is filthy rich.

Chagrin Falls is certainly a upper middle class town, but dont make it seem like its a community of movie stars. Each gave their hard earned money to save the store.

I was born and lived in the next town over called Solon until college and Im black. Don't hate they are nice people.

[Snake Alchemist]

8. I'm not sure what you mean by this, but your comment almost sounds racist. nt

[NYC_SKP]

10. That's a ridiculous conclusion to reach, but go on ahead.

eom

[Snake Alchemist]

11. not sure what you are trying to say

Sounds like "Of course white people support their community".

[NYC_SKP]

12. It's a good news story, I just wish it was more replicable one.

"Replicable" meaning more likely to occur across America.

My opinion is that it's a privileged community, God Love 'Em, that's very enamored of their quaint and historic little hardware store (we should all have one).

My opinion is that this privileged community also has the financial capacity to be generous to their local hardware store owners, that they aren't facing evictions and health care cost crises, at least not to the extent the rest of us are.

It's just an opinion. Maybe I'm jealous, or maybe I wish it was a story about mainstream America.

[Viking12]

9. You gotta find the negative in a good story?

I wish I could unrec a post within a thread. Who peed in your cheerios this morning?

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. kick

[WillyT]

7. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!