Carrotmobbing Cafes During Fairtrade Fortnight

Last week, cafes selling Fairtrade certified coffee in Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton participated in a bidding war to win the right to be mobbed by a mass of local consumers. The ‘Carrotmob’, organised by social enterprise Conscious Consumers, rewards cafes that are demonstrating ethical practices.

“The Carrotmob concept is simple”, says Ben Gleisner, National Director of Conscious Consumers. “The cafés that pledges the highest percentage of money spent by the mob wins”. The pledges will help set up a solar power system to run the small office of a Fairtrade coffee farm in Papua New Guinea. “Everyone benefits from a Carrotmob, and it is a whole lot of fun in the process”, Ben says.

In Auckland, the bidding was won by Cosset Café in Mt Albert with a pledge of 70%. This means for every $1 spent by the mob, 70 cents will go to the PNG solar power system. Kellie Gray, owner of Cosset, says “we’re really happy to have won Auckland’s first Carrotmob. We figured a big bid means we get to not only facilitate the cause but also truly donate ourselves and show we care”, she says.

In Wellington, Celcius Café in Petone won a tightly fought tussle with a bid of 45%. Co-owner of the café, Steph Fry, says “the auction was heaps of fun. We only just missed out on New Zealand’s first Carrotmob last year, so we’re totally stoked to have won this time”. Steph encouraged everyone in the city to jump on the train out to Petone on mob day. “Our café is only 5mins from the station”, she says.

In Hamilton, the bidding is on hold due to a shortage of cafes stocking Fairtrade certified coffee. “We were in discussions with a few cafes that were looking to move to a Fairtrade coffee blend to be part of the event” says Ben Gleisner, “but we are yet to see this commitment on paper”. Sam Taylor, organiser of the Waikato Fairtrade Collective, says “it is a huge marketing opportunity for a café out there – we have heaps of people wanting to support the event and provide on-going business to the winning café”. The organisers are encouraging any Hamilton café that wants to take part in the Carrotmob to contact them this week.

Over 3000 people have been invited to the events (2-4pm on Sunday 20 May) through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Further details on the website: www.consciousconsumers.org.nz

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