Mobs poised to hit conscious cafes

A Carrotmob swept through Wellington's Memphis Belle Coffee House helping the cafe raise $2700. They invested this in an energy efficient fridge, saving them more than $400 per year. Photo / Supplied

A carrotmob - or 'reverse boycott' of fair trade cafes is hitting three small businesses this weekend, with hundreds of customers set to arrive at once.

Three cafes are steeling themselves for the arrival of a 'Carrotmob' of customers this Sunday after pledging to donate business proceeds to fair-trade causes.

The three fair-trade certified cafes - out of nine that entered - won the chance to be swamped by consumers attending the Carrotmob events after bidding to donate 70, 50 and 45 per cent of the money earned from 2pm-4pm.

They are Auckland's Cosset Cafe, Hamilton's Just Food Cafe and Wellington's Celcius Coffee cafe.

"For every cup of coffee bought during the Carrotmobs, about 2-3 dollars will be going directly to a Fairtrade coffee farm in Papua New Guinea", says Stephen Knapp, CEO of Fairtrade ANZ.

"Carrotmobs" are based on the concept of encouraging positive behaviour with an enticing carrot (reward) rather than being beaten into change.

"The analogy is, if you want to change someone's behaviour you can either use the carrot or the stick," says Ben Gleisner, National Director of Conscious Consumers and Carrotmob NZ spokesperson.

Rather than having consumers boycott cafes for not selling fair-trade products, a better way to change business practices is providing incentives encouraging a positive transformation - these rewards come in the form of loyal and supportive customers.

"The way it works is businesses behave in particular ways. They make particular products and they respond to consumer demand. As a consumer you can give businesses an incentive to change the way they do business," says Gleisner.

"If you're willing to give something back to a good cause, others will come in and spend lots of money, so it's an incentive. That's why it's a carrot and the mob is just a mob of people," he says.

Money raised from Carrotmobs around the world are usually put back into the cafes. The $2700 raised in last year's Carrotmob at Wellington's Memphis Belle Coffee House was re-invested to make the business more energy efficient.

However, Gleisner says this year's Carrotmobs diverged from that tradition by providing donations to a fair-trade charity. This has aligned with Fair Trade Fortnight initiatives running across the country during May 5-20.

Just Food Cafe representative Robert Moore says following the ethical trade movement means committing to the welfare of others as well as their own fair-trade certified business.

"It'll put us on the map in terms of conscious consumers in Hamilton and for people who like ethical food and social justice," he says.

Through social networking sites, Conscious Consumers, will invite over 4000 of their supporters to spend up at the three events at those cafes.

Increasing demand for "ethical businesses" has seen more places stocking fair-trade products that help those in developing nations. According to market research by Colmar Brunton, New Zealand Fairtrade Label awareness rose from 10 per cent to 51 per cent in 2010.

People want to make a positive impact on the world and they do that through their spending Gleisner says.

"It's all about money ultimately. The more money you spend on good businesses the better outcome the world has."

"What supporting fair-trade coffee means is that there's a tangible benefit that you know that you're helping support fairer wages. There's an impact of that consumption. We call that better business."

The Carrotmob, organised by Conscious Consumers, goes from 2pm-4pm and wraps up Fair Trade Fortnight, an initiative running throughout the country via events promoting the idea of fair-trade.

Other events included the Pay Fair-trade Forward Campaign with people getting a chance to get a free fair-trade coffee then having a chance to pay forward the gesture.

A message from the Papua New Guinea coffee farmers below:

* For more information visit consciousconsumers.org.nz/