Cha-Ching! Cash Mob Invades Jennifer's Chocolates

A simple Facebook invite to 40 friends and a modest goal to drum up support for some of Wakefield’s struggling businesses ended in an $800 stimulus for one local shop on Monday.

Laura Winward’s idea for a cash mob in Wakefield - think of a flash mob where participants agree to shop together, spending $20 each at a designated local shop - went viral with little more planning than setting a date and typing up a couple of paragraphs about her plan, garnering 655 invitations before Monday's event.

Winward’s vision was to ignite a community effort to support small businesses across the state.

“Unfortunately in a world of big box stores and this rough economy, they are dropping like flies,” said Winward, who owns , 271 Main St, Wakefield, as she addressed the cash mob around 3 p.m. on Monday. “It’s up to the people of the community to keep them alive.”

Winward mobilized her mob, sending them to the chosen destination, , located at 254 Robinson St.

“My criterion first was that the company is independently owned,” said Winward. “My personal criterion was that it be struggling or new, but the reality is it could be anybody.”

Jennifer’s Chocolates, a quaint confectionary outfitted in pastels and filled with all the chocolates and candies of your childhood dreams, greeted shoppers with the warm smell of melted cocoa.

In the next 45 minutes, owner Jennifer Dowell estimated she served 40-50 customers and garnered more than $800 in sales – almost four times the amount she takes in on a typical day.

“These are really the kind of numbers we see on Lady’s night or at one of the festivals,” said Dowell.

Winward had to jump behind the counter to help Dowell and her employee, Erin Morris, move the mob through the cash register line.

“This is a huge boost in moral support, it’s very encouraging,” said Dowell, after the rush had calmed. “For business – I’m just so happy to see local people out doing this and I hope many people will come back.”

Dowell, who lives in Peace Dale with her husband and her chocolate Labrador, will . She opened it five years ago, but has maintained a shop in the Wakefield Mall on Old Tower Hill Road for 16 years, which will remain open.

Customers will miss the cozy armchairs and welcoming atmosphere surrounding the Robinson Street Store, but Dowell said keeping up with two stores was just too much work.

The plush chairs were full yesterday with cash mob shoppers resting and enjoying Jennifer’s chocolates.

“I think it’s important to support local business,” said Gwenneth Rae, a Wakefield resident who spent $20 and sat with her friend and enjoyed Jennifer’s hot cocoa with some of her chocolate-dipped cookies and scones. “I’ve been living in Wakefield for 38 years and I have seen them come and go. We want to keep as many as possible.”

At the next table sat Jennifer Valliere with her mother, Jane.

“My dad owned a business – Old Friend’s Antiques – across from Kenyon Avenue for 10 years,” said Valliere. Valliere and her mother said they each bought $20 in merchandise and gifts for friends as they rested by the window and nibbled a few treats of their own.

“It was a hard time to keep the business up in the winter so that is why as soon as we wanted to come as soon as we heard about this,” added Valliere.

In the end, Dowell and Winward were both surprised with the outcome – Dowell said she knew Winward was planning the cash mob, but never thought her shop would be chosen and confused the dates, expecting the mob tomorrow.

“I’m so overwhelmed,” said Winward as the last of the mob shoppers trickled out the door. “This is so much more than I expected. If I had pulled together 20 [people] I would have been happy, so this is incredible. I would love to see them popping up all over.”

Although Winward has no plans to organize another cash mob, a Warwick-based group, LetsBuyLocal.org, already has plans for another cash mob in Apponaug on Feb. 7.

“I’m hoping that other people do it,” said Laura Winward, organizer of Monday’s cash mob and owner of Waves of Creation, an artisan retail boutique located at 271 Main St. in Wakefield. “The idea is that anybody could do it. This is not about me or my store.”