You may have thought I dropped off the face of the earth after our
October 24th event, which I kind of did.  A brief hiatus was
necessary, after being so crazy, busy planning for our first ever
Carrotmob Minneapolis event.

For those of you who attended this first ever Carrotmob Minneapolis
event, I hope you had a wonderful time and purchased something at Guse
Hardware, to support their awesome commitment of taking 100% of their
gross revenues on October 24, 2009, and making energy-efficiency
improvements in their shop.  Some of the work is already completed and
the remaining work is scheduled to be completed in the spring.  More
updates to follow on Guse Hardware’s progress, when spring has sprung!

How would you like to be involved in the next Carrotmob Minneapolis
event?  Please post a comment and let’s get a discussion going on
planning for a Spring 2010 event.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!
Many blessings, Natalie

This week I visited a number of local coffee shops close to Guse Hardware and invited neighbors to join us on October 24th to shop for environmentally-friendly items, listen to music, join in activities for the kids like face-painting, and have lots of fun!

BIG thank you to the following coffee shops who let me place Carrotmob Minneapolis flyers in their shops. THANK YOU!!!

Caffe Tempo
Anodyne
Moose & Sadie’s
Java Jack’s
Urban Bean
Starbucks
The Bad Waitress

I look forward to visiting your coffee shops again!
Natalie

Carrotmob Minneapolis Schedule of events

8:00am – 6:00pm: SHOPPING, SHOPPING…AND MORE SHOPPING AT GUSE HARDWARE!!!

Guse Hardware
4602 Bryant Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55419

Guse Hardware has made a commitment of 100% of gross revenues from October 24, 2009, to go toward energy-efficieny improvements in their shop. Way to go Guse Hardware!!!

8:00am GUSE HARDWARE OPENS FOR BUSINESS

8:00am FREE mini-muffins and cookies from Perkin’s for shoppers at Guse Hardware

8:00am Carrotmob Minneapolis merchandise booth opens for business (behind Guse Hardware)

9:00am-12:00pm Disc jockey music by Jason Callahan – St. Luke’s Church lawn

10:00am-6:00pm “Carrots for Kids” with Naomi – St. Luke’s Church lawn

12:00pm-1:00pm Disc jockey music by dj Druski, High Grade Systems; www.highgradesystems.com

1:00-1:30pm Acoustic Jam by local live bands – St. Luke’s Church lawn

1:30-2:30pm Live band music by Something Else (2-piece acoustic rock/blues), http://www.myspace.com/listen2somethingelse, – St. Luke’s Church lawn

2:45-3:45pm Live band music by Matthew Inkala and The Hostages (indie rock), http://www.facebook.com/l/d5014;www.myspace.com/matthewinkala – St. Luke’s Church lawn

3:50pm 350.org PHOTO AT GUSE HARDWARE

4:00-5:00pm Live band music by So It Goes (rock/new wave/indie), http://www.myspace.com/soitgoesmusic – St. Luke’s Church lawn

5:00pm Raffle – St. Luke’s Church lawn

Guse Hardware is leading the revolution in Minneapolis on October 24 and going all the way, dedicating 100% of the revenues to making energy improvements! This awesome local business is not only joining the green scene with Carrotmob but also opening a ‘Green Grocer’ next door serving local fresh bread from 816 Rustica and plenty of healthy grub. Guse is preparing for a push on eco-products and weatherizing your homes for our energy sucking Minnesota winters. They’re stocking up on your favorites and some other treasures you’ll for sure discover!

It’s so awesome to have a day-to-day business recognizing their impact and responsibility to invest in reducing their own footprint. Supporting this and future businesses is key to making a Global Change. Carrotmob is for the ‘every man’ so join us and become part of the totally positive revolution taking place around the world and now in Minneapolis!

-Carrotmob MPLS

Bidding to be the winning hardware store is now closed here in Minneapolis.  Monday, October 5th at 3:00pm marked the deadline for local hardware stores to submit a bid to win our business on Saturday, October 24th.

We’ve had multiple bids.  This week we will be selecting and announcing the winning business!

Eric Jensen has been leading the Business Interaction work, including personal visits to local hardware stores to invite them to participate in the bidding process, Operation Carrotwave – sidewalk chalking and a scavenger hunt for environmentally-friendly items, and additional follow-up with the store by phone and in-person.  It’s been a great experience getting to know the business owners and Eric has done a tremendous job at keeping the team focused and paying attention to detail.  Nice work Eric!

Please stay tuned to our blog for more information about the Carrotmob Minneapolis group, people who are contributing to the success of this project, and our shopping extravaganza to take place on Saturday, October 24th!

Natalie

We also got our first bid in from Bryant Hardware this week, 20% ! This is fantastic, we’ll know the beginning of this week if they are the ones….

We’re all feelin the chill as our beloved Minnwinter is on its way. Brrrr. Its also time to winterize your homes, save some money, and not watch the t.v. with mittens and a hat on! October 24 is the perfect time to do it, you can hold off a little longer to come out for Carrotmob. Window kits to keep out the draft, insulation, and lots of other items to keep engergy consumption down. We’ll be there to help with your questions of what to buy.

We hope to see more of you out and about, and if you have an idea for where Carrotmob can get the word out let us know!

-Carrotmob MPLS

Good afternoon fellow Carrotmobbers,

Operation Carrotwave is going strong. Our group has traveled to 4 hardware stores and has 2 left to go today. We’ve been sidewalk chalking and gathering information on environmentally-friendly items in the stores.

At all the stores we visited today, there was an absence of programs or seminars on environmentally-friendly topics for customers to participate in. We’d love to see these shops offer something for the local community to participate in and learn more about what they can do to “green” their homes.

We found items marked as “green” at some of the locations, but greenwashing was also spotted. Carrotmobbers will be keeping a keen eye open for other indications of how much work we have cut out for us.

We invite to you to join us for the remaining 2 stops today:

4pm Ace Hardware Frattallone’s, near Downtown
5pm Welna Ace Hardware in Phillips neighborhood

Please visit our google map to see where we’ll be.
Let us know if you’ll be representing!

The Carrotmob MPLS Team
cmobmpls@gmail.com

Get prepared, this Saturday, Sep. 26, Operation Carrotwave will unleash carrots on Minneapolis! We will be rockin’ some guerrilla marketing and using sidewalk chalk to put the message where you walk. We will also be visiting all of our hardware stores with a scavenger hunt to find out more about the products they are carrying.

You can be as hardcore as you want, we just want you there! Got mad chalking skills and want to throw down around the lakes and sidewalks of MPLS? Or get more involved in our hardware stores? Join us at one, or as many as you want. Be prepared to rock the verbal messages as we want to tell everyone we encounter about what we’re doing.

Our schedule will go from 10 am – 1 pm, and then again from 4pm – 6pm. Here’s our schedule, you can meet up whenever you want!

10am Bayers DO It Best Hardware in Linden Hills and chalking up the Lakes
11am Guse Hardware in S. Mpls
12am Bryant Hardware, near Uptown
1am Nicollet Ace Hardware in S. Mpls
4pm Ace Hardware Frattallone’s, near Downtown
5pm Welna Ace Hardware in Phillips neighborhood

Please visit our google map to see where we’ll be.

Let us know if you’ll be representing!

The Carrotmob MPLS Team
cmobmpls@gmail.com

Carrotmob Minneapolis has made the decision to “mob” a hardware store on Saturday, October 24th. The bidding process begins today and bids are due by 3:00pm on Monday, October 5th.

Call to action for the hardware stores:
1. Complete the Carrotmob “Business Partner Initial Bid Survey”, indicating the % of gross revenues from October 24th you’re willing to commit to energy efficiency improvements in your place of business.
2. Up your bid, if a competing business has out bid you.
3. Hold on to your hats if you’re the winning business and prepare for Carrotmob Minneapolis to shop at your store on Saturday, October 24th!

“Business Partner Initial Bid Survey” questions include:
1. What products do you carry that help improve customer’s efficiency?
2. Do you offer programs/seminars/etc. on home improvement & energy use reduction? If so, what programs are these?
3. Do you offer hazardous material collection at your store? If so, what materials do you collect? If not, how do you dispose of these materials for your store when needed?
4. What energy efficiency improvements have you already done to your store?
5. Do you have any green initiatives or partnerships currently?
6. What percentage of gross revenues from October 24th are you willing to commit?

I am very excited to announce the kick-off of our business bidding process. Watch for additional updates throughout the bidding process and selection of our winning business to “mob”.

For questions or further engagement with Carrotmob Minneapolis, the bidding process, and the scheduled carrotmobbing taking place on October 24th, please feel free to call me at #612-237-3770 or join our Google group at http://groups.google.com/group/carrotmob-minneapolis. I welcome interested “mobbers” to participate in not only the planning, but become one of our “mobbers”!

Happy “mobbing”!
Natalie

In Minneapolis, Minnesota, we are off to a running start and I wanted to share some of our progress with interested Carrotmobbers.  Our efforts are focused on planning for our  first event on Saturday, October 24, 2009 to CARROTMOB MINNEAPOLIS!

We are now one of the official “MOBS” on the Carrotmob map.  Our group here in Minneapolis was thrilled to learn that there are other Carrotmobbers around the world who are also planning events to be held on October 24, 2009, as part of the International Day of Climate Action.  Without delay, I’d like to give a shout out to other locations around the world who are also supporting www.350.org, by holding a Carrotmob event on this important day: Bonn, Germany; Cambridge, MA; Durango, CO; Ottawa, ON, Canada; San Francisco, CA; and Sydney, Australia.  “Hello” around the world from Minneapolis, Minnesota!

This past week was the launch of our Google Group, “Carrotmob Minneapolis”.  This has been a great success and is a wonderful communication tool.  I invite you to stop by our website, join our group,  and post an introduction.  You can find us at http://groups.google.com/group/carrotmob-minneapolis. Since the launch of our Google Group, we’ve been having an online discussion about the type, location, and scope of business we’d like to “mob” and setting parameters for our geographic location.

We have a leadership team of 3 people, who are leading the charge to plan for our October 24th event.  I welcome and thank both Esther and Eric for joining me in leading this endeavor.  You are rock stars!

In the coming weeks, our group will “kick-off” the bidding process for selecting a winning business and begin promoting this event in a more formalized manner.

I invite you to stay tuned for future updates on Carrotmob Minneapolis and get involved in planning an event in your city.  If you live in Minneapolis or close by, you’re welcome to join our group!  I’m already having a great time and getting to know lots of awesome people.

Happy “mobbing”!

Natalie