PORT ANGELES — Bay Variety owner Michelle Adolphsen didn’t know quite how to react when an unexpected influx of customers visited her store on a sunny day last week.
“It’s been really crazy. I don’t quite know what to make of it,” she said, grinning from ear to ear Friday afternoon.
Unbeknownst to her — for some of the day, anyway — Bay Variety was the benefactor Friday of a “cash mob,” a community-organized swell of customers all aimed at supporting a particular shop or restaurant.
The originator of Friday’s cash mob, Port Angeles resident Kary Brown, said she got the idea from a friend of hers on Facebook.
Brown initially invited 200 people to the Facebook event she created for the cash mob, though it eventually was shared with 1,500 more.
“I am definitely not the person solely responsible,” Brown said.
“It was definitely a whole community effort.”
Adolphsen said she did not keep an exact tally of how many people showed up for the cash mob but estimated the store easily saw double the business it normally sees on a single day.
“That was a crazy-nice thing for [Brown] to do,” Adolphsen said.
“It was really sweet.”
Brown said she visits Bay Variety about four times a year for myriad items, such as party supplies, with Brown most recently walking away from the store with a long-searched-for pair of dice.
“I was asking co-workers [downtown] where I could find dice, and couple of them said, ‘Have you tried Bay Variety?’” Brown said.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
