COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) -
Just off Interstate 126 in Columbia there's a place where you can buy and trade books.
"We've been in business 37 years," said Tom Hamm, founder of the Book Dispensary. "We moved not too long ago. A lot of people don't know where we moved to."
Hamm gets about 20 to 30 customers a day. But he could use more.
"We could use a lot more," he said. "Being a brick and mortar bookstore has been really hard for the last 10 to 15 years ever since Internet got into selling books."
But that's about to change, thanks to a Facebook group called Cash Mob Columbia.
Each month the 900-member group selects a local mom-and-pop shop to visit and they mob the place with their cash.
Entrepreneur Joseph Vernon and his friends started the group after a causal conversation back in April.
"For me it's a way of people helping other people instead of government helping people," said Vernon. "It's just important for me to help individuals when they need help."
Vernon and his group will crowd Hamm's store Friday. Hamm's looking forward to the extra foot traffic.
"Mobs are always good and cash is better, I think," said Hamm. "I thought it was a fabulous idea. People who started it - just great citizens."
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The Book Dispensary owner Tom Hamm welcomes cash mob
