The art of flash mobbing will be practiced this Saturday at Pasadena's Fresh & Easy supermarket for the cause of the environment. A flash mob, for the uninitiated, is a group of random people who assemble suddenly in a place to perform an unusual and seemingly pointless act for a brief time.

In this case, if at least a thousand random people show up to the store tomorrow, Oct. 6, from 12 – 3 p.m., the store will vow to replace all of their giant industrial freezers with energy-efficient, zero emissions freezers. If so, it will be the first store in the entire U.S. to make that commitment to sustainable change. Anyone can show up, no purchase or RSVP necessary.

The organization behind this action is Carrotmob, a company that organizes flash mobs for positive change around the world. Currently, there are similarly-themed Carrotmobs taking place in Mexico, France, Thailand and Australia. Their slogan? “In a boycott, everyone loses. In a Carrotmob, everyone wins.” For this event, they partnered with CPG giant, Unilever.

For the shmoozers posing as worried environmentalists, there will be plenty of free stuff too. Free samples of Ben and Jerry's and even a raffle for a free Xbox is what's being advertised on their Facebook event page, plus a “Sustainability Sweep” where if you find as many cool sustainable brands as possible, you will win a prize.

It will be L.A.'s first Carrotmob, but if all of this still isn't enough to trigger your charity overspending rationalizations, for every purchase of featured products, Fresh & Easy will plant a tree in conjunction with the Arbor Day Foundation. Maybe Trader Joe's should watch its back.

Fresh & Easy: 603 South Lake Ave., Pasadena; (626) 396-9552.

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