The 'dregs' of big business

Coffee brouhaha leaves owner miffed

Limu Coffee, a five-year-old shop on Silver Lake Road in St. Anthony is being forced out of it's place of business because the property owner is refusing to renew the shop's lease at the Silver Lake Road Shopping Center. The shop is owned by a woman named Gedam Azeze, who came to the U.S. from Ethiopia in 1989.

Caribou Coffee, which opened a new outlet in May in the nearby Silver Lake Village Shopping Center, negotiated a lease that prohibits other coffee shops at the development.

I have drank at both coffee houses and as a self-described "Hardcore" coffee drinker I personally preferred the coffee served at Caribou. As a consumer I could live with the thought that the independent shop could bite the dust because I preferred the big company's product - To me that is fair competition, even if the indie is at a disadvantage in terms of branding & marketing. But I am sickened to think of how many of my purchasing dollars over the years have gone toward a company that engages in corporate sleaziness at such a level as to eliminate their competition without actually competing with them. The owners of the shopping center wanted this highly recognized chain in their center so that they could pull more people off of Silver Lake Road and they were willing to sign anything to get them. Than my friends, is the insidious power of branding.

Caribou CEO Michael Coles said that the decision to decline Azeze's lease renewal request "had nothing to do with us. If the landlord wanted to keep the tenant, it should not have granted us the exclusive, and we'd still have gone there."

Then why don't you just negate the clause from your lease and let the independent stay, you slimeball?

Over the last couple of years I have turned to making my own espresso drinks. With a little milk-frothing practice I have reached the level where I can say that I prefer my own drinks to anything that I can buy at a shop. Shop-bought coffee has become more or less a once-a-month treat that I will get at a mall or when I am running early for work. But this story has irritated me to the point where I am ready to finally say "no more" to Caribou. Or to Starbucks, for that matter. From now on the only coffee shops I will patronize will be independents.

Am I a activist? No, not even close. I am just a consumer who from now on is voting with his feet.