Seven of Toronto’s top independent coffee shop owners banded together Tuesday to launch the Toronto Coffee Conspiracy, a local initiative that encourages coffee drinkers to buck the Starbucks trend by going indie.
As of the first espresso pull this morning at Sam James Coffee Bar, Blondie’s, Manic Coffee, Crema, Lit Espresso Bar, Dark Horse and Mercury Espresso Bar, customers were able to obtain “disloyalty” cards to use at the seven participating locations. For every coffee purchased per location, customers receive a stamp; earn seven stamps and the eighth is free back at the original location.
By early afternoon, Matt Taylor and his staff at Mercury Espresso Bar had already doled out about 24 cards. Over at Sam James, they’d given out 25.
When news broke of the initiative earlier this month, some criticized it as "elitist" for excluding coffee shops that didn’t appear to fit a certain profile. To a certain extent, that’s true, suggested Taylor. "It sounds like it could be a very elitist thing," said Taylor. "These are people I’ve known for a long time. We’re all very comfortable with each other and it just made sense to start at a smaller level and then… the idea is to include more and more shops as time goes on."
So what if Starbucks were to ask to join?
"Probably not, because they’re not really coffee-quality focused," said Taylor. "Are their beans fresh roasted? Are there roast dates instead of expiry dates on the bags? No. So there’s two rules right there that we all follow as quality focused independent shop[s]. And this is really about the independent coffee scene in Toronto and not about the corporate coffee scene."
As for the apparent illogic of independent coffee shops uniting, Taylor sees no contradiction in terms. "It’s just a collective of people. We’re promoting the independent coffee shop scene as a bunch of individual coffee shop owners.
"We’re not about cutting out the middle man and buying in bulk. It’s not about us as shops only… it’s about this collective of people and getting the customers involved in any way we can."
At Sam James, they’re not worried about sending customers to the competition. Most customers are regulars who pass by the shop on their way to work or during their breaks, says James, so business won’t change too much.
“I’m not too concerned about directing my clientele to the competition because it’s irregular competition if anything. But… their customers are going to be coming to me, so I won’t be losing any customers. If anything, we’ll be gaining a more educated clientele out this whole thing."
More information about the Toronto Coffee Conspiracy can be found here.
