Hold the Coffee, I’ll Take a Tea
It’s 7:00 am on a Thursday in June. I arrive at my local coffee shop. There is one car in the parking lot, so I know I’ve beaten the morning hustle of patrons. I walk in; the barista says, “Hey, Josh!” and I respond with a “Hey.” “The usual?” she asks. “You know it,” I respond. As she turns to brew my usual, a Peach Blossom Tea, I pull out my card to pay, tap the payment screen, and at that moment, the lights go out in the facility and on the card reader.
“I promise I didn’t break the machine or the store,” I joke. The barista team immediately steps into action. One barista calls the manager to alert them that the power is out. The other barista starts assessing the equipment to see what is still operational. Remember, it’s 7:00 am, the store has just opened. There is one other patron in the shop, and I’m still standing near the counter. Lucky for me, my hot tea is on the way.
A few customers walk in, and they explain what they can serve right now with no power. Some customers order, and some clamor out, confused about why the lights are out. I hear the barista on the phone with the manager as they walk the employee through flipping the breaker box switches and ask the barista to see if any other businesses are affected. The employee could not tell from the parking lot. They re-enter the building; the lights are still off, and customers are still arriving.
Within minutes, the owner is on site and helping the team respond to the emergency. He says to the team, “There is a portable card reader in the back; go grab that, please.” After the team member collected the card machine, the team could at least charge patrons for pastries, cold-brewed coffee, or hot tea.
No lights, no problem for me. The store’s temperature was still reasonable. I sat down in my favorite chair, opened my laptop, activated my hotspot, and worked for a few minutes before heading to my next destination. I saw the continued trickle of customers and the ongoing messages from the baristas to patrons, alerting them to the power outage and sharing which services were still available. As I packed my bags to leave, I said to the owner, “Whew, I hope these lights are back on soon.” “Me too! He exclaimed. Turns out there is a power outage up and down our street. The power company is saying it could be a couple of hours.” My only response I could think of in the moment. “You all got this.”
A few days later, when I returned for my usual tea, the business had returned to normal operations. When I went to pay for my tea, thankfully, everything was fine this time. The owner popped in a little later and joined me at my table, where he told me they didn’t regain power until 1:00 pm that day. My brain could only think about how many patrons they couldn’t serve during that time and, more importantly, how well staff were trained in emergency operations and business continuity. What if the power outage lasted for multiple days? How would this impact their bottom line?
If you’re a coffee shop, ensuring your team knows your emergency operations plan and business continuity strategies can be crucial to keeping patrons safe and maintaining critical operations during a disruption. Small businesses often lack business continuity and emergency operations plans, which makes them more vulnerable to small- or large-scale disruptions.