Shannon Greer, owner of Cadence Coffee and wearing the backpack, says the shop is serving its customers and maintaining a high level of cleanliness
photo by Joseph Dycus
As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads throughout America, health experts and governmental figures are advising that people refrain from large gatherings and to maintain “social distancing.” But even in these perilous times, people still want high-quality coffee. Cadence Coffee, on 7th Street in downtown, has come up with a way to continue to serve their customers while maintaining a high level of cleanliness.
“We’re making sure that our staff is on a 30 minute rotation,” said store owner Shannon Greer. “Every half hour, they’re making sure their hands are washed and that all the surfaces they’re touching are washed and that the surfaces customers are touching are sprayed down.”
Throughout the interview, one of the staff members could be seen cleaning and wiping down the tables, chairs, and door-handle of the entrance to Cadence whenever she did not have an order.
“We have always had high standards when it comes to cleanliness," said Mr. Greer. "We’re downtown, so we have so many people coming in from so many areas and under different kinds of circumstances, so we’ve always been very conscientious of the fact that stuff is communicable and transferable.”
However, if patrons do not wish to stand in what could potentially be a crowded space, they have a convenient alternative available to them. The store has an app called “Cadence Coffee,” where people can place orders, and then pick them up, all without setting foot inside the physical store itself.
“When a customer places that order, they can place a note in the closing screen of their order to say when their arriving and what car they’ll be arriving in,” said Mr. Greer. “With it being so slow, we have the margin for our staff to run it out to the car so that person never has to get out or touch a screen other than their own screen, and has very limited contact with anyone other than our employees, who are washing their hands and cleaning every 30 minutes.”
For customers who still want to grab a drink in person, Cadence Coffee has slightly changed their operating procedure because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve pulled back any sort of single-service offerings like the creamers or stir sticks,” said Mr. Greer. “Where someone before could come in and touch multiple of them, we’ve pulled that back to where our staff, with cleaned hands and in a sanitized environment, can hand those out on request.”
However, no matter how functional the new app is, business is still slow compared to the normal week, when Mr. Greer says the shop averages between 150-200 customers. The effects of this can be seen in how Cadence has had to cut back on how they schedule their robust staff of workers.
“Like any small business, we’re having to make adjustments to scheduling because we don’t have the margin to pay the full staff that we have,” said Mr. Greer. “So even today, we’re watching our sales and watching to see our customer flow and then we’re making adjustments.”
Mr. Greer made sure to praise how his staff has conducted itself during this reshuffling, and highlighted the selflessness of some of the workers.
“Our staff is awesome. We’ve talked about it and said ‘Hey, if we do have to cut your hours back, if you’re willing to let someone take your hours that might need them more severely than you do, let me know,’” said Mr. Greer. “And immediately we got responses from several members of our staff saying, 'I can make it if you need to give some of my hours to someone else.' So it just speaks to the character of people who work here.”
The “Cadence Coffee Co.” application can be downloaded for both iPhone and Android, and the store hours are from 6:30 a.m.-7 p.m. on weekdays, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturdays, and the store is closed on Sundays.