Switchback Coffee
Next stop: Colorado Springs, CO, USA
LOVE in PEOPLE. There are so many shapes and materials that can funnel LOVE into this world through the actions of PEOPLE. With that, lets talk about Switchback Coffee Roasters - Shooks Run Café.
At first glance, Switchback is a fairly typical coffee shop: clean aesthetic, great color scheme, and homemade pastries. You can order coffee the way you want: lattes, cappuccinos, cortados, americanos, you name it. As I walked up to order I stopped and noticed a sticker they sell for their shop. It read "Everyone deserves quality coffee." I thought to myself, "Wow, that is nice." And I didn't think much more about it.
I later discovered that there was more behind this message than just a kind sentiment. PEOPLE. When you pay with card, the screen offers you a "recommended" payment price. But then it offers you choices less than that, all the way down to zero dollars. Woah! Optional pricing. Who is that for? PEOPLE.
Whomever developed the purpose behind this coffee shop thought more than just jumping on a millennial bandwagon to make some cash and not work nine to five. Of course they took time to think about a cohesive color palate, quality roasting techniques, and things of that sort. But they did not stop. They thought about who was going to be enjoying the beverages. Not just college students, not just work-from-homers, and not just older men with their six AM men's group. All kinds of different PEOPLE would fill the corners of their shop. Some who can and are willing to pay full price. Some who can but do not want to pay full price. Some who can pay full price but may have more need for that money elsewhere yet were seeking some sense of abundance in their life for just a moment. And some who could not pay at all. They thought of all the PEOPLE they would want to serve, all the PEOPLE they would want to LOVE through a cup of magical bean or leaf juice.
The optional payment model instinctively seems like a risky business model because you are trusting the conscious of another person to keep your business a float while still promising to give over your product regardless. Simply put, you are choosing to give even if you do not receive. Is that not LOVE in its most basic form? What is amazing about this model, is that it works. It works at least just as well as a typical you-pay-then-I-give model. Yet it carries with it a bit more than just the product. In every order they say "whatever you have is enough," they say "all deserve high quality," they say "what’s mine is truly yours." Wow. In a time of tension that we seem unable to escape, there are PEOPLE out there who choose in little ways to LOVE in any way and in all ways.
What more can PEOPLE do to spread LOVE if not choosing to give regardless of if they receive?
