[Webinar] Town Hall Recap: Virtual Conversation Food & Beverage 📹

[Helen]

Note: The businesses and industry experts mentioned in this post are located in the US.

On Wednesday, March 25, 2020 we hosted the first Square Town Hall — a livestream conversation with food and beverage business owners and industry experts. Three US business owners shared how their business models have shifted in the wake of recent restrictions, and how their customers have responded.

Here's a recording of Square Town Hall Recap: A Conversation about Food & Beverage Businesses:

You can watch all past Town Hall conversations on YouTube. You can also register for future conversations here. 

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Square Town Hall Recap

If you didn’t catch the livestream or you can’t watch the recording, here’s a summary of the conversation with the time stamp for each section in square brackets.

Town Hall Panelists:

Erin Archuleta - Small Business Advocate, Square

Peter Giuliano, Chief Research Officer, Specialty Coffee Association

Cory McCollow, Co-Owner of Nido+Backyard, Oakland, CA

Julie Clowes, District Director at Small Business Administration

Jamie Cunningham, Founder/Director of Hospitality at Stay Golden, Nashville, TN

Lauren Crabbe, Owner/Founder of Andytown Coffee, San Francisco, CA

 

[1:28] Jamie Cunningham, Founder/Director of Hospitality at Stay Golden, a restaurant and roastery in Nashville, TN

How Stay Golden has adapted their business: Jamie and team are working to face the challenges presented not only by COVID-19 but also by recent tornadoes in Tennessee. They are working to meet the needs of their community by offering: 

• Survival packs: large coffee beverages and food offerings including dinners for families or couples; cocktail kits (everything but the booze) 
• Pantry staples: Stay Golden has access to supplies of toilet paper, flour, eggs - offered those to customers to add to their restaurant purchase.
• COVID-19 rescue packs: prepackaged meals that their customers can buy and are provided to vulnerable people in Nashville TN.

How their customers have responded: Customers appreciate curbside pickup. Some aspects may change business permanently. 

[7:07] Cory McCollow, Co-Owner of Nido+Backyard a restaurant offering Mexican cuisine and cocktails, Oakland, CA

How Nido + Backyard have adapted their business: 

• They consolidated their two restaurant locations and are working from their larger location, the Backyard, where there is more space for both staff and customers. 
• Removed tables, downsized staff but still do a full service every day and expanded their hours to 7 days (previously 6 days). 
• Combined crowd favorite menu items and they are offering food and drinks for to-go and curbside.

How their customers have responded: Nido+Backyard announced recently that all gift card sales will go to the staff. Customers very much appreciate their efforts and that they are staying open and supporting staff.

[12:47] Peter Giuliano, Chief Research Officer, Specialty Coffee Association, a trade association dedicated to the success of the coffee industry

In a recent flash poll of their community they found companies that are weathering this better than some others are taking the following actions: 

• Pivoting to online sales.
• Shifting into take away, to-go models or delivery models.
• Have assertive communication with customers, vendors and even landlords. 

[21:00] Lauren Crabbe, Owner/Founder of Andytown Coffee, a coffee roasting company with 4 cafe locations, San Francisco, CA

How Andytown Coffee has adapted their business: Andytown was impacted when wholesale customers stopped orders because of office closures across the Bay Area. They have:

• Offered their customers the opportunity to buy coffee for healthcare professionals working on the frontlines.
• Created a page on their website so customers can buy one cup, or a batch of coffee/pastries and then the Andytown team delivers the coffee.
• This program has allowed them to hire back 5 employees already and they’ve inspired other businesses, from coffeeshops to pizza restaurants, to do the same from Denver to Paris.

How their customers have responded:  Customers appreciate they can help support their business and support healthcare workers.

[27:40] Julie Clowes, District Director at Small Business Administration [US Only]

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I hope you are all safe and well and this summary is helpful no matter where you are located. You can watch the full recording of the Town Hall Food & Beverage conversation on YouTube. Register for future Town Hall conversations here.