Rantz: Baristas hold coffee shop hostage, business man warned not to share economic reality

Low-skilled baristas are holding a Seattle café chain hostage because the owner dared to weigh in on his economic future. They’re being assisted by a former villain on the Seattle City Council, socialist Kshama Sawant.

At the end of the year, the next phase of Seattle’s minimum wage hike goes into effect. It would end the tip credit enjoyed by restaurants, bars and cafes. It currently allows eligible businesses to deduct $2.72 an hour for wages if the employee makes at least that much in tips per hour. As experts have warned, this change would be catastrophic to the food and beverage industry, most likely resulting in untenable expenses that would force businesses to close down.

Cherry Street Coffee House owner Ali Ghambari sees the writing on the wall. He was one of many business owners to recently speak at a Seattle City Council meeting. They’re asking for a legislative fix as they cannot afford the roughly $3 more an hour, per employee, to meet the $20+ minimum wage in 2025.

But a handful of baristas think they know more about the business than he does. With the help of Sawant, they walked off the job and demanded that Ghambari stop fighting for his own economic survival.

“I felt embarrassed to be working for somebody who was wearing a Cherry Street t-shirt on a public livestream talking about how it’s too expensive for him to pay his employees,” an anonymous, former employee told The Stranger.

Each and every barista should be immediately terminated and replaced with a Keurig. That will likely happen, anyway, if this minimum wage tip credit goes away.

More from Jason Rantz: Panic as Seattle restaurants may not survive massive minimum wage shift

Why are Seattle baristas walking off the job at Cherry Street Coffee House?

In typical Seattle fashion, activists and baristas at Cherry Street Coffee House seem to think they are fighting a noble revolution by shutting down a coffee shop. But instead of a righteous stand for worker rights, this is a demonstration of entitlement and an alarming lack of awareness of how small businesses operate in this post-pandemic, inflation-ridden economy courtesy of the very policies these activists support.

Ghambari had the audacity to tell the truth about his businesses at the council meeting. He warned that the scheduled wage increase in January would be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, forcing him to potentially close stores. That his honesty immediately sparked outrage among employees, leading to walkouts and a list of demands that reads more like a ransom note, exemplifies everything wrong with the activists that have too much control in this city. In Seattle, you’re not allowed to hold a different viewpoint than the one shared by 20-something baristas with little life experience. Their idea of struggle is simply existing in a city where not everyone thinks precisely the way they do.

These workers seem to believe they’re entitled to dictate how Ghambari should run his business, ignoring the very real financial pressures small business owners face. They want full compliance with their version of “fair” treatment, including pay raises, work schedules three weeks in advance (without having to offer at least a month in advance for their own vacation days or an apparent policy for handling staffers who call in sick at the last minute), and provide 60 days notice before cutting hours by 50%.

For staff who work in the industry, you’d think they’d have a better understanding of how businesses like these operate. This mob-style approach to labor relations isn’t going to save anyone’s job; it’s only going to kill off more small businesses.

Baristas are putting themselves out of work

The irony, of course, is that the Seattle baristas’ tantrum forced a temporary store closure, proving Ghambari’s point. Shutting down small coffee shops because the owner has concerns about wages isn’t a victory — it’s a tragic self-own that ultimately hurts everyone involved, from the staff to the community they claim to serve.

Meanwhile, Council Member Joy Hollingsworth, who introduced the bill to establish a two-tiered wage system allowing for tip credits, is now backpedaling, thanks to pressure from labor unions and online mobs. She vows to come back to the table with a more thoughtful approach to the issue, but activists say there is no issue to begin with. In their world, in which they say they’re unable to pay rent, Ghambari has all the money in the world to throw at them. That he, too, might have trouble paying bills for the same reason they claim to not be able to afford rent is unthinkable. He’s a small business owner and, thus, he must be wealthy. A steady diet of The Stranger, socialist educators, and MSNBC turns activists into dullards.

The city is left with a policy mess that pits small businesses against their workers. No one wins here, except maybe the corporate giants that can more easily afford to temporarily absorb the costs of wage hikes before inevitably passing it along to the consumers. But big businesses have something many small businesses don’t: access to more capital to handle surges in costs.

The threat of automation

Significant wage changes like what will happen in Seattle will just lead to more automation or consolidation of work. There are only so many menu price hikes a customer can handle and most coffee shops in Seattle have surpassed the comfort level for many of us.

At best, these employees get their wage hikes but suffer from lower tips and fewer customers as a result of menu hikes. As troublesome, these kinds of untenable hikes stop businesses from expanding. Instead of opening another café, giving a dozen more locals valuable training and work experience, the money goes back into preexisting locations.

The selfishness on display by these staffers is shockingly naïve. Barista jobs are starter jobs. They’re not meant to subsidize a pricey Capitol Hill apartment and a lifestyle of going bar hopping every night. You’re meant to earn some valuable skills and then either work to the next rung on the ladder within the company, or grow somewhere else. No amount of activism will change that. If they get their way, they will not have accomplished much for themselves but will hurt a local economy where operating a small business becomes even more impossible.

Baristas would also be wise to understand the threat of automation, given their jobs are vulnerable to an inexpensive machine. Seattle already has coffee shops that are fully automated. They’re cheaper to operate, don’t deal with entitled 20-somethings, and are endlessly more efficient. Quality baristas can obviously add to a coffee shop and I do think that they, generally speaking, work hard. But it’s foolish to pretend these are highly skilled jobs that few others can do. And this kind of activism is a reminder that they may not be worth the hassle.

A power trip

Ghambari’s baristas are riding high on their power trip, emboldened by union support, social media noise and a washed-up former Seattle council member. They claim they’re fighting for a living wage, but in reality, they’re pushing their boss closer to bankruptcy.

It’s telling that they’ve chosen to attack Ghambari personally, even alleging inappropriate behavior to paint him as the villain. Yet, this is the same man who, despite financial pressures, is still offering wage increases and bonuses as a way to at least placate some of the concerns. But he should have known that giving in to some of the baristas’ demands wouldn’t be enough. He’s dealing with Seattle activists: you either give them everything they want, or they will destroy you. That they’ll destroy their own jobs in the process does not matter. In Seattle, they’ll be able to find another business owner ignorant enough to hire them.

These baristas don’t seem to care that, rather than walk out on the job, they could literally quit and get one that pays them what they think they’re worth. The problem is that they think they’re worth way more than they actually are. Rather than work harder to increase their value, they’ll hold businesses hostage instead. It’s more empowering — or something.

Seattle’s activists and their mob mentality are once again proving that they don’t understand basic economics. Ghambari is not some big bad corporate tycoon exploiting his workforce; he’s a small business owner trying to survive in an extraordinarily expensive city. If these workers want to see real change, they should recognize that shutting down the very businesses that provide them with jobs isn’t the answer. Otherwise, they’ll end up with a city full of empty storefronts — and no one left to blame but themselves. Or, worse, more Starbucks popping up in place of local, independent coffee shops. But at least that’ll give the activists another issue to feign outrage over.

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