For journalists
Press
Everything you need to write about us without waiting on an email. Facts, photographs cleared for publication, quotes you may use as they are, and a person who will pick up.
Talk to a person
On a deadline? Say so in the subject line and call the shop as well. Someone is behind the counter every day from 8am to 5pm.
Filming or photographing in the shop is fine, and we will find you a time when the room is not full. Just tell us you are coming.
Seven stories in here
Pick one, or ask us about something else entirely. These are the ones we get asked about most and can put real numbers behind.
01
A coffee shop trying to give itself away
Beanchain is openly building a model for handing a small business to the people who work in it, and writing the systems down so other businesses can copy them. Workers earn the right to take part by showing they understand how the model works, then join paid work teams, put proposals to forums, and pick up paid units of work. It is a live experiment in workplace democracy being run in a coffee shop, in public.
02
Free desks in a city where remote work has nowhere to go
The shared workspace has real desks, power at nearly every seat and a printer, and it costs nothing to use. No membership, no day rate, no application, no waiting list. Buy a coffee and the desk is yours for the day. That is a deliberate decision about who gets a place to work, not a promotion.
03
What a living wage looks like on a coffee shop margin
Beanchain treats a living wage as the precondition for everything else, on the grounds that nobody helps run a business while worrying about rent. They are not there yet and say so: the commitment is to keep moving toward it, and to match the local living wage in any city a Beanchain opens in. The story is the arithmetic of trying, on coffee shop margins.
04
A library that only accepts a book if you can say why you liked it
The shelves are donated, and there is one condition on a donation: tell us why the book mattered to you. If you cannot, we would rather you kept it. There is also a community book on the table that anyone can write or draw in.
05
Pay It Forward, without the means test
Somebody buys a meal in advance, a local business provides it, and the person who needs it collects it. No questions, no proof, no conversation about whether they deserve it. It started here and became PIF Board, which any business or donor can now use, and which makes the giving tax deductible.
06
A coffee shop that ships software
Three products have come out of running this place: an operations tool for small businesses, a digital version of the Pay It Forward board, and the communication framework the shop itself runs on. Each one started as something Beanchain needed and could not buy, and each is now available to anyone else who needs it.
07
Disagreements get a protocol instead of a warning
The shop runs its leadership on a communication protocol rather than a rulebook: introspection first, then mutual understanding, then seeking a solution. It shows up in one-to-ones, in how feedback is given, and in formal Solution Seeking Sessions when something needs resolving. An unusual answer to how a workplace handles conflict when the aim is for nobody to simply be the boss.
Fast facts
These are the current ones. Anything you find in an older PDF of ours, trust this instead.
- Name
- Beanchain Coffee
- Legal name
- Beanchain Coffee LLC
- Founded
- 2021
- This shop opened
- July 2023
- Address
- 1110 W Southern Ave, #8, Mesa, AZ 85210
- Hours
- Open every day, 8am to 5pm
- Phone
- (480) 307-6503
- contact@bchain.coffee
- Model
- Worker directed, building toward a worker-owned cooperative
- What it is
- Coffee shop, cafe, bakery and free shared workspace
Boilerplate
For the bottom of the article. Copy it as it is.
Beanchain Coffee is a worker directed coffee shop and free shared workspace at 1110 W Southern Ave, #8, Mesa, AZ 85210. Founded in 2021, it serves coffee, breakfast and lunch all day, and is building a model for handing small businesses over to the people who work in them. Beanchain runs a free community library and a free shared workspace, and builds software for small businesses through Handbook, PIF Board and the Solution Seeking System. More at bchain.coffee.
Happy to talk about
- How worker direction works day to day, including the parts that are hard
- Participation Certification: why workers have to show they understand the model before taking part in it, and whether that is a barrier or a foundation
- Wages and benefits in independent coffee, with real numbers
- The Solution Seeking System and why conflict gets a protocol
- Running community programs out of a business rather than a nonprofit
- What it costs to keep a workspace free
Quotes you may use
These are cleared. Run them as they are, no need to check first. If you want something specific to your story, ask and we will write it.
“We would rather sell you a coffee than rent you a chair. The desk is the reason you came; the coffee is how we stay open.”
“The people doing the work have a real say in how this place runs. That is not a slogan on the wall, it is the reason the workspace is free.”
“We are trying to prove a small business can be handed to the people who run it, and that the version of it that comes out the other side is better, not weaker.”
Photographs
Free to use in coverage of Beanchain, print or online, credited Photo: Beanchain Coffee. No need to ask. Click any image for the full size, or take the lot. Higher resolution originals on request.
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The Beanchain Coffee storefront on West Southern Avenue, Mesa.
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Shannon and David Baxter, who founded Beanchain Coffee.
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The lounge and community library, with sofas and donated books.
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The entrance to the free shared workspace.
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The Beanchain Community Book, a public journal anyone can write or draw in.
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A Beanchain worker bringing out a tray of food.
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A barista pulling shots on the espresso machine.
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Tamping a shot of espresso.
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The counter and pastry case.
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A community quilt made by customers, hanging in the shop.
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The Beanchain stall at a local outdoor event.
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The Boring Sandwich, served with Himalayan sea salt chips.
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The Strawberries and Cream signature drink.
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Momo, the shop dog, in a bow tie.
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Software we build here
Three products have come out of running this shop. Each started as something we needed and could not buy, and each is now out in the world for anyone else with the same problem.
Solution Seeking System
A framework for democratic problem solving, leadership and communication.
The protocol the shop uses instead of a disciplinary process. Understand yourself, understand each other, then seek a solution.
solutionseeking.com
Handbook
Operations software for small businesses.
Training, standard operating procedures, checklists, recipes and inventory in one place. Built because everything a team is supposed to know was scattered across a dozen documents nobody opened.
handbook.company
PIF Board
Buy a meal for someone who needs one, from a local business.
Pay It Forward without the corkboard: a donor pays, a local business provides the meal, and somebody who needs it collects it with nothing to prove. Tax deductible, and the money stays in the neighborhood.
pifboard.com
Logos
Every logo variant, in SVG and PNG, with the rules for using them, lives on our design guide. It is a public page and you are welcome to it.
Background reading
- Who is Beanchain Background on the shop, the model and where it came from.
- The Solution Seeking System The communication and conflict framework the business runs on.
- Unhoused Help guides: Mesa, Tempe, Chandler and Phoenix The guides to local resources we hand out and give away. Mesa, Tempe and Chandler have printable trifolds on that page. All four are there as web pages, with numbers that dial on one tap.
Already written about us
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AZFamily · 6 June 2024
Mesa coffee shop hopes to turn to co-op business model in an effort to combat poverty
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Phoenix.org · 2024
Putting People First: Mesa coffee shop does things differently
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The Mesa Tribune · 2024
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East Valley Tribune · 2024