Bean Chain, an innovative co-op cafe and coffee shop, is set to open spring 2023 in Mesa’s Fiesta Commons, located at 1110 W Southern Ave, according to co-founder David Baxter.
This, however, isn’t your average coffee shop.
For one, Baxter – who ostensibly owns Bean Chain with his wife, Shannon Baxter – is opening the shop as a co-op, with the well-being of employees placed front and center of its business model.
“I quit my job probably a year ago – September 2021 – to start working on this, because I wanted to do something a little bit better and more impactful with my life,” David tells What Now Phoenix. “So this is going to be a coffee shop that’s worker-directed. We’re going to try to give our employees a say in how things work in the coffee shop, have some voting and a proposal process. We’re going to try to pay them a living wage – we’re shooting for $20 an hour – and we are also going to be trying to give them some profit sharing too, once we have profits, of course.”
What’s more, the shop will be multi-functional and community-driven, doubling as a shared workspace while the kitchen operates as a “commissary for budding bakers” alongside the sandwiches and baked goods prepared in-house for Bean Chain.
“We’ll have three offices inside the coffee shop that’ll be decent-sized, private, soundproofed offices that people can work out of, and have us deliver coffee and sandwiches right to the office,” says David, adding, “Those will be inside of a larger shared work area – it’s about 1,500 square feet – where we will have it set up for people that need to get some work or study done.”
On the kitchen concept, David explains, “Our goal is just to make our own baked goods there, but also to invite local bakers that want a place to bake and start selling their goods out of, to come cook with us…We could be a ghost kitchen for people, we could also have guest star bakers where they come in and do limited runs.”
Interestingly, the entire system is based on blockchain technology – hence the name Bean Chain – stemming from David’s other business, the Blockchain Learning Center.
“We have this heavy worker-centric angle that we’re going for because we think that lifting up workers is really going to be the way to fix a lot of our societal issues. And we see the tools being built in blockchain as really helpful for people that want to organize democratically and fairly with each other.”
As Bean Chain writes of its humble mission, “We want to be the best place to sit down and have a cup of coffee in Arizona. Having a calm place to relax, talk, and study is important to all of us. Our mental health relies on being able to grow and learn with each other and from each other. This coffee shop will be built with love, fairness, and a shared sense of purpose.”
