Not-So-Perky Perk’s

I have the suspicion that there may be a coffee catastrophe a-brewin’ in our beloved Athens.

This potentially large-scale slip-up involves Perk’s Coffee House and Roastery on Court Street uptown, which seems to be one of the more popular java spots here on campus.

I’ve been doing my own bit of investigating the past couple of days and have frankly grown more confused and frustrated than I was when I began looking into all of this. After a few unanswered calls and being spoken to with extreme shortness, I’ve decided that even without all the answers, I’d at least like to fill everyone in on what I did find.

My roommate, Morgan, is working on a group project with a few other students that focuses on different Athens coffee places and gives a somewhat in-depth look at what they sell and what each is about.

The other day, she told me that a girl in her group mentioned that she believed Perk’s to be dishonest about selling fair trade coffee. Morgan spoke to employees of other local coffee shop Donkey Coffee and Espresso, who led on to a similar understanding about Perk’s. They never made any exact accusations or gave solid facts, just mentioned that they had heard similar rumors.

Here's a bit about fair trade coffee. Video from YouTube.

After I heard all this, I got to exploring.

I went down to Perk’s to get a coffee and casually inquire about the shop. I asked the very kind and helpful employee if she knew the name of their distributor and whether or not the shop sold fair trade coffee. A bit unsure, she went to ask who I assumed to be her manager or supervisor for the information. She came back shortly and informed me that the shop does sell fair trade coffee and that their distributor was the Cincinnati-based Wallingford Coffee. I thanked her and went on my way.

When I returned to my apartment, I called Wallingford to see if they would give me any information. I was skeptical about this call because Morgan had told me that her fellow group member called as well, and Wallingford told her that they did not distribute fair trade coffee to Perk’s.

A somewhat irritated man answered the phone. I told him the nature of my call, and he didn’t know the information that I needed. All he told me was that Wallingford sold both fair trade and non-fair trade coffee. He took my name and number and told me that he would pass it along to the retail manager, who would call me later that day and tell me what I wanted to know.

Well, that retail manager never called.

So today, I decided to call Wallingford again and see if I could get the facts. A much nicer lady answered the phone and put me on hold while she spoke with the retail manager. When she returned, she informed me that Wallingford does, in fact, sell fair trade coffee to Perk’s. I found this pretty peculiar, seeing as Morgan’s teammate came into very different results.

Not ready to settle, I called Perk’s immediately after. Again, a cooperative employee answered the phone, but didn’t know the answers. He told me to call back in a few minutes because the general manager was, ironically, speaking with someone else at the time about the shop’s distributor.

Here's a map showing the location of Perk's.

When I called back, the general manager answered the phone. I told him that I was a local blogger and just wanted to ask him a couple of very quick questions about Perk’s. He willingly agreed to talk. I continued to explain that I wanted to ask him about the shop’s distributors and gather a bit of information. At this point, he began to be quite short with me, which would unfortunately last for the remainder of the very brief conversation.

Not surprisingly, after I merely spoke the word “distributor,” he told me that there was a really bad phone connection and that he couldn’t hear me at all. Interestingly enough, I had just made three phone calls from that exact same place in my room (one of which was to Perk’s a few minutes before) without a problem. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I moved to a more central spot in my apartment and spoke louder. I asked him if that helped, and he said he guessed that it did.

I had every intention of putting verbatim quotes from this man in my blog, so I asked him if he minded me recording the call. He said no, that he was very uncomfortable recording a phone call.

Still, I thought, the show must go on.

I softened and complied, then asked him his name and if he could spell it for me. At this point, he said that he really didn’t want to go through with the interview because the shop was very busy and there were only two workers there at the time. He swiftly hung up on me, scarcely allowing me to thank him and say goodbye.

As an Athens resident, I’m extremely frustrated by this controversy. If a shop is going to advertise fair trade coffee, it should be able to back it up. Not be shady. Not refuse to talk about it. And as for Wallingford, I think it’s certainly strange that the employees relayed two different messages to inquisitors. I would have had more faith in the company’s response to me if the retail manager had called back when I was told he would, which would mean that the company would not have had time to potentially align stories with Perk’s or let the shop know that people were asking about their coffee.

If any of you’ve got opinions on this, I wanna hear ‘em! So leave me a comment (or two, or ten) and let me know if you’ve figured out more than I have about this or if you have something to say.

Until next time, cheers!