WAGE THEFT
‘I’m really angry’: 2 Kansas City area coffee shops close, giving workers scant notice


Joyce Smith
Tue, April 12, 2022, 

The Northland’s two Headrush Roasters Coffee & Tea shops are currently closed.

“We never used the words permanently closed,” said Eric Schneider, who, with his wife, Nancy Schneider, owns the two locations — at 7108 N. Oak Trafficway, Gladstone, and in The Village at Briarcliff, 4115 N. Mulberry Drive. “We pulled back and suspended operations. But they are closed and they are not reopening any time soon.”

On Monday, they announced the closures on Facebook (in mostly capitalized letters): “It pains us to do so, but it is the right thing for us to do at this time. … Life sometimes throws you a curve ball.”

They said Eric’s 90-year-old mother had a serious fall and fractured her ankle, and recovery has not been what they hoped. That, along with the rigors of running a small business on top of a two-year pandemic, has “really taken a toll.”

The five-year lease is up this month at Briarcliff, and the Schneiders hope the center will hold the building for them for two to three months — based on their history as a tenant and current personal hurdles. But he said the shopping center is already fielding queries on the space.

The Schneiders own the building on North Oak Trafficway. They hope to reopen it this summer.

“My wife and I haven’t had time to talk about it seriously, but we know we love coffee,” he said.

They are still taking online orders for roasted coffee and packaged teas.

Eric and Nancy Schneider opened Headrush Roasters Coffee & Tea in 2012.

But some of its workers are upset at the news and the way they were told.

Dannon Coe, who has worked at the cafes for more than a year, said the staff at both locations had an hour’s notice of a Zoom call Sunday night informing them of the closing — and the loss of their jobs.

Some employees were not able to participate in the Zoom session.

“It was a huge surprise. None of us expected to lose our jobs in that call,” she said. “And my other co-worker was getting married, so some employees couldn’t be on the call because they were at the wedding. We had to break the notice that they no longer had jobs.”

She said they were told they would get two weeks’ severance pay.

“But our hours had been cut drastically over the last few weeks and it won’t include tips, which is about 50% of our pay,” she said. She said the owners have not responded to text messages.

Genesis Hall was lead barista and would have celebrated her first anniversary at Headrush in May. She was not feeling well on Sunday and took a nap, only to find out later that night from co-workers that she no longer had a job.

“Honestly, I’m really angry,” she said. ‘When I started they wanted to know how long I would commit, and I said I could work there for a couple of years and was thinking of going into management. But they can’t give the same respect to the co-workers.”

Fans of the shops posted messages on its Facebook page:

▪ “Devastating news, but we understand. Thank you for being open through the pandemic — it helped a lot of us that couldn’t work remotely, through some very surreal days.”

▪ “Sorry to hear about your mom! We will miss your coffee and customer service dearly! Thank you all for staying open through Covid. … Looking forward to ordering online as your coffee can’t be beat!”

But others who posted were advocating for the employees:

▪ “What about the families of your employees? What about the mental and physical well being of your employees that you gave no notice that you had made this decision to close. .... Do you have regret about terminating an employee during their wedding?”

Headrush Roasters Coffee & Tea at 7108 N. Oak Trafficway in Gladstone has closed.

As of Sunday, Schneider thought his lease was expiring Friday and had to act quickly, he said. But he found out later he has until the end of the month

“I know what we are going through and I know what they are going through. No one is going to be 100% positive,” Eric Schneider said. “There’s a lot of good kids that work for us. We did provide them — and we didn’t have to because we are a small company — two weeks’ severance based on an average of their last three months, because we know hours fluctuate.”