Buffalo Rising Online

I cannot help but wonder...how successful a spot coffee would be on Grant Street across from Buffalo State. I wonder how many college students would hangout before getting in their car.

No, it wont make money during the same hours as the elmwood location but I would wager that a 7AM to 7PM monday thru friday maybe 9AM to 4PM Saturday and Sunday would still be profitable.

Spot is always buisy on elmwood. There would have to be somthing completely wrong with the mgt if it closed.

SPoT will always live on!

Isn't it currently a group of investors, headed by Joe Koessler?

Whenever someone brings up Genessee or Broadway I just have to say this!

The Kensington runs parallel to Genessee Street between downtown and Jefferson. I think its time to put traffic back on city streets and get rid of the Kensington between downtown and Jefferson allowing streets like spring, cherry, best, jefferson, genessee, broadway and a whole host of others to regenerate, redevelop and thrive.

If we can put traffic back on city streets then we can provide customers for businesses If we can put traffic back on city streets then we can provide businesses that will hire employees which inturn will provide tenants and property owners for the surrounding local community.

It's not locally owned for what it's worth. I wish they would spruce the place up. Buffalo still doesn't have a real old world cafe.

where does the owner reside?

Innomarque USA is the company that saved SPOT coffee from the brink of collapse in February 2004. Innomarque is run by Joe Koessler, a Buffalo native who was an executive at Coca-Cola. He comes from a very prominent Buffalo family that is heavily involved in numerous civic, political, and social causes in the WNY area. His faither, Paul J Koessler, is the is the Vice Chairman of the Peace Bridge authority.

he sold his shares in SPOT to his Middle eastern partners who sometimes hail from Toronto about a year ago.

So anyone who's been thinking they're supporting a locally owned business by patronizing Spot has actually been supporting globalism? Cool beans! (Well, hot beans really. Steaming hot.)

It shouldn't matter at all where the owners reside.

Speaking of Elmwood, does anybody know what's going on at Saraha Grille lately? Earlier this week I noticed it dark and with all windows covered. Are they remodeling or something like that?

Thanks for the update Bill! Joe and his family are assets to the Buffalo community, he took a big chance when he took ownership of SPOT and it paid off for all of us. SPOT is a regular stop for my mid-morning coffee break or early lunch, I couldn't live without the great staff and their bean juice.

Atwater Louse, From what I have heard Sahara Grill is remodeling their interior

Lorne, thanks for the info. I hope the changes go well for them.

I was actually talking to an employee at SPoT the weekend New World Records was closing that location. He told me that the word was SPoT and Brodo were going to split the space so they could both expand.

that ends my patronage of spot coffee

Cool, if BROK and C69 aren't there now maybe I'll find a place to sit more often. Good timing with winter coming.

Yet another gem of logic from Chris69: you're from the Middle East = you're a fascist. So I guess everyone from Niagara County is a terrorist because Timothy McVeigh was, everyone from Poland is an assassin because Leon Czolgosz was, and everyone from Virginia is a genius because Thomas Jefferson was.

no your reaching there Frankster....there is no need for me to patronize spot because its not local not because its owned by people from the middle east.....its just that if I have a choice to patronize a Buffalo business that would be worth the extra effort. Its not like their the only place that serves coffee in Buffalo or on Elmwood for that matter.

see thats the kind of anti-white, anti-american, anti-southerner, anti....anti....anti stuff that makes people want a moratorium on immigration and buying off minorities with taxpayer give-aways like welfare, healthcare, foodstamps, housing, employment quotas, etc

I wish patriotic and proud Buffalonians would let it be known in their retail windows

OWNED AND OPERATED BY BUFFALO AND WNY RESIDENTS

Amusing to see the Pat Buchanan crowd find common ground with “Buy Local” lefties.

Both of those viewpoints deny the reality that increased economic interaction with other cities, states, nations, and continents is GOOD for Buffalo. “Buy Local” = promoting economic isolationism. Can’t have it both ways – wanting Buffalo to have companies and jobs that depend on selling goods and services to customers elsewhere, while at the same time saying Buffalonians should buy local when at all possible.

Spot is a nice positive little illustration of globalism - drinking coffee grown in South America at a cafe in Buffalo owned by a Canadian company whose main investors came from the Mid East, using mugs and cups made who-knows-where but probably not here, …

"Buy Local" is one of the only ways of keeping these businesses around. If you buy at Starbucks instead of Spot, even if its not locally owned, then you give that much more chance that local companies will close. I love the fact that NYC will not even let huge megachain stores in the city (aka walmart) for that exact reason. And the "Proudly Owned" sign would be nice, if you are gonna spend $2-$2.50 for coffee why don't you spend it at your friend's parents coffee shop than one owned in Seattle?

Tony - either it is or it isn't, right?

If you buy at Starbucks instead of Spot, even if its not locally owned, then you give that much more chance that local companies will close.

According to Zim, Spot is no more locally owned than Starbucks. A zero-zero tie.

In fact, not really. Since Starbucks stock is publicly traded on Nasdaq, Buffalonians must own more than zero percent of Starbucks, but Buffalonians own zero percent apparently of the private equity firm that owns Spot. So of the two, Starbucks is slightly more Buffalo-owned.

I still prefer Spot - better coffee, better atmosphere, and it doesn't matter where the owners reside or what their nationality is.

I love the fact that NYC will not even let huge megachain stores in the city (aka walmart) for that exact reason.

Heh. NYC including Manhattan and other boroughs are full of countless big chains who want to be there. Even some chains that commenters on this site have unsuccessfully begged to honor Buffalo by locating a store here. Doesn't seem to have hurt Manhattan very much now, has it? NYC politicians hate Walmart because its Walmart. But NYC is saturated with other chains.

Using "Buy Local" logic, we should shop at Buffalo-owned Wilson Farms, but only Rochesterians should shop at Wegmans. Fortunately for them, people across NYS, Pennsylvania, NJ, Maryland, and now Virginia are shopping at their nearby Wegmans even though it's not locally owned anywhere except Rochester. And I've no idea where the new owners of Tops are located, but it's not here.

Hey if a local co wants my business, great - they just need to earn it like Spot does. Except Spot isn't local, so that's a bad example. But you know what I mean.

If you want to know whether a business is run by local people or not look for the Buffal0o First sign., I thinkt hey can only be members if they live in the city. Check it out. They know a lot about stats with spending locally or with chain stores.

and cafe 59 is the only good coffee shop left. but i did hear nice things about that environemental place on hertel, but I didn't go there yet.

Very true, MRogers - Spot, Starbucks, Cafe 59, Wegmans, Walmart, and all cos. mentioned do employ locals. We shouldn't take any jobs for granted around here.

No matter what - they employ LOCALS - enough of a reason to go there.

AtwaterLouse-For a while now TOPS has been owned by AHOLD, a Dutch corp. that also owns Harrisburg PA based Giant Foods (they have some in the Binghamton NY area). But Ahold fell into ttrouble (financial) so it just agreed to sell TOPS to a private investor group who plan to move TOPS' top (lots of tops I know) executives back to Buffalo well, the Amherst location to be specific. I believe the story was in Business First yesterday or late last week. It could mean a 100 more jobs going to WNY. Just sayin'......

Jefferson - Yes, Tops new out-of-town owners will put some senior execs in Buffalo or its burbs, at least for a few years until next time it's sold. I wonder if the Buy Local people would say that counts as Buffalo ownership? Based on what I've read them say before, I'll guess answer is no. They can correct me if I'm mistaken. I'll stick with Wegmans over Tops but nothing to do with where owners or execs are located. Wegmans always seems best to me.

Buffalocat - I'm not so sure about your guess that Starbucks contibutes less to Buffalo economy, say as a percent of sales. The outsourcing of food making to some other city might be offset by higher per-employee compensation. I've heard that Starbucks is relatively good for pay and benefits to workers in its stores as compared to most coffee shops. I've no specific comparisons to say Spot or Cafe 59, so won't speculate.

And another thing to consider is whether we should consider as inherently bad the food out-sourcing to whatever city that happens in.

What ever city the food is made, the people probably need jobs too and money they spend in their lives no doubt finds its way well beyond that city. Consider it this way: when similar work occurs is out-sourced *to* Buffalo (say to Rich Products, for one example) we wouldn't want people in other cities to refuse to buy Buffalo-made products simply because they're "not local to them", would we?

If we seriously followed such thinking over time we'd make our Buffalo economy more insular - having less interactions with the outside world. As with all isolationist approaches, some people may find some satisfaction in it and feel they are helping "their people" - but in big picture and especially in long run it actually holds down growth. Says me anyway.

Ok gotta go buy one share of Starbucks stock then go tell them at least one Buffalonian is part owner so they can hang up a "Buffalo Owned" sign. Then I'll go drink some of that Canadian/Mid-East coffee at Spot.

See SPoT. See SPoT run. SPoT staaaaay...Stay SPoT stay!

This local vs. chain topic seems to pop up frequently on BRO. At what point does the cute little local company that starts to grow turn into the evil corporation with locations on every corner? We can cheer for the little guy to succeed... but just not too much? I've been a fan of SPoT since the beginning but I strongly prefer the coffee AND baked goods at Starbucks. Just my preference.

buffalocat - good point about the bakeries, but I have a friend at Rich Products who tells me that RP supplies baked goods to many Starbucks...particularly in Europe. The Delaware and Chippewa location buys from a bakery in Brooklyn.

So...an interesting question for all the "buy local" fanatics: I buy a muffin at Starbucks in Paris that was made at a RP facility and the profits return to Buffalo (or Palm Beach, but that's another story) And you buy a muffin at SPoT made on Delaware Ave. and the profits go to Toronto. Which scenario do you prefer?

Keep in mind that large corporations are often distribution channels for small businesses around the country. Consider that Bloomingdales helps to keep locals employed at Choco-Logo on Broadway. (side note: go to Choco-Logo and try the Almond Nutcorn made for Bloomies!) It is the dream of many small businesses to have their product picked up by the big boys. I think there's room for both in our great city and this either/or mentality is foolish.

The irony here between Spot and Starbucks is that when Spot was locally owned, the owners never paid payroll taxes, which is why they had to sell in the first place. I can say with confidence that Starbucks probably pays all of their taxes. While both may no longer be locally owned, at least they are businesses investing in our city. Surprisingly enough Spot, Cafe Aroma and Starbucks are all very busy. Solid Grounds probably would have been able to survive if they were open after 2 P.M. everyday.