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Common Groundz Hits Hard Times

Common Groundz , the home of "Coffee with a Cause," might be closing its doors after being open for only one year.

Common Groundz, which is located on the 700 block of West Broad Street, is one of the many places to get a cup of coffee in the area surrounding Virginia Commonwealth University. However, in a world with a Starbucks on every street corner, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the locally owned coffee shop to stay afloat.

Mark Fichter , who co-owns the coffee shop with Scott King , said it has been hard to maintain financial stability because the business was started with loans from private investors and the company now lacks the money to make up for the losses each month.

"Instead of breaking even, or operating at a profit, you operate at a loss and what causes that is that you don't have sales or enough people walking through the door to maintain the operation of a public company," Fichter said.

Common Groundz opened its doors to the public on April 16, 2007 with aspirations to not be your average coffeehouse. According to its page on MySpace.com, Common Groundz has a goal of reaching out to the community by not only featuring showcases of local bands and the artwork of VCU students, but also by making itself open to serving the community of recovering drug addicts and alcoholics.  

"We wanted to open up a coffee shop for recovering addicts to go hang out in the evening or whenever, where they didn't have to be in an environment where there was alcohol and drugs around, where they would just have somebody to talk to if they needed," Fichter said.

The "Coffee with a Cause" philosophy refers also to how Common Groundz uses all fair-trade coffee and tea. Common Groundz's Web info states that fair-trade coffee "helps to deliberately work with ... producers and workers to help them move from a position of vulnerability to security and economic self sufficiency."

When Common Groundz was first opened, Fichter said sales and the number of people coming in was growing weekly but business tapered off during summer. The full effect of the decline was noticed this past January during VCU's winter break.

"Once the students leave, our sales drastically drop off," Fichter said. "After the New Year, [sales] didn't really grow so much ... and we're struggling because you can only go back so many times to borrow more money."

While they don't have a marketing budget to speak of, King and Fichter tired to make people more aware of their presence by holding a benefit show May 6 at the shop, which featured local bands and student artwork. Donations were asked for at the door and Common Groundz made a profit of $346.

They have also signed up with a catering company, which according to Fichter is helping profits already.

As well as worrying the owners of the coffee shop, the possibility of Common Groundz closing is also a concern to the population of VCU students who frequent it.

"Common Groundz closing would be a huge disappointment for the VCU community as well as the area around it," said Steven Flick , a 20-year-old strategic advertising major at VCU. "It has cool elements that no other place really has, such as being open late hours for studying and just relaxing."

Some students say they also enjoy escaping from a world filled with big corporations.

"I believe that it brings the idea that privately owned coffee shops can still flourish, not to mention most of their beverages are from fair-trade suppliers" said Jonathan Ward , a 19-year-old political science major.

Even though Common Groundz is popular among some students, it may not be enough to keep the business afloat, even though Fichter and King said the fundraiser show helped a lot. At this moment, Fichter said only time will be able to tell.