Rumors because we're jintrinsicly more talented?

This Monday morning I was doing some blog surfing, doing some catch-up reading of some of my favorite blogs, as I am wont to do on my day off (day off...what a concept)...including that of our friend and pastry queen extraordinaire, Jennifer Pasquill of Uniquely Yours Pastry Shoppe. Anyhoo, reading Jin's entry "The Anonymous Non-Customer," about some goofball who got bent out of shape over some newspaper coverage that Jin and her shop received sparked some carry-over conversation from one that took place yesterday in the Stump about some rumor going 'round that we're closing the cafe (not true). Jin's response to the "anonymous non-customer" was good (appropriate and funny), but what I'm primarily taking from her post is her decision to use her blog to address and inform.

So, let us address the rumor that Stumpjack is closing (not true). We've heard this rumor several times in the last couple of weeks since Kim and I got back from our brief, 3-day getaway in Door County. We are not closing. We have a full schedule of weekend music scheduled through the first quarter of the year (which you can check out on the Stumpjack Coffee myspace site calendar...and be sure to check it periodically as we will be adding things to it as they present themselves); we've got a whole bunch of new, fun things we'll be adding this year, such as tastings (wine, chocolate, beer, cheese, coffee, etc), game tournaments, open mic and poetry nights, cigar and coffee events, outside music events, an expanded menu, and a lot of other odds & ends...

We're looking forward to a great year of more fun, more events, even more quality in our menu and more community involvement in 2008. We're planning on attending both the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) Conference in Minnesota in May and CoffeeFest in Seattle in September, in order to increase our skills, knowledge and proficiency in what we do even further (during which time, yes, we will likely be closed for a few days). So, Stumpjack Coffee Company is not only not closing, but is growing and planning for bigger and better things every month.

Being that Stumpjack is a gathering place, that third place, for people to meet and chat, we are invariably party to all sorts of things as part of the daily conversation. Generally, you ignore the negative and personally inflammatory talk because it seems that, more often than not, there is a personal agenda attached to those kinds of things that makes them inaccurate at best. I think that this recent rumor that we're closing was probably not started maliciously or with any specific agenda by anyone. What likely got it going was simply a misreading of the sign that we put up on the window before Kim and I went to Door County stating that we'd be closed for the week while on vacation. Or perhaps we got mixed up with Copper Kettle's closing as we're just a couple doors down from that establishment. Whatever...the point is that the rumor was probably just created by faulty information, misunderstanding and lazy fact finding.

But...

Sometimes rumors are in fact started with a less than honorable agenda. I addressed some of this before in my own personal blog, Stumptoons, a few months ago. Earlier this past year we also heard the same "I heard you guys are closing" line from a customer who said that it was told to him as a statement of fact by another business owner (which makes it all the more curious and disappointing...one would hope that certain people would have more sense). Last summer there was also a claim made online by someone in Manitowoc that we were using a large, well-known wholesale coffee vendor as our supplier (the issue was quality of coffee). We have always used Two Rivers Roasting, exclusively, as our whole bean supplier, and proudly so. This was clearly an attempt by someone who didn't like the positive attention Stumpjack was getting to try to spread some misinformation. While I suppose that kind of thing - defensive reactions and rumor mongering - are part of human nature when someone feels threatened, it's nonetheless a dopey way to respond (albeit sometimes entertaining as well).

Thank you, btw, to all of you good folks who asked us about this "closing" rumor and expressed concern about the validity of it. We truly appreciate your friendship and your appreciation for what Stumpjack Coffee has to offer...it means a lot. Oh, the "jintrinsicly more talented" line in the subject is from Jin's blog response to the lady who wrote her the nasty letter...cracked me up.