March 4, 2025
Kavia Simmons says she spent hundreds of {dollars} making ready her Chicago espresso bar to open in a first-rate location, but it surely by no means occurred.
Kavia Simmons, founding father of I Love My Espresso Black, had her coronary heart set on increasing her on-line model to a espresso bar within the Englewood Save A Lot. However plans fell via for the 38-year-old entrepreneur, who stated she was ghosted by retail grocery platform Yellow Banana, which owns and operates shops within the Chicago metropolitan space.
The deal between Simmons and Yellow Banana adopted a 2022 redevelopment settlement by town of Chicago, which appointed the Ohio-based retail operator to renovate and reopen six grocery shops on the South and West facet which have much less entry to contemporary meals.
Simmons advised WBEZ Chicago that she put her model on the road in hopes she can be serving espresso, tea, smoothies and pastries out of a brand new espresso bar within the Save A Lot at 832 W. 63rd St., a former Entire Meals constructing.
The take care of Yellow Banana offered the Black-owned vendor with a minimal-risk and reasonably priced choice to alternate 5% of her espresso bar’s month-to-month gross sales for the usage of Entire Meals’ current cafe house and gear left behind in 2022.
“I used to be actually excited as a result of it gave me a chance to go from on-line to brick and mortar with low overhead,” stated Simmons.
The year-long lease, signed by Yellow Banana CEO Joe Canfield in March 2023, promised Simmons free lease for the primary six months, utilities, and web service. Nonetheless, Simmons known as it quits on the deal final summer time on account of what she known as unfulfilled guarantees from the grocery operator, comparable to failure to pay the web invoice and supply gear. She bumped into points with the heater and damaged gear. The house was flagged twice for low water temperature in 2023, and the shop was hit with a quotation in 2024 for working and not using a legitimate enterprise license.
“I don’t even know why I stayed so long as I did,” stated the Chicago native who watched her potential espresso bar bear phases of being stocked and emptied within the technique of opening.
Yellow Banana was based in 2021 by three Black entrepreneurs, Michael Nance, Walker Brumskine, and Ademola Adewale-Sadik, who grew to become pals at Yale Legislation Faculty.
Hiring community-based and Black distributors was part of the preliminary guarantees offered by Yellow Banana, which was given a price range of over $13 million to renovate and reopen the six shops throughout town of Chicago, slated to satisfy particular metropolis necessities by a March 31 deadline. The agency acquired $250,000 and discounted lease for the Englewood retailer. Englewood residents criticized town’s choice to switch the Entire Meals with a Save a Lot. Yellow Banana, which, in accordance with LinkedIn, additionally operates shops below the Save a Lot banner throughout the Cleveland, Chicago, Milwaukee, Jacksonville and Dallas metropolitan areas, faces six-figure lawsuits filed in 2023 in Ohio, as famous by the Chicago Solar-Occasions.
“I type of began to really feel like they used me to make themselves look higher at a time when nobody actually needed them there,” Simmons stated. “After which as soon as issues didn’t go proper, I simply acquired ghosted like everyone else,” Simmons claimed communications from Canfield got here to a halt by February 2024. The Yellow Banana CEO failed to answer messages concerning renewing the expiring lease, returning keys and reimbursing license charges.
I Love My Espresso Black was launched in 2019 to supply espresso lovers a wholesome choice for a “clear cup of black espresso” constituted of high quality beans and infused with distinctive flavors, with out the sugar and dairy. Merchandise can be found to buy on-line.
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