It's a pointless hobby.
A self-described "anti-capitalist" café and coffee shop in Canada named The Anarchist with a "pay what you can" business model will close at the end of the month after just over a year in business.
He wasn't really in "business" for a year.
I imagine this "business" was kept open this long only because of blackmailing family members to float him loans and Canada's government giving him subsidies.
He knows why his "business" failed. No, it wasn't because he didn't charge for coffee and he let homeless bums use his toilet.
No, that wasn't it, Bigots.
The Toronto shop, which opened in March 2022, will close on May 30, its owner announced in a statement, blaming a "lack of generational wealth/seed capital from ethically bankrupt sources."
The café offered drip coffee to customers with a "pay what you can" price tag while charging for other beverages like espresso and tea drinks as well as breakfast pastries to subsidize the lost revenue. It also allowed the public to use its restroom and hang out in the storefront without making a purchase.
The store also carried a selection of radical books, art, pins, T-shirts and more for sale.
The so-called "anti-capitalist café, shop and radical community space on stolen land" raised eyebrows when it first opened -- especially among conservatives and supporters of capitalism.
Oh, and did I mention? While he offered cheap drip coffee on the "pay what you want" model, he charged through the roof for everything else.
Locals also criticized what they said were high prices at the coffee shop -- calling the owner hypocritical for charging so much when he claimed to be against capitalist values and desires.
Despite its closure, shop owner Gabriel Sims-Fewer called his short-lived business endeavor "a huge success" that sparked debate, raised the blood pressure of conservatives and experimented with "living and working in ways that don't enthusiastically embrace the pure misanthropy of Capitalism."
"Unfortunately, the lack of generational wealth/seed capital from ethically bankrupt sources left me unable to weather the quiet winter season, or to grow in the ways needed to be sustainable longer-term," he said in a statement on The Anarchist website.
His website is here.
His coffee shop looks like sh!t.
Here's his sign-off:
It's been an amazing experience, connecting with so many great community members, sparking desperately needed debate, raising the blood pressure of Conservatives (that includes you, "anarcho-capitalists" and "Libertarians"), fulfilling the dream of most service workers by not having to tolerate the presence of professional class-traitors (pigs and military), and experimenting with living and working in ways that don't enthusiastically embrace the pure misanthropy of Capitalism. Unfortunately, the lack of generational wealth/seed capital from ethically bankrupt sources left me unable to weather the quiet winter season, or to grow in the ways needed to be sustainable longer-term.
I'd like to say a huge thank you to Pop Coffee Works, my coffee supplier and landlords, for their generosity and patience...
Your supplier and landlord had to be "generous" and "patient" with you, huh? You mean, your supplier kept supplying you despite your failure to pay him, and your landlord let you slide on the rent for months at a time...?
In other words-- you sponged off other people for a whole year?
What a surprise! I never saw that coming!
I would also like to thank my partners, friends, and family for their huge amounts of support, without which I'd honestly be dead, or at least unhoused by now...
You don't say? You've been living off the welfare of your increasingly-distressed family and friends to keep your Useless Feeder ass under a roof, huh? You don't say. You don't say. You don't say.
Wow, based upon your ranting and cursing at the world, I could never have guessed you had a level of mental illness that wasn't quite severe enough to get you locked away involuntarily, but is plenty severe enough to make life a living hell for anyone who knows you.
...
Fck the rich. Fck the police. Fck the state. Fck the colonial death camp we call "Canada".
Solidarity
Gabriel a.k.a The Anarchist
I put in the asterisks. This guy wrote out the curses.
Now, this story has been updated. Here's his new message on his website:
NOT Closing Down!
Thanks to a huge influx of support, and a very generous donation of publicity and attention from the Christian Conservatives of Texas and Florida, The Anarchist will continue to operate after May 30th.
I'm not sure how long I will keep operating in the current location (a future in a new Toronto location is looking more and more possible), though hopefully for the rest of the Summer.
I have a lot of offers of support to pursue before I'll know what the future of the shop is, and hope people will keep up the support in whatever way they can.
Keep an eye on instagram for updates!
Still very much f*ck the rich, the police, and Kkkanada.
Gabriel, a.k.a The Anarchist
Don't worry, he'll be out of business again soon. He's not making any money, he owes his landlord and suppliers money, and his friends and family, I'm sure, refused to loan him any more cash. That's what provoked the shut-down.
So he has some AOC types donating to him to stay open. But that's just charity; he's not going to remain in business until he actually gets serious about running a business, not living out some childish dream of starting the Revolution with a cup of coffee.
He'll be closing up again soon enough. His update indicates that he's aware of this, too; he'll have to move (the landlord is fed up) and he only entertains remaining open "through the summer," which is just 90 days.
So, no, Gabriel the Anarchist: F*ck you.