In a whirlwind 24 hours last week, Jenni Trilik and Marcus Contaldo went from being $216,000 in debt and the owners of nearly 30,000 bags of unsold coffee to utterly overwhelmed with support. It was an unexpectedly happy ending to a drawn-out small business nightmare that began in April, after a deal fell through that was supposed to get their Modest Coffee product (@modestcoffee) onto Walmart’s virtual store shelves in a long-planned expansion of their 9-year-old West Chicago company. With 9,300 pounds of coffee and debts piling up, the Aurora couple wrote about the experience on their store’s blog Thursday morning, then offered caffeine lovers one heck of a deal: An entire case of coffee for half off, or $7-$8 a bag. Those who didn’t drink coffee but still wanted to help could donate the bags to charity instead. By Friday afternoon, they’d sold out. “There has been this huge weight that has been lifted — financial, of course, but also an emotional one, (seeing) that people do care about the little guy,” Contaldo said. Tap the link in our bio to read the full story. ? Tatyana Turner / Chicago Tribune ? Mark Black / for the Chicago Tribune
January 5, 2023
In a whirlwind 24 hours last week, Jenni Trilik and Marcus Contaldo went from being $216,000 in debt and the owners of nearly 30,000 bags of unsold coffee to utterly overwhelmed with support.
It was an unexpectedly happy ending to a drawn-out small business nightmare that began in April, after a deal fell through that was supposed to get their Modest Coffee product (@modestcoffee) onto Walmart’s virtual store shelves in a long-planned expansion of their 9-year-old West Chicago company.
With 9,300 pounds of coffee and debts piling up, the Aurora couple wrote about the experience on their store’s blog Thursday morning, then offered caffeine lovers one heck of a deal: An entire case of coffee for half off, or $7-$8 a bag. Those who didn’t drink coffee but still wanted to help could donate the bags to charity instead.
By Friday afternoon, they’d sold out.
“There has been this huge weight that has been lifted — financial, of course, but also an emotional one, (seeing) that people do care about the little guy,” Contaldo said.
Tap the link in our bio to read the full story.
? Tatyana Turner / Chicago Tribune
? Mark Black / for the Chicago Tribune
It was an unexpectedly happy ending to a drawn-out small business nightmare that began in April, after a deal fell through that was supposed to get their Modest Coffee product (@modestcoffee) onto Walmart’s virtual store shelves in a long-planned expansion of their 9-year-old West Chicago company.
With 9,300 pounds of coffee and debts piling up, the Aurora couple wrote about the experience on their store’s blog Thursday morning, then offered caffeine lovers one heck of a deal: An entire case of coffee for half off, or $7-$8 a bag. Those who didn’t drink coffee but still wanted to help could donate the bags to charity instead.
By Friday afternoon, they’d sold out.
“There has been this huge weight that has been lifted — financial, of course, but also an emotional one, (seeing) that people do care about the little guy,” Contaldo said.
Tap the link in our bio to read the full story.
? Tatyana Turner / Chicago Tribune
? Mark Black / for the Chicago Tribune
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