SK Coffee

People love local businesses and I found a lot of support from the community and the people. The corner has traditionally been a place for local businesses to thrive, but recently new chains have seemingly multiplied. Local establishments Kicking out local businesses and establishing chains The real question is, what are local business owners going to do to combat this change? Shadi Kayat, a local business owner of SK Coffee & Co. opened SK Coffee in April this year. As a local business owner, SK works long hours at the shop to gain a better understanding of what it is We sat down with SK to talk about the opening of SK Coffee & Co. I've been in business for 10 years and the first location that we opened was a research meeting in college and we always UVA is an amazing school. I have a lot of friends and family so my friends told me about this place and I thought that was a great place to come in and establish new connections and help see us out. SK Coffee & Co. took the place of Pie Guy Coffee which closed after about a year of business. Knowing this, it was a difficult decision for SK to open up. For a business, it's always Of course it was But I'm really determined. So I want people to come here, make sure they feel at home, they feel safe. I started working longer hours. I'm working a lot. I'm here mostly at high-end efficiency and we have Just a few people but we're doing great. People love local business easier and they found a lot of support from the community and the people and they just love, especially when they hear some local businesses owned, they want to come here. I felt very, very rich with the support from the people, from the students and local businesses around us. Local businesses Even with new local businesses being founded it puts in a question how much local business owners have to compete with the chain takeover. I'm Charlotte Burgess, WUVA.