STARBUCKS TO CLOSE AFTER LOSS OF SERVER

-Middleville, CA
In a surprising move, the Starbucks Coffee Shop on the corner of Main and Dawn will be closing its doors forever Friday, just weeks after the departure of popular server Krissy Bell. The location, until recently, had been doing brisk business, attracting customers from across the town.

"I'm shocked," manager Clive Barrow was quoted as saying. "I've been working in the service industry for over 20 years and I've never seen a downswing like this. We just came off a great winter, and then two weeks into March the customers just stopped coming."

Former customer Owen Hawke explained why he stopped buying from the coffee shop. "I don't know, I just woke up one day and realized I was paying $5 for a cup of coffee. I mean, it's coffee, not the cure for cancer or anything. Plus all the caffeine was pushing my blood pressure through the roof. So about a week after I found out that Krissy was gone I just stopped going. I keep a couple of Mt. Dews in the company fridge, and that gets me through the day."

Bill Ott echoed Hawke's reasons. " I was driving twenty minutes, three or four times a day, clear across town to pay for coffee when I have it for free right here at work. Cream and sugar too. Between Krissy leaving and gas prices rising the way they are, it's not worth the hassle.”

Bell, 22, a self-described “flirty, people-person”, had previously been employed at Scoopy's Ice Cream Stand, located next to the Ben Franklin Craft Store. Bruce Surhoff, owner of Scoopy’s, remembers her as a hard worker who seemed to have a natural rapport with the customers.

"She was always there with a friendly smile for the customers and a pleasant laugh. She was a hard worker too, I remember after she graduated from high school in 2002 she was at the stand almost every day, open to close, trying to earn money for college."

“The only criticism I remember having was her inability to follow company dress code. Especially with the company shirt. The sleeves would be rolled up, the bottom would be tied in a knot and she always had at least the top three buttons opened. The managers agreed something had to be done, but I don’t know if they ever met with her.”

Bell worked at Scoopy's from the summer of 1999 through 2003. During that time the small ice cream stand saw record traffic and profits, especially in '02.

"We called it 'The Steady Stream Summer'," said Bill Surhoff, former Scoopy's shift manager. "We’d open at 11 a.m. and there were at least three guys in line till we would close at 10 p.m. My dad thinks it’s because of that was the summer we created Mega-Shakes, maybe, but the week Krissy went on vacation we barely broke even, understand?"

Indeed, the first Krissy-less summer was almost the end for Scoopy's Ice Cream Stand. Plummeting sales figures lead to the stand closing three weeks before Labor Day weekend, for the first time since 1944. By 2005 numbers were not only back to where they had been previously but had exceeded records set in '99 and '00.

"’04 was tough,” remembers Surhoff. "But then Kassie Bell started in ’05 and she’s even more personable than her sister. Like a full cup more personable."

Since leaving Starbucks, Bell has started working at the local Timberlodge where reservations have spiked 240%. Manager Kurt Fitzpatrick attributes it to "the good food and family atmosphere that is synonymous with the Timberlodge name."