Friday May 26, 2023 | COLWOOD, BC [Updated 11:35 am]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
As a small independent business operation, Sequoia Coffee in Royal Bay has made a first-level impact as part of the brand new community being built in the Royal Bay area of Colwood.
Set up in a sea-canister under a lease with the developer GableCraft Homes, Sequoia Coffee opened in November 2020 when many people were still thinking of Royal Bay as ‘the gravel pit’ area.
The casual coffee outlet helped support the construction worker sector during the earliest stages of Royal Bay development and was a grounding for the brand new community to find some social roots.
Now that a major retail mall is opening up — including Quality Foods and Casadia Liquor opening yesterday with a grand opening bash — the word is that Starbucks will be the next coffee shop provider for the fast-growing community. That decision is up to the developer. It sounds like, in that case, the lease with Sequoia Coffee won’t be renewed.
But Sequoia owner Sam Jones doesn’t see that as a negative. He feels his company’s mission to be part of establishing a new community has been fulfilled in positive ways.
Sequoia Coffee is one of four coffee outlets operated by Sam Jones of 2% Jazz Coffee.
The other three outlets in the Greater Victoria region are located one each at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria’s downtown core, in a small mall at 740 Hillside Avenue in Victoria, and one out on Keating X Rd in Saanichton where coffee bean roasting is also done.
Jones sounds like he was the right fit for the startup phase. He enjoys operating a small business without the goal to become massively corporate and chase every dollar.
Small business is an economic driver across Canada, but largely still remains misunderstood as to how in many ways it different from large corporate enterprise.
Last month Jones hosted BC Labour Minister Harry Bains and Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation Brenda Bailey at his shop on Hillside (for their minimum wage increase announcement), at the time commenting on respect for workers including fair wages.
===== ABOUT ISLAND SOCIAL TRENDS:
Island Social Trends (formerly West Shore Voice News) covers news of the west shore community of Greater Victoria, as well as south Vancouver Island and BC issues. The office has been based in Langford since 2017.
Island Social Trends Editor Mary P Brooke has been covering news of the west shore region through a socioeconomic lens since 2008, as founder and editor of MapleLine Magazine (2008-2010), Sooke Voice News (2011-2013), West Shore Voice News (2014-2020), and Island Social Trends (2020 to present).
Ms Brooke now also reports with the BC Legislative Press Gallery.
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