If the people of Camden, NJ, want to get a coffee and a muffin, and a drug test, and their taxes and financial planning done, and have a paternity test, and maybe get their cluttered rental property cleared out, they can do it all with one visit to the same small coffee shop.
The Wall Street Journal profiles the all-in-one store, which takes advantage of its proximity to City Hall and the courthouse.
One fire inspector tells the Journal he was lured into the place by its green tea but now gets his financial planning done there.
“A lot of the law-enforcement folks and the court folks do the same thing,” he says, “and so do the people in the system who are trying to get their lives together.”
“Lawyers are always coming in here to ask me to put in a good word with judge so-and-so, or asking me to introduce them to someone from the other side,” says the shop’s operations director. “We did about 300 tax returns this season. I do the DNA swabs and the drug testings. I’m one of the only notaries around and I am always marketing the businesses… But I also make a perfect latte.”
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Strange, but interesting.
Do they sell spatulas? This might be enough to take my business from Spatula City.
Can’t beat spatula city’s deals, though. get 9, get the 10th for a penny, is an AWESOME deal.
But Spatula City sells spatulas, and that’s all! You’re going to make a powerful enemy in Cy Greenblum.
I love this kind of thing. I live in a place where there are a lot of merchants sharing the same space to make rent more affordable . Downtown we have a firearms dealer/travel agent. In a town about an hour away, one storefront houses gourmet food items (olive oils, spices, etc.), a coffee shop, business services (faxing, copying, etc.) and a vacation concierge service.
You don’t live in Jersey, then – we have no “firearms dealers” because the second amendment doesn’t apply here.
That’s definitely one way to cut down on gas expenses….you only have one stop.
Camden….
Come down to Ted’s Rob/Rape/Murder Emporium. Located conveniently next to the Police station.
Located on the prison grounds.
I wish the coffee shop in front of my courthouse had a notary and a copy machine in it.
Actually, I just really wish the courthouse had a coffee shop in front of it.
I doubt anyone in Camden wants to get a drug test.
I’ll bet his paternity test business is taking off though.
Unless they have low self-esteem – it’s the only test they’ll ever get a positive result on!
I want someone who is completely focused on the accuracy and
thoroughness of my tax return thank you. Geesh.
Her comment about revealing SSNs made me cringe with DUH!
But I’m a lifelong career IT person.
Otherwise I guess I’m okay with it.
Costco offers everything from condoms to caskets…
One hopes that they are meant to be used on separate projects.
Sounds like the hallmark of a low income area. No shop can stay open offering only one service/thing so they dabble in a bit of everything to turn a profit. Good for them for being able to stay open in freaken CAMDEN!
Last time I heard about a neighborhood grocery store opening in Camden. After a week, they had already had something like 16 armed robberies–4 or 5 of them on opening day! YAY CAMDEN! Beating Detroit one scumbag at a time!
The operation deserves to be nominated for an innovation award. Times are tough, and the owners are being creative. Very best of luck to them!
I can’t help but wonder if they’re actually good any any of these things. I can’t really imagine anyone that’d operate in this manner would be highly regarded in their field, whether it be a coffee slinger or an accountant.
It’s Camden. If you have a pulse, you are highly regarded.
Camden is one of the most peaceful areas in the country according to http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/05/newark_camden_among_most_peace.html.
I’m packing my stuff and getting out of Chicago and movin straight to Camden.
I read the article. What I understand is they’re counting the “Metro area” which includes Camden city and a lot of the surrounding suburb/towns. Growing up in one of those surrounding towns, it is amazing how all those towns around Camden kept the scum corralled in Camden. That crap just didn’t spread out. That said, the towns around Camden that are included here are very peaceful and there is almost no crime, so the crime numbers from Camden are diluted by the peaceful towns surrounding it.
I was joking. Surely you don’t think I believe Camden is a peaceful village, do you?
That’s interesting. In Japan, convenience stores operate in a similar fashion. You can pay all your bills and taxes there, book plane tickets, drop off laundry, send packages…I’d like to see more multipurpose places in the US. I don’t know about the DNA swabs though.
That’s too efficient. You’d be taking jobs away.
I’m all for small business, but I can also spot an agenda a mile away. Why would the WSJ bother with this you ask… Wait until you go into your local McDonald’s to see a ‘nurse practitioner’, who is also the pharmacist and lunch server. Your child can both get fat while sitting in class because there is no public education and he can work the morning shift, since he’s accrued so many bills already. Welcome to the no taxes agenda and I have no doubt few, if any people will get this… It’s called ‘advanced consumer reaction reporting’. Ugh. People will NOT buy what they do not know, so get used to it.
One smart business fella!!
This reminds me of an episode of Shark Tank, where these guys wanted an investment for their Legal Services/Coffee Shop. I think this is the business that did it: http://www.legalgrind.com/