Alison's Cafe

Alison's cafe is a small family business that is being attacked by City Of Turlock. Alison's Cafe House opened on July 31, 2019. It is a Persian family-owned business. The family was new to the country and decided to take a risk and start an investment with nothing to their name. The owner of Alison Cafe house is Alison Mikhaeilian, she believed that even though they didn't know anything about a coffee shop that God would guide them.

At first, Alison's Cafe House wasn't doing the best due to how their cafe was hidden from the customer's eyes. Later on, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. They were already struggling and barely making $60 in a 15 hour opening period, and then the City of Turlock made them close the doors for 2 weeks to quarantine, the last thing they needed. 2 weeks later, using that time space, Alison's daughters started promoting their drinks on Facebook ``Turlock To Go” and created a very active Instagram page.

When Alison reopened her doors after losing an extra 2 weeks of business because of the City of Turlock, she saw her business was having more new customers. Customers started to acknowledge the business of Alison Cafe, her visitors started picking up incredibly, and she started to create a bond with first timers, everyday customers, and took everyone in as family, and not just her supporters who love her delicious cup of coffee. After growing her business with her family by her side, she put so much effort and hard work into it. Alison lost days of sleep trying to keep up with her family and how to improve her business and give the best for customers. She had held so much faith and knew this hard work would pay off.

4 months later Turlock Journal News announced that they would be adding a Dutch Bros right across from Stanislaus State, which shattered Alison, shocking her with fear knowing Turlock adding one more cafe with such a popular name will take away some of her regular customers. Alison continued to push and go above and beyond so customers could truly see how much the quality, love, and effort put into her business was so much different than Dutch Bros. Adding Dutch Bros did hurt the business, but they kept pushing. Not even 5 months of Dutch Bros beginning added to Turlock, Turlock Journal once again announced there would be adding their 10th Starbucks right across the street from Alison Cafe and another Dutch Bros Coffee right down the street from them. Both coffee shops are less than 2.2 miles apart. These were seen in Alison and her family's eyes like an attack by the City of Turlock. Alison had Good morning Sacramento come in for an interview about the unfortunate news. Alison said herself to Good day Sacramento: “How could Turlock do such a thing to their small business owners”.

Alison's family were shattered and scared. Was this going to be the end of their business? All that hard work, all the memories, all the relationships they created with their support. Not only was Alison and her family upset, angry, and confused on why any city would do this to a small business investing in their own town, but so were their customers. Alison's daughters were furious and would not take this disrespect anymore. They decided to create a petition and had confirmed it with the City of Turlock. Ninebra, Alison's oldest daughter, contacted the City of Turlock, asking  if they had 5,000 signatures supporting their initiative to not create these hurtful businesses close to us, would they agree to stop. The City of Turlock had no faith in the petition and said: “yes, we will stop the construction."

Alison's family was able to gain up 6,552 votes and signs on the petition to stop building a Starbucks and Dutch Bros. Alison's family felt like they won, that they had earned a victory against large corporations. They felt like something was finally in their hands and were able to give themself the support they needed. They proudly want to go give the petition to Turlock city, until they wouldn't believe what they did. Turlock went back on their word and did not stop construction. Nonetheless, Alison's Cafe House lives on. With faith and hard work, they will continue to succeed. Consider skipping Starbucks and Dutch Bros for your next coffee, and visit a good, small, local business like Alison's Cafe House instead.