Tarot Bean
Reed’s professional work is focused on progressing the social relationships of Meadville, pursuing his ideas and goals locally and particular to the town (42, Habits of the Heartland). As his big picture aspirations look at Meadville as a whole (and long-term), he doesn’t focus on each individual consumer, but oversees groups of people and community as a whole, rather than its compartments. As he says, “The whole idea for Tarot Bean was we wanted to be a community space that was funded by a coffee shop”, it’s about nurturing the populace.
In Reed’s experience with piloting his business, Tarot Bean, in Meadville, he notes that there are many obstacles to overcome when opening up a small business:“There's a lot of... to keep it nice, a lot of the challenges come from the city itself. As much as they try to act like they are they do not actually really support small businesses opening up. There's a lot of things that are in place, a lot of regulations and stuff that really stop-- It almost stopped us right from the start because the costs to get permits for this, that, and the other and like, the exorbitant fees almost made it impossible to open”. Despite this financial discouragement, he stays true to his commitment in fabricating a social hangout for the town. Tarot was meant for the purpose of the town having a place to create connections with each other, strengthen organizations’ involvement, as well as just having a coffee shop to stop by. This, he says, is “...what keeps the doors open…[and] keeps the lights on…”. He further explains: “...Really the benefit to the community is the fact that this is supposed to be a community gathering space where things like Saturday night-- the open-mic which you were here for-- it was a fundraiser for the Neighborhood Center and Alec Chien, the Grand Leprechaun. They did not have to pay any sort of fee to do that, they didn't have to-- all they did was come in, say, "hey, we want to do this. Can we reserve the evening?" And I said, "Yes. We don't charge for that sort of thing." We have the Pen Writers Association.. there's multiple groups that come and meet here because we don't charge them to meet here”. Tarot Bean continues to find ways to engage citizens of Meadville with one another, and keeping up its love for serving warm beverages.
Click HERE to listen to Michael Reed's words on his business and the community.
