A Phoenix coffee company is losing up to 40 percent of its business because someone found their name offensive.
Graveyard Shift Coffee has been selling its brews to healthcare workers at area hospitals for more than three years. The company is aimed at late-shift and overnight staff, like nurses.
“The graveyard shift, hence the name and the logo with the skeleton and the scrubs,” Tyler Tremaine, the company’s co-owner, told AZFamily.
The idea for a coffee trailer serving late-night workers came from Tyler’s father, Michael, who worked as a first responder and knew what it meant to work long overnight hours. Tyler is a co-owner now, and his sister, Sierra, works at the company as a barista.
For the last two years, the family coffee company has set up their trailer at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix every Monday and Friday.
That has now stopped, and all because someone didn’t like their logo.
“Effective immediately they cancelled all of our bookings,” Tyler told the broadcaster. “Like that. One phone call.”
When he asked why his company’s bookings were being cancelled, he was told that “our name and logo was offensive.”
The logo for the company is a skeleton in scrubs — with a stethoscope draped over its neck — holding a steaming cup of coffee.
Tyler said the skeleton and the word “graveyard” were reportedly the objectionable parts of his company’s name and logo.
“[It has] been the same for three and a half years, never been an issue before at any other hospital,” he told the broadcaster.
Sierra explained to the outlet the entire point of the logo and name was to empathize with the healthcare workers, saying “we’re trying to portray how the workers feel.”
“We don’t have any bad intention with the name or the logo. We just wanted the night-shift workers to feel seen,” she said.
They were removed from the hospital’s vendor roster after a single person complained, she claimed.
The small company has a very specific niche, and without having access to the hospitals — where overnight workers are gathered and abundant — Tyler is worried that one person’s sensitivities will tank the coffee company.
“All we want to do is pay our bills and put a smile on people’s faces,” he told AZFamily.
He has also offered to cover up the name and logo, but claims they were never given the option before being barred from the hospital.
“If it is so offensive I would even be willing to put a banner or a different logo over ours, but we weren’t even given that option,” he said.
Healthcare workers at other area hospitals will still be able to get a cup of Graveyard Shift Coffee, and the owners are looking to reach new customers.
The Independent has requested comment from the Mayo Clinic.
