The Hostile Takeover of a Downtown Tradition

For Generations, Shakespeare's Pizza (www.shakespeares.com) has been a Columbia favorite of college students and professors as well as families and teens. When I was a child growing up in rural Missouri, no visit to the city was complete without a stop at Shakepeare's where dreadlocked cooks would throw balls of dough to eager children while they waited on their pizza, made with the best ingredients in town. At night, "Shake's" bar area transforms into a gathering of patrons and off work employees where people can be seen doing anything from downing drink specials and playing spades to studying. There is even a wall depicting people wearing Shakespeare's shirts in different locations all over the world. But local pizza lovers may have noticed a sinister change in the air of their favorite hangout. A former district manager of Applebee's was brought in to make some changes and increase profits, but who is paying the price?

Not only have some fresh ingredients been substituted for frozen, but long-time employees who see the restaurant as a second home of sorts are being ousted. Their bar-shifts have been taken away and loyal managers recieved pay cuts. They even tried unsuccessfully to implement a rule that employees could not drink at the bar after their shifts. Doesn't it say something good about an establishment when even the people who work there want to be there even when they aren't getting paid? You can't manufacture the quaint, charming environment of a business where staff enjoys what they do and customers feel at home. Many employees, disgusted with the changes have decided to find new jobs. Chains like Applebee's call themselves a neighborhood bar and decorate with local sports themes, but they can't compete with the real thing. Shakespeare's is the real thing, but it may not last much longer.

In the last week, the new owner decided to fire their main three bartenders who had all been there for over 5 years, and do away with employee discounts. What he may not realize is that probably seventy-five percent (if not more) of the regular bar crowd are friends with at least one employee. When they start treating their employees expendably, the patronage will definitely shift. It's just extremely unfortunate that someone could be money hungry enough to turn away people who have been coming to the establishment long enough to feel like it is a second home.

Now, most of the long time managers are busy looking for other jobs, even if they have not put in their notice yet. It is frustrating to think that most of the public will keep coming to this building and spending their money with no idea that the heart and soul of the restaurant has been ripped out and crushed into the ground by one who is more interested in profits than preserving a tradition and treating loyal employees the way they should be treated.

It seems that this story is just one example of the way our society has gotten away from the little mom and pop stores and one-of-a-kind college town hangouts and is shifting to big business and people who will sacrifice anything to make a buck. The question is, are we too far gone to ever go back to the small business economy? Who knows, but for each Starbucks and Wal-mart that opens, we should stop and think a bit about all the little places that are forced to change or sell out in order to compete.