KUALA LUMPUR: Like many small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Optimist Coffee has its own share of dealing with panic and anxiety.
When the decision to extend MCO until April 28 was announced, the coffee joint had to deal with another problem. What to do with the excess of ingredients such as milk and coffee beans?
Instead of letting those good ingredients go to waste, the cafe came up with a simple and yet effective solution.
Trev Ng Yen Lim, the founder and chief executive optimist (officer) of Optimist Coffee, quickly assembled his team and worked out the logistic to give out free coffee to the frontliners working at Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL).
“We realised we can’t sit and dwell in our problems anymore. So we focus on what we do best, which is spreading positivity through good coffee. We just wanted to show our appreciation and gratitude towards the HKL staff for their selfless commitment,” said the 31-year-old, who quit his office job seven years ago to pursue his dream as a full time barista.
Their effort was well-received and many of their customers asked how they could be a part of the initiative. This led to the cafe in starting a small initiative called “Spread Love, Not Virus” on their social media.
The plan was to provide a platform for their customers who wished to help by donating coffee to the frontliners.
In just three days, the cafe managed to raise 265 cups of coffee donation, which were later delivered to the frontliners in HKL as well as police officers and army personnel manning the roadblocks within 10km radius from their store’s location in Ampang Park LRT station.
At the time of publication, the cafe has raised and served over 350 cups of coffee to the selfless frontliners. In the beginning, the cafe delivered the coffee on their own. Later, they appointed a delivery app to help with the delivery.
Following the cafe’s tradition, each cup of coffee comes with a handwritten note and a motivational quote stickers, in the hope of lifting the people’s mood during this crisis.
What started out as a way to show their gratitude towards the frontliners later became a source of inspiration for Ng and his team.
“In the end, we are the ones who are inspired by the kindness of our customers. As a business owner, it reminds me not look at the losses but focus on the gains and love we have gotten from our customers,” he said.
Apart from the thankful messages that he has received from the frontliners, one incident tugged at his heartstrings. “It involved one of the delivery guys that we engaged to help us with our delivery. When we first contacted him, he refused to pick up his calls. It wasn’t much later that we realised he was mute. He did not let his disability to get in the way, so we communicate via text messages.
He did such a great job that we appointed him to be our special delivery guy the next day, so that he could earn more. At the end of the second day, he refused to take the delivery fare from us other than what he was paid the day before. But of course, we insisted to pay and another coffee treat from us for being so kind,” he added.
Losses were evident during this tough time but Ng was determined not to let it affect his business value.
“It’s a tough time for businesses. We are making loses for two months but we focus on what we can do, not what we cannot. I believe things will surely get better after this. We will continue to spread positivity through good coffee for as long as we can,” he said.
Optimist Coffee was founded in 2014, operating from a small store in Ampang Park LRT station. Presently, they also operate from two more locations in Kerinchi LRT station and Lot10 Bukit Bintang. However, due to MCO, only Ampang Park outlet remains open, with limited business hours.