The Vietnamese coffee shop Café Ca Phê, in Kansas City’s Columbus Park neighborhood, is bustling on a chilly Friday morning, days away from Thanksgiving.
A steady stream of customers walks through the front doors for the cafe’s signature drinks. Patrons lounge around tables, at bar seating by the windows and on couches.
The busyness is a good sign for the coffee shop. For many small businesses and local artists, the last two months of the year are critical, as higher sales driven by holiday gift-giving can help shore up the ledger.
“The holidays are our best times. People are really cheerful and supportive, and they buy a lot of artwork for the holidays,” said owner Jackie Nguyen. “People love coffee during the holidays, and they love the feeling of being in a coffee shop.”
In a year when scores of small restaurants, cafes, and shops — including Café Ca Phê — have been hit by vandalism and break-ins, owners say shopping at local businesses is crucial.
“With so many break-ins and lots of incidents happening, especially with small businesses, that can really put a business behind a few thousand dollars,” Nguyen said, noting costs like replacing a door or window and lost wages for employees who can’t work because the business has to close for repair.
“I definitely feel like there's a lot of weight, because if this holiday season isn't lucrative for us, it really sets us behind for the next year,” Nguyen said. “A lot of small businesses really rely on the holiday season for the next quarter because, when January comes, a lot of people cut back.”
Kansas City has seen a spike in property crimes in recent years. From 2019 to 2023, property crimes increased by 31% according to annual data from the Kansas City Police Department. Much of that spike is driven by car thefts. In 2023, there were 2,757 reported burglaries and break-ins in Kansas City, slightly fewer than in 2022.
“It feels hard to have hope, it feels very difficult to want to continue,” Nguyen said.
Election night vandalism
Nguyen first learned about the election night break-in the next morning, when a manager arrived to open the shop for the day and found someone had vandalized Café Ca Phê by repeatedly throwing rocks at the front door.
The manager immediately reported the incident with the Kansas City Police Department. Then Nguyen had to figure out other logistics: cleaning up broken glass, replacing the damaged front door and reviewing security camera footage.
The coffee shop, in its third year of operation, opened later that day.
“It was very overwhelming and, to be honest, I haven't fully, even processed it still,” Nguyen said. “But it was really hard and shocking and scary.”
It was not the first break-in incident for Café Ca Phê. In May 2023, a suspect broke into the shop and stole the register. And before the brick and mortar shop opened, someone broke into Café Ca Phê’s mobile coffee trailer, Nguyen said.
The Kansas City Police Department said they arrested a suspect in connection with the election night vandalism, and they don’t believe the incident is a hate crime.
After the latest incident, Nguyen applied for a grant from Kansas City’s new Back to Business Fund, which officials established in October in response to the string of break-ins impacting local businesses.
The $325,000 fund provides a business up to $3,000 to help recover from a break-in, and up to $5,000 to increase security and prevent a future break-in. This city did not provide updated numbers on how many businesses have applied but, before the applications launched, officials said 184 owners had already expressed interest. The city is still accepting applications.
‘The lifeblood of the local economy’
The nonprofit 816 Bike Collective in Midtown also experienced a break-in earlier this month. It was the first at the shop, on the corner of Cherry and 31st streets.
“It was startling,” said volunteer Ian Smart, “but we were able to get it fixed really quick.”
Volunteers used an old door in the shop to promptly replace the damaged one.
“It didn't impact our mission or operations at all, so it was more like a black eye,” Smart said. “There was an outpouring of support from our community. … It was really nice to see everyone come together and just support us and just allow us to keep going.”
The incident took place days before the nonprofit’s annual fundraiser — it is Kansas City’s only entirely volunteer-run and donations-based community bike shop. The critical event, which the group calls the “fund-RAGER,” allows 816 Bike to raise money and keep the shop running during a slow wintertime. Smart said this year’s fundraiser was the most successful one since he started volunteering in 2021.
“I think it's really important to support your small businesses in general,” said volunteer Sean O’Brien, busy fixing bikes at the shop on a Saturday afternoon in November. “The thing to think about is that we are the lifeblood of the local commerce. Everything that you buy at a local store is going to stay in your community.”
‘Make or break the rest of the year’
The holiday season is also crucial for artists and makers who don’t have a storefront, and who rely on markets to sell their work.
“It literally can make or break the whole rest of the year,” said Katie Mabry Van Dieren, owner and founder of The Strawberry Swing, a monthly pop-up market that has included local artists since 2011.
“Especially for us, we have really slow January and February, and so many of the makers are planning to recoup what they're going to need to pay their rent and their car payments and their mortgages for the next three months,” she said. “Because shopping slows down a lot right after Christmas.”
To do that, Mabry Van Dieren helps organize the annual Holiday Swing market every weekend starting Nov. 30 at the J. Rieger and Co. distillery.
She also runs Shop Local KC storefronts inside Crown Center and in Brookside, where customers can find local goods, including Chiefs merchandise, jewelry and Taylor Swift-themed gifts.
Brookside was one Kansas City area hit particularly hard by property crimes and, while the Shop Local KC location was not impacted this year by a break-in, a former location in Midtown was robbed in 2022.
Mabry Van Dieren said it’s been heartwarming to see Kansas Citians come together and support small businesses after a break-in.
“I may spend $10 and donate to a GoFundMe for Café Ca Phê and then 90 other people are doing that, and then that helps them fix their door, pay their employees, and maybe even give them a little extra for the holiday,” she said. “I think us as a community is what's saving all of this.”
