The CBD coffee shop Pulp and Grind is facing an uncertain future after the entire staff walked out in solidarity with a general manager that they believed had been unfairly terminated. According to a newsletter sent to P&G regulars that was later shared on Facebook and Reddit, the staff of the shop all quit in protest on July 15 following the firing of long-time general manager LaShaun Crawford.
“Yesterday, the bakers, juicer, and baristas walked out of Pulp and Grind after witnessing Peter and Cassi Dymond escorting LaShaun Crawford out of her shop,” manager Megan Kosmoski explained in the letter.
While details are scarce, Kosmoski said that Crawford was “screamed at” and “had the police called on her” by P&G owners Peter and Cassi Dymond.
“The abuses I have seen LaShaun suffer over the past year will not allow me to work at P&G any longer nor will I patronize Satsuma or any other ventures of the parent company,” Kosmoski wrote.
In a post to Facebook, Kosmoski added that the staff “will not be returning” and the CBD shop remains closed as of press time.
UPDATE: Very Local spoke with Kosmoski about her recollection of events. She explained both what she saw as the reasoning behind Crawford’s termination and the sense of community at the shop that led her to publicize the staff walkout.
Kosmoski said that the staff had noticed “weird tensions” between Crawford and the Dymonds leading up to the walkout. She noted that Crawford opened the shop as their general manager and said that, after 3 years of working to build up the community coffee shop, had expressed interest in purchasing it from them.
“The day of we had had a conversation about her feeling torn in the shop,” she said. “It was obvious to me that a lot of things had been weighing on her emotionally, with the owners and with the shop. It’s hard when you put all this work into something and you don’t have any certainty that it’s yours.”
While the termination of Crawford did appear sudden to all of the people in the shop, Kosmoski made a point to note that a locksmith had come by to change the locks earlier in the week. While the timeline of Crawford’s firing is uncertain, Kosmoski said that there was no question Crawford wanted to buy Pulp and Grind.
Kosmoski said that when the Dymonds met with Crawford on Sunday, they pointed out three instances of “misjournaling” on Pulp and Grind’s books. She said that the owners cited this as a reason that they “could no longer trust” Crawford. As Kosmoski tells it, when the Dymonds asked for Crawford’s keys, she declined.
“She felt like the thing that she had built was going to die,” Kosmoski offered as an explanation.
The ensuing argument lead to the police being called. Before they could arrive, however, LaShaun and the rest of the staff had walked out.
As for why she wrote the letter that brought attention to the staff walkout, Kosmoski said that the community around the shop was her motivator.
“I had regulars who would come to the shop to tell us they got engaged. They’d come in to cry about being fired. They’d dip in because they just saw their ex and needed somewhere to hide. I loved it when people told me they were quitting a job. They go so excited,” she said.
Given how open the regulars of the shop were with her, she couldn’t bear them not knowing that the driving force behind the shop was gone.
“I wasn’t going to be there to tell them what had happened,” she said. “I wasn’t going to be able to say goodbye.”
As for Crawford herself, she declined to comment on the advise of her lawyer when reached by Very Local. We were unable to reach the Dymonds for comment but they have said elsewhere that they had cause to terminate Crawford’s employment. They plan to re-open the shop next week.
