There is a word businesses love to use.
Community.
You see it everywhere.
Community-focused. Community-minded. Proud to support our community.
And sometimes, it means something.
Sometimes it is just something that looks good on a sign.
At The Nest, we want it to mean something.
Kindness isn’t supposed to be a promotion. It isn’t something we turn on for a weekend because there is a good photo opportunity attached to it. It isn’t a line in a marketing plan.
It is supposed to be part of how we operate.
That doesn’t always mean writing a cheque or making some enormous gesture.
Most of the time, kindness is much smaller than that.
It’s giving someone a little extra patience when they’re having a bad day.
It’s helping a local fundraiser when you can.
It’s supporting another small business.
It’s remembering someone’s order.
It’s making sure someone feels comfortable walking through the door, regardless of who they are, what they look like, or what kind of day they’ve had.
It’s realizing that sometimes a cup of coffee is just a cup of coffee.
And sometimes it is the excuse someone needed to get out of the house, talk to another human being, or sit somewhere they feel welcome.
We’re still a business.
We have bills to pay, employees to pay, suppliers to pay, and all of the same pressures every small business faces.
Kindness doesn’t make those things disappear.
But we don’t believe being a good business and being a good neighbour are competing ideas.
In fact, we think they should be the same thing.
The people who walk through our doors allow The Nest to exist.
So when we have the opportunity to give something back — whether that’s money, time, space, attention or simply a little kindness — we believe we should.
Will we always get it right?
Absolutely not.
We’re human.
We’ll make mistakes. We’ll have bad days. Sometimes we’ll have to say no.
But the goal stays the same.
Leave things a little better than we found them.
Leave people a little happier than when they walked in.
And build a business that our community is better for having in it.
That’s what kindness means to us.
Not a campaign.
Not a slogan.
Just how we think a neighbourhood café should behave.
Coffee. Ice Cream. Kindness. All in one Nest.