SPRINGDALE, Ark. — Trailside Coffee Company closed its doors on Saturday, June 29, after being in downtown Springdale for eight years.
"I'm having to close my doors," Trailside's owner Katie Schneider said through tears. "That's the worst that could happen to me."
Schneider said she has fought hard to remain open.
"I'm still speaking out, and I'm still sticking up for myself because this is not gonna change," she said.
As a Springdale native, Schneider says opening her business in her hometown was extremely important to her. Now, eight years later, she made the difficult decision to forego the downtown shop and continue business only through her mobile trailer.
"It breaks my heart," she said.
Schneider says she has seen the city grow tremendously over the years. While the growth is great for the city, she says it hasn’t always been easy for the coffee shop.
"I've been kind of struggling with the city's decisions the last few years, with them bringing food trucks down here and putting coffee trailers in front of my business has really hurt me," Schneider said.
Schneider adds that she's seen other businesses affected by the city's master plan to revitalize the downtown area. The city's website says the work on improvements could last up to seven years since it began in 2022.
"We've lost six businesses down here in the last couple of years due to just the construction," Schneider said.
Springdale Mayor Doug Sprouse says keeping local businesses happy can be a challenge.
"We do everything we possibly can to help accommodate our businesses and help keep them accessible for people and for their customers," Sprouse said. "But it's still tough."
Sprouse says the construction is reworking existing streets, upgrading water and sewage, and developing other projects.
Schneider says she has reached out to the city with no success.
"We’ve gone to the committee meetings about it, and we just haven't really seen any improvement or any help in that way," she said.
However, Sprouse said the city is willing to listen to businesses to see what they can do to help.
"If you know of something we can do to help that we're not doing, we're happy to listen to you and try and do anything we can to help," he said.
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