Aspire CU Brews up Partnership with Local Coffee House

​To support a local business, this credit union provided a creative solution during the transition to their shop’s new permanent home.  

When With Room Coffee, which had just celebrated their fourth birthday in their downtown Minot location, found themselves looking for a new home, Aspire Credit Union thought, “How can we help?”

Also being local, Aspire wanted to support them and provide a creative solution for their needs, with the goal of keeping the business open as they transitioned out of their brick-and-mortar building to a new permanent home. After a handful of messages, emails, and meetings, the two organizations came up with a plan. On Labor Day, With Room Coffee opened a pop-up shop inside the credit union.

“A coffee shop and its operation are outside the scope of what we normally do in a financial, but we wanted to figure out a way to help,” stated Mindee Kohlman, CEO of Aspire Credit Union. “When we looked around, we thought, we have the space, so let’s see if we can make it work.”

Throughout conversations, the two service providers looked at all the locations inside the building that they thought would work, but when the With Room Coffee team saw the garage, they knew that was their spot.

“Of all the places we looked at, the garage was not where we thought they would end up,” Kohlman continued. “However, the With Room Coffee team had an immediate vision, and knowing this was a temporary solution, they were willing to get creative. In working with the With Room Coffee team, we learned many of their customers order ahead, stop in, and pick up their orders. The pop-up in the garage allows their customers to get their coffee delivered through their window and go on their way through our teller line. As a credit union, we looked at traffic, and numbers to be sure that this plan was not going to hinder our customer service, or traffic flow patterns, or our mission as an organization. For the next few months, we are pleased to do what we can to make it work.”
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Rebecca Alvarez, owner of With Room Coffee remarked, “We are excited to be at Aspire Credit Union. We were determined to keep our staff employed during this transition and with this partnership, we have been able to do that.”

You can find With Room Coffee on social media, where they are frequently updating their hours.
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Aspire Credit Union, formerly Prairie Federal Credit Union, has served the Minot area communities since 1937. A non-profit, member-owned financial institution, Aspire Credit Union strives to provide the best service, products, and rates possible to meet its member’s needs. Aspire Credit Union is a community-chartered credit union serving Bottineau, McHenry, McLean, Mountrail, Renville, and Ward Counties.