which -ism?

outside. hot coffee. cool breeze. first hour of the day was the kid dancing to ‘bluey chattermax on repeat’ at 5:33 AM. So, navigated through that, luckily got attacked by the hug machine, and then finally walked out the door and through downtown to get to place that partially instigated this whole fillyourcup.co thing.

Oh, wait, let me back up.

6:22 AM - Caribou Coffee

Part of me feels like a traitor the 2 times I have come here since January. But, this is currently the only place that I can walk to at 6AM to get a coffee and sit and write without ordering an entire overpriced meal, and feeling like I need to leave as soon as I finish my last sip. Plus, it isn’t like we’ve gone cold turkey on Amazon either. So that gives another part of me just enough of an excuse to sit at the enemy.

To be fair, Susan here isn’t my enemy. She is a fellow human in the world. She’s lovely. And, Caribou Coffee isn’t really my enemy either. (Especially not in the corporate competitive landscape sense.) The enemy is the system – the version of society we have built through centuries of inbreeding our colonial, extractive, patriarchal tendencies into our current religion of capitalism.

-Ism is that derivational suffix we tac on to beliefs, ideologies, movements, pathologies, and prejudices. So what is the religion of capitalism? What are it’s core beliefs? Who is its god or founder or cause? Capital. Whatever it takes to have more capital. Whatever isn’t for it is against it. Capital is better than all else. Everyone in service of capital. All hail capital.

And, in Caribou’s case, capital won. Private equity won. This isn’t Susan’s coffee shop. It is JAB Holding Company’s coffee shop. Yes, the german JAB Holding Company that was founded by committed Nazis.

Obviously (is that too generous?) the current generation of (very private and non-political) owners distance themselves from their Hitler loving forced labor beginnings and denounce being Nazis anymore. But, the capital? What are they supposed to do with the $70B in assets? Just denounce the money too? Other than capitalism, what could they possibly choose to believe in instead that would help them decide how to manage:

• Stumptown Coffee — specialty coffee roaster
• Espresso House — Scandinavian coffee chain
• Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea — specialty coffee
• Panera Bread — bakery-café chain
• Einstein Bros. Bagels — bagel chain
• Bruegger’s Bagels — bagel chain
• Caribou Coffee — coffee chain
• Pret A Manger — sandwich & coffee chain
• Krispy Kreme — doughnut chain
• Coty — global beauty company (CoverGirl, Max Factor, OPI, etc.)
• Wella Company — hair care and professional beauty
• Compassion-First Pet Hospitals — veterinary hospital network
• National Veterinary Associates (NVA) — veterinary services platform
• Independence Pet Holdings — pet insurance
• Embrace Pet Insurance — pet insurance
• Pumpkin — pet insurance
• Healthy Paws Pet Insurance (policy portfolio acquired Jan 2025)
• Prosperity Life Insurance Group (acquired mid-2025)
• Columbian Financial Group / Columbian Mutual Life Insurance (acquired Nov 2025)
• Utmost Life & Pensions (investment made Dec 2025)
• Gardyn — indoor gardening technology (Series A)
• Trade Coffee — online coffee subscription

But, I digress. The point is, our little local Caribou is not little and is not local.

Which brings us to January 2026, when unidentified masked ICE agents were invading my neighbors here in Minnesota in force, acting recklessly, breaking laws, and murdering innocent citizens. It was during this horrific experience that hundreds and thousands of businesses owners leveraged their private property rights, and 4th amendment rights, and put up signage clarifying that federal agents without signed warrants are not allowed to enter their property.

But Susan’s Caribou coffee, Minnesota’s local darling coffee shop, were all sent a memo insisting that their job, if they would like to keep it, was to welcome in and serve ICE agents.

That week, a tiny little seed was planted in my soul.

We need places where people can get a coffee, sit in a cozy little corner and write, or chat, or organize, or read, or dream, or imagine a new business. A place that doesn’t require an expensive meal, that doesn’t pressure people to finish up and get out and turn the table to extract more profits to fatten the multiple to sell out to PE to be extracted for every last drop of capital.

Which means me and my neighbors need to own the place. We need to create the spaces we want to share. We need to make it self sustaining, sure. We want it to provide a good living for the people who run it, absolutely. But, we don’t have to extract every ounce of value. We don’t have to make the capital our -ism. We can make belonging our -ism.