After eight years of successful business, Sandy and Trish Toomer, owners of Toomer's Coffee Company, have decided it's best to part ways with their retail shop.
The couple has instead chosen to focus on expanding their wholesale and roasting operations.
"We're looking at this point of our life," Trish said. "How do we want to spend the next 15-20 years? Do we want to be tied down to a retail location, or do I want to be a little freer to do some things that really my heart is pulling towards?"
Toomer's sells beans to coffee shops across the U.S., including five in Alabama. Because of the high demand for Toomer's beans, Sandy has spent more time roasting and less in the retail shop.
"I haven't been there one day this week," he said. "I used to work here every day in the mornings in the shop, but what we've found is I can't. Our roasting has taken on such a critical mass to the point that it's like every day we're getting these big orders of coffee."
As a result, Trish has been left running the storefront.
"Retail is very time consuming." Sandy said. "It's six days a week, 12-14 hours a day. She's left here all the time with the shop."
The Toomers opened in Opelika in August 2004, but moved their coffee shop a year later to its current location at 1100 S. College St.
"We built the shop ourselves, so there's a lot of memories," Trish said.
Before opening Toomer's Coffee, the couple trained at Moody Aviation from 1990-93 and later volunteered at Mission Aviation Fellowship, where Trish served as hospitality coordinator.
"One of my main areas of responsibility was to handle all of the in-country arrangements for work teams that would come down," Trish said.
Sandy was a missionary pilot and transported coffee beans from a rural city in Ecuador.
"I'd fly out, load 1000 pounds of coffee on, fly it back, we'd unload it and fly back out," Sandy said. "I'd do like five flights a day until I got all of their coffee in. About two weeks later I'd come back and pick up more."
After nearly a decade of serving customers, the Toomers are ready to enjoy some extra free time and embark on new challenges.
"There are some other things I'd like to do within our church, within the community and with family that I can do once I'm able to transition out of the retail," Trish said. "It just seems like the right time. We always kind of knew when the time would be."
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