Is The Daily Planet Coffee Company In North Buffalo Closing?

It's a popular coffee stop that has been a staple on Hertel since 2014, but now it's looking like it might be in danger of closing.

According to their website, the Daily Planet Cafe at 1862 Hertel Ave opened up with the goal of making people happy, making good friends, making good coffee, and doing something nice for the planet, daily.

It's a nice plan, but sadly because of the pandemic, they lost a lot of people walking through their doors.  They've been struggling.  According to Spectrum News, they lost about 80% of their customer base in March of 2020 (when the pandemic started).  Now, they're struggling to make payments to the building owner who is looking to have them evicted.

This company who has its roots in making their planet and their community better is now reaching out to the community to ask for help.

"I thought if the community reaches out and says something, just bear with us a minute while we get going, because we did make a good faith payment, that maybe he would see this as a temporary issue that was beyond our control in many ways." - Michael Caputi, owner of The Daily Planet Cafe.

We see so many instances of Bills fans making donations to out of town causes to make a point, and it's great.  But this could be a critical turning point for yet another small business here in Buffalo.  It can be the moment where a community comes together and shows this business that it means a lot to them and they support it.  Or, it could be another small business that cannot weather the storm of this pandemic.  Time will tell....