7 Brew to open in October provides job opportunities

Kirksville’s new 7 Brew was placed in front of the Walmart on Baltimore Aug. 25. The 7 Brew offers flexible schedules for young workers and new coffee flavors for customers.

7 Brew will officially open Oct. 5. Training for “brewistas” starts in the middle of September.

So far, the 7 Brew has hired 75 new people, many of which are Truman State University students.

One sophomore and new hire Haydyn Campbell said the new team will hand out coffee Sept. 18, 21-24 and 25-27. The team’s goal is to hand out 50,000 free coffees to people and nearby businesses.

The Kirksville 7 Brew staff will hand out the coffees while staff members from other 7 Brew locations will make the drinks.

Campbell said this is part of the team’s training.

“7 Brew is a spot where I knew they would be really flexible with me, and I thought it was really intriguing,” Campbell said.

Campbell used to work at a Dunkin’ Donuts and said she is used to the coffee shop environment.

Campbell said the placement of the 7 Brew in the middle of town is a good idea. She also said she thinks 7 Brew will be busier than the other coffee shops in town for a while after it opens.

A new Starbucks opened across the street from the 7 Brew location in February. There is also a Scooters, a local coffee shop called The Gathering Grounds and two other Starbucks locations in town.

7 Brew is designed to be a fast and friendly drive-thru experience according to their website.

“I definitely think it’s going to be a more fun experience for the customers due to the customer versus employee interactions,” Campbell said.

A Truman graduate and current brewista, Emma Mathews, agreed that the 7 Brew would be popular. Mathews has worked at a 7 Brew in Columbia since February.

Mathews said 7 Brew offers more options than the existing shops in Kirksville.

“It’ll be a good addition to Kirksville to have something for people that don’t want to sit at The Gathering Grounds or maybe don’t love Starbucks,” Mathews said.

7 Brew’s menu is popular for their iced coffee flavors, but they also have energy drinks, lemonades, smoothies, matcha and other drink options.

7 Brew offers an online menu rather than a physical one. The company announced their own app where customers can view the menu or order ahead Aug. 5.

“There’s a lot of sugar free options,” Mathews said. “I know there’s a lot of older people who love sugar free options at the stand I work at.”

Sophomore Gavin Ralston said he enjoys 7 Brew’s energy drinks as a treat. Ralston said he didn’t try energy drinks until he was 16, and the first one he tried was an energy drink from 7 Brew.

Ralston said 7 Brew’s energy drinks are the only caffeinated drinks he enjoys.

Ralston said him and his friends traveled to Columbia around six times last semester to visit 7 Brew.

“Me and [my friend] were feigning over 7 Brew, like, three weeks [with] no 7 Brew in sight,” Ralston said. “I was struggling. I [looked] at her and I was like, ‘The closest one’s in Columbia.’”

Rumors of a 7 Brew coming to Kirksville started over the summer. This mostly took place on social media such as in local Facebook groups.

Ralston said someone reached out to him on Instagram about the new 7 Brew because they knew he was a “7 Brew fiend.”

Campbell said her family in Kirksville told her about the rumors because they knew she was looking for a job. Campbell said she didn’t believe them until she saw the building.

“As soon as I saw the actual building and heard that it was dropped off, I was like, ‘I’m immediately applying because it’s so hard to get a job in Kirksville with being a college student,’” Campbell said.

Like Campbell, Mathews enjoys 7 Brew’s job flexibility. She said she wished there was a 7 Brew in Kirksville when she was a student.

“It’s a good job to have,” Mathews said. “It’s very flexible. You can work nights, you can work in the morning and you can work around your classes.”

Mathews said 7 Brew is known for its very fun and upbeat culture. She said the job is very fast paced and the employees are very energetic, partly due to the caffeine.

Mathews said 7 Brew organizes drink launches and merch days at new locations where people can pick up free drinks or 7 Brew themed merchandise. Mathews will be visiting from Columbia to help with these events.

Sept. 29 is National Coffee Day, so every 7 Brew location is planning to hand out free stickers.