Maria StuartCongressional candidate Mike Detmer, Livingston County’s favorite politician who refuses to wear a mask, says on Facebook that he has sworn off Biggby Coffee for good after being refused service for not wearing a mask.
We don’t know which Biggby’s pushed Detmer’s button, whether he was at a Biggby’s with drive-thru service, or even when the incident occurred. All we know is that Biggby Coffee is dead to Detmer.
At any rate, here’s Detmer’s post, which appeared on both his campaign and personal pages:
In addition to his post, there are a slew of interesting comments.
Detmer, who is running in the GOP primary to represent Michigan’s 8th Congressional District in Washington, first publicly showed his aversion to masks on April 15, when he took a selfie with a whole bunch of people all squashed together. None of the people in the photo bothered to put on a mask or practice social distancing as they took time out to pose for a photo before heading to Lansing for “Operation Gridlock” to protest Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-home order.
It was in that same photo that Detmer was with a person making a white-power hand sign, and in which a “Michigan Proud Boys” vehicle was parked. (For those of you unfamiliar with the Proud Boys, the group has been named a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and was involved in the “Unite The Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017.)
Detmer has sworn off the popular Michigan-based Biggby Coffee for life on the day that the latest numbers show COVID-19 cases for Livingston County residents under the age of 30 has spiked 30.2 percent since July 1, and numbers across Michigan are ticking upward.
There are 73,663 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Michigan, with 6,119 deaths. according to Michigan.gov. In Livingston County, there are 519 confirmed cases with the number of deaths holding steady at 28 since mid-June, according to the Livingston County Health Department.
East Lansing-based Biggby Coffee is a true Michigan entrepreneurial success story: Founded by two Michigan State University hospitality students, the first location opened on Grand River Avenue in East Lansing in 1995. The first location was such a success that the two opened a second location in downtown Lansing in 1997. A year later, they opened a corporate office in Lansing, and decided to franchise in 1998.
Originally founded as Beaner’s Coffee, the company rebranded the business as Biggby Coffee in 2007. In an announcement about the change, Biggby’s said: “As the company has grown from a single store to a regional chain, the need for a new name became evident amidst growing concerns over the use of the word ‘beaner’ as a disparaging term against Hispanic Americans.”
Today, Biggby Coffee has grown to 234 stores across Michigan, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Caroline, Wisconsin and Indiana.
One of the founders was inducted into MSU’s School of Hospitality Hall of Fame for her success with Biggby Coffee.
This post was updated to include information on the rebranding of Biggby Coffee.
Here we go more fake news from the “Slotkin Post.
Good for Detmer for walking the walk not just talking the talk. This is bad management on Bigsbys part. Why don’t they have masks ? Why didn’t the offer to bring him a coffee to his car ? How did management get so dumb. I dont blame the young lady who apologized. I blame the management who shoukd know better then to treat paying customers. Sorry Bigsby I am doe with you Tim Hortons and Baskin-Robbins are right next door..
As far as the photo. I was in the parking lot… no one there including me knew the guy flashing the ok sign. And I cant say about others, but I never heard of the proud boys until that day. I know there was nothing about them, that was alarming .. they behaived like normal people..caused no problems .. I disnt talk to any of them.
DETMER, did a wonderful job of debunking the fake news media smears and lies. Everyone I know fully understands the SPLC is funded by Soros and Bloomberg and has no credibility. DETMER also exposed the fact the government denies the Proud boys are a hate grouo of any kind. And showed flashing the OK sign isnt a racist signal but just a liberal hoax.
The “slotkin post” is bias fake news.. and the perfect example of whats wrong with the liberal media. This bias story is clearly a joke.
I WILL BE VOTING FOR DETMER.
SLOTKIN is a disgusting party hack… time to send the carpetbagger back to NY.
I think what people are forgetting is that any business can refuse service to anyone for any reason. ” We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.”
The author’s agenda is exposed by bringing a photo from 4 months ago that has nothing to do with Biggby refusing service to a candidate who wasn’t wearing a mask. Why mention the photo that was taken months ago in a story about facemasks and service? And, if you’re going to reference the photo, wouldn’t be have been fair to include Mr. Detmer’s explanation and comments? Mr. Detmer provided information that stated: (1) The picture was taken at a staging event in preparation for a Lansing rally. Most people were wearing masks, but for a brief moment lowered their masks for a quick selfie. (2) Mr. Detmer did not know the person in the back of the photo that is referenced in the article. (3) Mr. Detmer did not even know the name of the white supremacy group that the individual was associated with. This type of “reporting” is akin to an unfortunate smear campaign against a good man with local roots who will make an outstanding representative for the citizens of the 8th district.
I think Maria Stuart is a terrible journalist, this article drips with her political bias.
Well, Detmer just lost my vote. IDIOT. wear a mask. Good for Bigby, they will have my patronage.
Detmer = trainwreck
With all of our small business owners suffering financially with the shutdowns, I’d be hard pressed to fault a business for trying to comply with the Governor’s orders or face fines and shut down.
Do we remember what Biggby used to be called ??? Report that !!! Doesn’t sound like you had all the info here, rather a reason to bring up old news. Come on !!
This article does include why Biggby changed their name. Read the full article.
It used to be called Beaner’s Coffee – they changed it for obvious reasons. What’s your point?
It was never meant to be racist – BEANS
Excerpt from the article: Originally founded as Beaner’s Coffee, the company rebranded the business as Biggby Coffee in 2007. In an announcement about the change, Biggby’s said: “As the company has grown from a single store to a regional chain, the need for a new name became evident amidst growing concerns over the use of the word ‘beaner’ as a disparaging term against Hispanic Americans.”
Yeah it was mentioned in the article, if you cared to read it.