Cennedi Mills recently wrote a blog post about the vandalism of the Cereal Killer Café in East London.  The fact that people in the area are getting angry about the business isn’t surprising, but the way the activists expressed themselves in inappropriate.  If the people local to the area dislike the business, they have every right to boycott the business and say whatever they want about it, but they have no right to damage it.

The owners of the Cereal Killer Café aren’t particularly wealthy; they are just trying to make a living through their business.  If they want to sell cereal at outrageous prices in hopes that customers will be naïve enough to buy it, then let them!  There is nothing stopping customers from walking out of the café and into a grocery store, where they can purchase large quantities of cereal for cheaper.

The business model of the Cereal Killer Café is obviously flawed, but that is no reason to put employees, customers, and the owners of the business at risk of being seriously hurt.  The public should’ve just let the business fail, as it would be expected to.  Now, the café is getting much more publicity than it would’ve had it not been vandalized.  The actions of the activists have worked against their intentions, as people felt bad for what the business had been through.  The whole fiasco ended up representing the neighborhood poorly and gained the business publicity(and there’s no such thing as bad publicity).

Sources:

Cennedi Mills’ Blog:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/cmills/2015/10/03/gentrification-in-east-london/

NY Times Article:  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/29/world/europe/london-cereal-cafe-damaged-by-anti-gentrification-protests-was-unfairly-targeted-owner-says.html?_r=0