A little pick-me-up for coffee industry insiders

About the time Mike Myers was winding down his "Coffee Talk" skit on Saturday Night Live in the mid-1990s, Kerri Goodman-Small was ramping up an industry trade magazine called Coffee Talk in Seattle.

A former elementary-school teacher, Goodman-Small launched her own magazine after a book she co-wrote — a how-to for coffeehouse entrepreneurs called "Java U Business Basics" — didn't sell as well as she had hoped through existing coffee-trade publications.

Goodman-Small hired three employees for Coffee Talk, opened an office in downtown Seattle and went deeply in debt.

"Had I known how hard it was going to be, I wouldn't have chosen it," she said.

Goodman-Small sold the magazine in 1999, five years after it started, to get out of debt. She worked briefly for the publisher that bought Coffee Talk, but after it was rolled into another publication, she moved into doing training programs for cafes.

In 2003, she bought the trade publication Hospitality News and gradually turned it into the current version of Coffee Talk.

This time, the magazine is profitable, with about $500,000 in annual sales.

About 16,000 people subscribe to the paper version of the monthly magazine, and about 10,000 subscribe online.

Another 6,000 people receive the "Daily Dose," a free daily roundup of coffee news around the world with a strong focus on what's happening in coffee-growing countries. Subjects of "Daily Dose" headlines this week ranged from Bolivia to Zimbabwe to Indonesia.

Goodman-Small and her husband, editor-in-chief Miles Small, work from their home on Vashon Island.

They take pride in running articles written in-house or by freelancers, not "advertorials" from advertisers. Recent topics include speculating in commodities, franchising and learning to roast coffee.

The back of the magazine carries items about coffee purveyors and their suppliers.

A brief item in this month's issue reveals that some female coffee farmers in Hawaii posed naked for a new calendar that promotes honesty in labeling for Kona coffee — sort of a Coffee Talk prompt to do what Mike Myers used to advise: "Talk amongst yourselves."

— Melissa Allison

Jack Straw Filaments, a new men's clothing store, has opened in downtown Seattle near First Avenue and Seneca Street. The owners are former Butch Blum employees Paola Medina and John Richards. Prices range from $1,195 to $1,895 for sport coats and from $295 to $495 for trousers. — AM

Seattle Goodwill plans to open a store in the University District. Opening is set for early- to mid-November. The new store, at 4552 University Way N.E., will cover 5,400 square feet, about a quarter the size of a typical Goodwill location, and will sell reusable clothes, housewares, linens and small appliances. — AM

Ballet, opera or community-festival goers at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall can now avail themselves of wine by the glass from a new dispensing system called WineStation. WineStation also has an automated function that allows individuals to use pre-loaded "tasting cards" for their own wine by the glass. WineStation Intelligent Dispensing Systems come from Napa Technology in Santa Clara, Calif. — MA

Marcus & Millichap, a real-estate investment-services firm, predicts retail vacancies in the Seattle area will rise as new projects get built and retailers pull back on expansion plans amid a tough economy, according to a new report. Over a 12-month period that ended in the second quarter, Seattle-area developers completed about 2.9 million square feet of retail space. The retail-vacancy rate rose to 8.3 percent and is forecast to hit 8.6 percent this year, the report says. — AM

Bellevue-based Drugstore.com, which has been posting customer reviews online since 2003, says a new partnership with PowerReviews will make it easier for customers to read and write product reviews on its Web sites, including wholly owned subsidiary Beauty.com. PowerReviews, based in San Francisco, works with more than 260 Internet retailers. — AM

Honest Tea has partnered with Coca-Cola to expand distribution in Safeway and other chains nationwide. Honest Tea Co-founder and President Seth Goldman was in Seattle this week with other executives, selling the tea to grocery and convenience stores. — MA

Retail Report appears Fridays. Melissa Allison covers the food and beverage industry. She can be reached at 206-464-3312 or mallison@seattletimes.com. Amy Martinez covers goods, services and online retail. She can be reached at 206-464-2923 or amartinez@seattletimes.com.