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Guys, what do you know? Who would have thought there is drama going down on TikTok, but this time it's not between celebrities. It's not really political, even though sort of it is. And we're gonna talk about why it is between small business owners and their customers. But I would argue it isn't even their customers. It is the online outrage mob. And as I was watching all of this drama and discourse go down, which obviously, you know, everybody is entitled to their own opinions about where they are spending their money. A small business. A small business is not immune from criticism. It really just made me sad. And so this story feel less about what's circulating around one particular small business and her prices and more about people piling onto people that they don't know just because they want to feel a sense of belonging. Now, does a disgruntled customer have a point? Maybe? Sure, we're gonna get into that. Totally entitled to her own opinion. But really, this is just a reminder of how pervasive the mob mentality can be online. Now, before we dive into this, I wanna thank you guys so much for being here and supporting the show. Let me know if you have seen this drama unfold on TikTok. If you go support Prickly Pear Coffee Shop, which is what we're gonna be, let me know in the comments below. And to get more information and get redirected to my subscriber platform, head on over to BrettCooper.com that is where Cooper Confidential lives. It's where you can get tickets to my live shows. All those good things. All right, now, before we get into this current drama on TikTok, I do want to take a second and ask everybody to, like, take a step back. Just think back to summer of 2020, where one innocent misstep, one maybe politically incorrect comment, a joke that did not land with your friends, a business without a pride flag in the window. It would create a firestorm online. And suddenly people from around the world who you had never interacted with, who you did not even know, were lending their outrage, their voices and their clicks to destroy you because you did not fall in line or apologize in the right way or whatever the transgression was on that certain Wednesday. And as politics and this culture war has now ebbed and flowed over the last seven years or so, I routinely see people online making jokes about that era, how insane it was. People talking about how they once were, like, way too woke, and now they see people that are like that. They're like, oh, my God, you were literally off Your rocke. So I thought, you know, maybe possibly we could be past that. But I think that was just wishful hopeful thinking because while that same group of people might not be hunting down random individuals for cultural appropriation, getting, you know, braids on vacation in Jamaica or a, you know, lack of pronouns in your email signature, whatever it was, they are now using that same angry mob energy to go after a small business owner. And this is not some like new or unique trend. This happens all the time. But the current story that is going viral right now that is dominating my for your page is taking place right now right here in Nashville with a local coffee company called the Prickly Pear Coffee company. So Prickly Pear is a local Christian owned small business. I think they now have four locations in Nashville. Two are brick and mortar. Two are those really cute little coffee carts that they have stationed in different areas of town. It has gotten so popular. It has like this cult following on TikTok. And one of the reasons why they are so popular is because of this drink right here. That, because I am a journalist, I went and got this morning. So this is their split coffee. So as you can see, it is like one silly little cup. And I got a vanilla matcha latte on this side and a vanilla iced latte on this side with coffee. It's two drinks in one. If you kind of want some matcha, if you kind of want some coffee, you can bounce back and forth. It's just a silly little novelty item, but it really put them on the map. And for a while, people on TikTok loved it. I mean, people would drive from all over to get the famed split cup because it was so fun, so that they could post about it and try it. And I know some of you guys out there, especially people like my mother, are going, who the f cares about a cup that is is split into? I don't know. That's just the younger generation. Like the same thing is happening right now in Nashville with cans of coffee. Like it's cups like this, but like one cup, but they seal a can on top with a pop top. There are literally girls my age waiting in lines over an hour long to simply get a normal vanilla latte, but just to have it have a pop top on top. I don't know how to explain it, but you know, Gen Z, we love a novelty item and those novelty items go viral. They, you know, start business, they start a conversation and from there business booms. And that is exactly what happened with this coffee company. But everything changed about five Days ago, because one Nashville local who was up until this point a fan of Prickly Pear coffee company decided that this time she wanted to try the split cup, which she had never gotten before. So let's just take a look at this video that started the entire firestorm.
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If you live in Nashville and you know what Prickly Pear coffee is, I'm going to do a little experiment real quick just so you can be pissed off with me, okay? They have these things called split cups, okay? I usually get a refresher from them. It's like give or take five or six bucks for a refresher. The split cup is supposed to be two full drinks. She goes to ring it up so you could try two different flavors. She goes to ring it up and it's like $12 and some change. And I go, wait, is that for one drink? And she's like, yeah, cuz it's two drinks. I was like, oh, it's two full drinks. And she was like, yeah. I was like, okay, I'll try it. It's like I'm making a video anyway. I was like, whatever, I'll try it. I was like, I'm gonna do something when I get home after I drink them, I'm gonna put it in a Venti Starbucks cup. Cuz this is what I usually get. Like my refreshers. This cup is $6. If I get a venti refresher, it's usually about $6 and some odd change, right? This was $12. This is not full all the way with water because there's no ice in this. They put ice in it when they give you a refresher. Venti Starbucks cup, $6 and some change when I get a refresher.
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Look at this.
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Add ice to that. That's just as much as you get in a split cup thing for half of the price. I'm never going to Prickly Pear again. I'm so irritated about it. This doesn't matter. Like there's people dying. I understand. I'm just saying so that you have the knowledge that I have maybe don't get the split cup things from Prickly Pear.
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All right? And so from there she posts a little vlog that she wanted to make, being like, I love this place, it's so cute. But she ended up not really posting it on its own because she wanted to talk about how she felt like she was getting ripped off and it was way too expensive. And listen, like, I get it, you know, she's like. My first reaction was to agree with her because I was so shocked by the price, I was like, oh, my God, $12 is insane. She's also showing that it is less than a big Starbucks drink. If she's getting a refresher, the same type drink at, you know, this big chain, but it's double the price. That is so crazy. She's totally entitled. It is understandable that she thinks that that is way too expensive. And the important thing to note is that she doesn't ever have to buy it again. If she doesn't like it, she never has to spend her money at that coffee shop ever again. She can just simply go to Starbucks. But here is where things took off. The owner, because she saw that the video was getting some traction. She responded, and she posted this from the official account. She said, It's $10 because we have to make two separate drinks. If it was $12, you likely added a different milk, an extra shot, et cetera. That is also the same amount that you would get in eventi, if not less, because they would add ice. I'm sorry that you had this experience and were so disappointed. I'm glad you liked the drinks, though, because later in her vlog, she says that they aren't bad. She likes the taste of them. Now, when she posted that comment, the Internet just ripped into this owner. Everybody was commenting and saying, like, this is why we can't support small businesses. We try, but you make it so hard. Your logo isn't even a prickly pear, which I do have to admit, that's very funny. It's like a saguaro cactus instead of actually a prickly pear. People are saying, that's not 12 DOL. We hate you. You're fake Christian. Like all of these different things, it just did not stop because of that comment. The video just racked up more and more views, and the coffee shop's account was getting swarmed. As a response, that owner decided to block the original creator, Katie. And this is where things got even worse. Because then once it came out that she had blocked the original creator, she then made a video justifying the price. Take a watch.
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I blocked her because, honestly, my phone was blowing up with hate comments. And it has already been, honestly, like, some of the hardest. Like, the last six weeks have just been brutal in business and personal. And so I. I apologize if that was perceived as rude or immature. She has been unblocked because I am no longer on our TikTok. Someone else has taken that over.
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Next.
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And the most important part, as far as the price breakdown, the Split cups are two 12 ounce drinks. So I never want to come across as lying to our customers and saying they are full size drinks. They are two 12 ounce drinks in total. That is 24 ounces of whatever drink you choose. They were designed to be half matcha, half coffee. That's how we post about them, that's how we advertise them. And so what you decide to put on either side is totally up to you. But the goal and intention is that they would be half matcha, half coffee. That's what the pricing is based off of. These cups are $1.18 each, including two straws. So this makes it over a dollar more than a large 24 ounce ice cups. The milk can range anywhere from 35 cents to 70 cents, 77 cents depending on the milk choice. And because our houses, our syrups are house made. I'm sorry, I'm struggling to get through this. It can be anywhere from $0.10 to $0.82 depending on what you're adding. If matcha is on the other side, it is 43 cents for the matcha in that split cup. If you're going to get the exact order that was in the video of the split cups, the it's $3 per side because of the lemonade. So it's $6 total. It's not as good as a deal if you are doing refreshers rather than doing the coffee and the matcha.
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All right, so from there she really tries to break down why it is priced the way it is. Like she is like, please, guys, I am just trying to make a profit. I'm literally telling you down to the scent how much these cups are. She's explaining that the girl got two refreshers, which is really not how these flip cups were designed. She also wanted to add lemonade to them, which is an extra charge because they have this really nice lemonade that they made. So she's adding it in. So now it's just getting more and more expensive. So she's just trying to provide context. But the Internet, as you all know, hates nuance, hates context. And people got even more mad instead of saying, oh, thank you for, you know, providing this information. I see that you're trying to explain and show us, you know, the back end of what it looks like to run a small business. No, they said, oh my God, we don't want to hear about how you're including a straw in your price. I'm sorry, but a business owner kind of has to. Because you know what, when you buy straws in bulk, you are spending money that's not just a free thing that comes from the earth. I know everybody's like a socialist online right now, but straws do not grow on trees. Especially not these because she's not using paper straws. Anyway, sorry, I'm like getting ahead of myself, but I'm getting enraged because she really is trying. Anyway, somebody commented and said if I ordered a large pizza, half pepperoni, half mushroom, you don't get charged for two pizzas, you get charged for one pizza. Another person said, by your logic, Neapolitan ice cream should be triple the price because it's three flavors. Which I feel like as I watched the video, wasn't really the argument that she was trying to make. And listen, I get it again, going and buying a drink and then seeing that the cost is $12, that is insane. That is a ridiculous price to pay for any drink. But also, it's kind of not because it's 2026. Some restaurants, when Alex and I go out to eat, they charge $12 for a MOC. Something without alcohol. But guess what? Unfortunately, I'm embarrassed to say I buy them. People buy them. That is the world that we live in today. It might be crazy to some, but there is a market for expensive drinks, for novelty items like this. Like people that are commenting, the angry things tell me that you have never purchased. You know, the soft serve in the upside down baseball cap when you go see a little league game. We all buy novelty items. You are just choosing where you want to spend your money. If you want to buy this, great. If you don't, you don't have to. But a small business owner, regardless of whether you liked her comment, whether you thought she was rude or what she did was warranted, she still does have to to turn a profit. And back to the argument that it is the same thing as Neapolitan ice cream or a split pizza. Like one barista. This is what I experienced this morning. One barista in a coffee cart bouncing back and forth between the matcha station and the espresso station, trying to make two different drinks. That is, I'm sorry, crazy idea. It's a little bit more laborious than one big ice cream conglomerate's machine, one of their, you know, 10,000 machines, mixing three flavors on a lineup. Like, please, let's just not be dense here. Moving on from her explanation video. As I was seeing all of these videos and the responses come up on my feed, I was kind of on the side of the original creator because again, I was like, man, that is a lot of money. And then I saw the second video that was posted by the owner and this is, I will be honest, where she lost me for a bit because she followed all of this up with an apology because obviously the explanation video was not good enough. So she decided to lean in even more. Never do that. Never lean into the mob. But this apology really wasn't an apology. It was more of an attack on the audience saying that they should not be coming after her because she is a female that owns a small business business. So kind of rolled my eyes there. You can take a watch.
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We have reached out to Katie and apologized and refunded her drinks and she acknowledged that and said thank you for that. I did not respond well. I got defensive and I completely own that. I haven't been on the tick tock, but I've been hearing that there are good suggestions as well. And so we've taken those suggestions just as far as advertising goes and writing in the description like, hey, this is priced for a coffee and a matcha and our team as people are ordering or will probably recommend that to you as well. This is priced for that. It really is just so sad to see people capitalizing on that and capitalizing on hurting a small business, on directly coming after me for my mental health. You know, as a woman owned business, I would expect that we would encourage each other. At the end of the day, I hate that the prices have to be what they are as well. I posted a video on this actually recently about how hard it was for me to raise prices, but that we had to if we wanted to keep the doors open. So yeah, I mean, it's.
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It sucks.
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It just does.
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Now I completely believe that she is being genuine here. She looks exhausted. She's been trying to fix the situation. Part that made me roll my eyes in the moment was her being like, we should be encouraging women as they're opening these businesses. I'm just like, so over the identity politics of that. Like, I don't owe you anything because we are the same gender. I don't owe anything because you're a woman that started a business. I just reject all of that. I think that it is just gross and it has been exploited by the left. And so that is something that just instinctively I don't like. But my own biases aside, getting back to the story, obviously, because you guys know the Internet, you are smart. That video did not help at all. Honestly. It only made matters worse because she just kept digging herself deeper into a hole as she tried to appease this mob. That was hell bent on hating her and destroying her business. I mean, just like, look at these comments. It made it worse. Somebody said, this is the kind of apology that my ex used to give me. Another person said, girl, it's not the price at this point, it's your videos. Like they're literally acknowledging that it's not actually about the coffee or what is in it or how expensive the cups are. They just don't like her. Another person said, apology video and then dropping the mental health card is wild. And I mean, I get that. That's another thing that I would roll my eyes about. I mean, we literally just did a whole video about how people are using their mental health as an accessory. But in this case, I kind of get it. Like she was flustered. The Internet was unleashing on her. And for the most part, and this is the frustrating part, is that it was people who are not even customers, who don't live in Nashville, who will probably never come here and never try her coffee. Suddenly they are spamming her comment section, dming her awful things and then flooding her Google reviews on all of her different locations with awful messages and commenting things like, I don't know what's going on, but I'm not on your side. And this is how the Internet is truly so toxic. Because a single video, one observation, a, you know, a complaint, a totally valid, understandable complaint from one customer can turn into an all out TikTok war. Where now this owner of a small business is frantically trying to protect what she has built. And just based on the context, what she's been saying about the business, it's been, you know, hard six weeks, the economy isn't great, maybe she's trying to expand, she's had to raise prices and now this is happening. Obviously she is spiraling. I don't blame her for blocking her and throwing her phone across the room. I would probably do the same thing from my position with the experience that I do have, I probably would have advised her to literally not engage with the people at all. Do not comment, do not respond, maybe reach out to the woman privately, but certainly don't make video after video trying to appease these people. Because the people that are so angry, again, they are not even your customers. So who can blame a normal non media trained barista without a PR rep having her back for trying to smooth things over in the best way that she knows how. Now, speaking of smoothing things over, you need to get your dad some smooth sheets from cozy earth because I'm sure like you Guys, every year I try to find a Father's Day gift that actually gets used. You know, not something that just ends up forgotten in a drawer for the next 10 years. And honestly, Cozy Earth nailed it with their bamboo sheet set. 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Because at the end of the day when the entire world is watching you and and commenting on you, everybody's gonna have an opinion and you will never be able to make every single person happy. So why try? And if you truly think that the price of this drink is worth it, after you have reevaluated it and thought through it and looked at her critiques and comments, great. Like that's all you need to know. I mean, I do. When I watched the original video was just aghast at the $12 accusation. But then I took a breath, I took a minute, I actually went to their prickly pear page. I looked at their old videos and I was impressed with the way that they run this coffee shop. It is a Christian owned coffee shop, which obviously made me really happy. I looked at their ingredients. They use mold free coffee, which is a premium product. Most places do not use mold free coffee, by the way. Most of our coffee is moldy, just FYI. Crazy disgusting. Not this coffee though, so that's good to know. They also get their milk daily, their whole milk, from a local farm outside of Nashville. It is low pasteurization, which is amazing and also very expensive because farming is expensive and running a micro dairy is very expensive. They also make most of their syrups in house and if they are not making their syrups in house, they are from a really expensive premium company that uses an agave base. Like they are truly going above and beyond to give you an elevated premium product and that all adds up. Again, I know everybody is a socialist online, but unfortunately there is a premium cost for these high end, cleaner premium products. Imagine that. Crazy, crazy idea. I know. And I understand people being burned by some of the small businesses out there who, you know, upcharge for drinks when they are using those musty Dusty, nasty syrups that you get in, you know, the back of a Marshalls or the people on Etsy that are trying to convince you that they're making an artisanal project, but really they're just drop shipping from Shein. Like I understand that, but this ain't that literally at all. And yes, the $12 does seem crazy. But then guess what? I went even further than just watching their TikTok videos. I drove my butt all the way into Nashville to get one of these drinks. I got the base level, what they recommend. Matcha coffee latte. That's wasn't even $9 before tax. Literally. Look at this, it was $8.80 before tax. Like sometimes I am paying $9 pre tax for only 16 ounces at well established national coffee shops like Barista parlor, which you definitely know if you live in the Nashville area. And so paying only nine bucks less than nine bucks for 24 ounces and two different drinks. I'm sorry, I'm not upset about that. That seems like a steal. And then yes, before you comment, I know that the other argument in this very niche TikTok thing is that the girl ordered refreshers which are, you know, like the Starbucks refreshers, the juices instead of getting a matcha and a coffee. And I have no idea if they batch make the refreshers and just had to pour them into either side or what's going on if they're hand making them. I know that she added lemonade, which is an additional cost and require and additional things. So maybe that was the upcharge. I don't know. I don't know how she got to $12 and some change. Like was she adding milk and syrup? No idea. But with what I got, the product that she was criticizing was nowhere near $12. And so I guess what I'm trying to say is that when I first encountered this controversy, when I first saw the video come up on my for you page, I launched into this thinking that, you know, this is wild, this is expensive. This owner seems, you know, a little bit rude. She's avoiding responsibility, she doesn't want to interact with her customers, and now I am firmly on her side. After I don't, I took 10 minutes to look at her page, watch her old videos, read the menu, look at the prices, and oh my God, order a drink for myself. And so now what I am actually riled up about is the Internet's incessant desire to mob together to try to destroy somebody for sport, literally for no good reason, because that is really what this is. It's not about the coffee or the prickly pear or the split cup or the fact that she's charging for straws. Oh my God. It's about the outrage mob. And now it's also sparked a bigger conversation about the price, the literal cost of supporting small businesses. Like for instance, there's a comment here. This person said, these small businesses make it so hard to support them when I can go to Starbucks and get more product for less money. And the way that they handle these valid concerns just completely tanks any last chance I'd consider of going there. The split cups are a great idea, very unique, but you cannot charge for the price of two drinks when you are quite literally not getting two full drinks. But like, again, I read this, I'm like, but it's not a big business, it's a small business. There is one woman and her husband running this. She's a human being, it's not a corporation. How do you expect her to respond when there are literally millions and millions of people on a witch hunt coming for her head? She's not in the media. She's not used to having hate comments left on her videos every single day. She's not used to getting death threats in her DMs, she's not used to any of that. She literally just wants to sell people silly coffees and talk about Jesus, which is what she does with her business. And genuinely, if it is that much of an issue for you guys, then just go to Starbucks. That's fine. Totally fine. Nobody has a gun to your head saying that you need to go to her store. Seems like most of you just want to go to Starbucks anyway. You can go and you, you can order a 12 ounce matcha, a 12 ounce latte which will equal the size of this 24 ounce split cup. And you can feel really good about yourself. You can feel great and you'll be saving money, I guess. Oh wait, actually, actually you won't be spending money because I did research. If I did that today, if I went to Starbucks and I wanted to get these two drinks equaling the same amount of liquid, I would be paying almost $2 more pre tax. Look here, $10.50 just for the drinks. So do with that information what you will. Now, all of this, again, it's not really about the coffee. Even though the coffee is really good. I had a great time visiting them. Very cute truck. It really all goes back to this mob mentality. Again, think about all of the blind outrage that we have seen over the last six years, the blind outrage that has literally destroyed lives, destroyed businesses, destroyed families. People making blind assumptions about you and what you believe and your values because of a post or a lack of a post, Black square post, whatever it is. People tearing into family and friends because that is what the Internet told them that they should do in order to be moral, good people. The real scary part is, especially for somebody who is not, you know, signing up for this outrage is not willingly doing a show every day or inserting herself into politics, is that once it starts, once the mob launches in, it is almost impossible to hold them back or reverse any of the damage. It is literally infectious. And I'm not saying that is some kind of exaggeration or a metaphor, because researchers are literally using infectious disease models to analyze how this mob, mob behavior spreads through social networks. And the other sad part, the other black pill moment here, is that it's not just a small percentage of bad people with nothing better to do than rage about people they don't know online, but it is an entire social media ecosystem that feeds and grows because of this type of content. It literally encourages the mob to fester and grow as more and more people engage and comment to no end, thereby encouraging more people to join in because they want to feel like they are part of something important. Even if the important thing is attacking a business owner because you don't like the alleged price of her split cup coffee drink. And it is so ridiculous. And that's not some crazy idea. That's literally just human psychology. Back in the 50s, there was a researcher who did a now very prolific study where he put one single person in a room and then he put seven other people in the room who were working for him. And he asked this entire group to answer a very simple, obvious visual question. And he instructed the seven people working for him to intentionally answer the question incorrectly. And then after they all went and answered, then he asked the one remaining person who had no idea what was going on. He did this time and time again with different groups, different individuals, and 32% of the time that one person who had no idea what was going on would conform and say something that very obviously he would know to be false just to belong and be a part of what this other group was doing. These seven people that were intentionally answering the question wrong. Nothing has changed since then. That's simply mob mentality. Now there are just greater opportunities for that to occur. But now the dopamine hits that comes with leaving angry comments behind an anonymous profile page are, are just too enticing for people online to ignore. And so that's really what this story is about. It's not really about the coffee card and the split cup and the matcha and the coffee and the refreshers, whatever. The novelty drink, which, honestly, based on my personal experience, was not very expensive based on what you are getting. It is about a tiktoker who wanted to use her complaint for content which, hey, no shame in the game. She wanted to share her experience. That's totally fine. Again, she has a right to do that. But it is about a viral moment that turned millions of innocent viewers into a military. And so I guess I'm really talking about the story and doing this video so that it hopefully serves as a reminder not just for you guys, but also for me because it is so incredibly easy to get swept up in all of that. I mean, like, my initial reaction as I came across this story was to go like, whoa, this is crazy. This business owner is ridiculous. She's talking about being a female founder. She is not handling it well. Oh, this is crazy. And then I took 10 minutes to actually assess the situation. I looked at it with empathy, human to human, and just tried to learn about what was going on so that I did not become part of that mob. Now, I wish, honestly, I wish that had been my automatic reaction. I hope to be better in that regard, but I'm still a work in progress. So this video is a reminder for me, hopefully all of you. I think we all are a work in progress on the Internet, so hopefully we can be better.
Date: June 3, 2026
Host: Brett Cooper
Brett Cooper explores the viral controversy surrounding Nashville’s Prickly Pear Coffee Shop, where outrage on TikTok over the price of a novelty drink escalated into widespread online mobbing. Using this case, the episode dives into themes of online outrage, generational behaviors, small business challenges, and the persistence of internet mob mentality. Cooper critically examines how trivial complaints can spiral due to social media dynamics and encourages empathy, context, and individual discernment in online culture.
Online Mob Mentality Revisited: Brett draws a parallel between the current situation and the outrage mobs of the early 2020s (00:48).
“One innocent misstep…would create a firestorm online...suddenly people from around the world who you had never interacted with…were lending their outrage, their voices and their clicks to destroy you...” (01:02)
Prickly Pear’s Rise and the “Split Cup” Fad:
The Viral Video:
“This cup is $6…this was $12…just as much as you get in a split cup for half the price. I’m never going to Prickly Pear again.” – [Katie, 05:19]
Immediate Reactions:
Owner’s Explanation:
“It’s $10 because we have to make two separate drinks...these cups are $1.18 each, including two straws. The milk can range from 35 to 77 cents…Our syrups are house made…If matcha is on the other side, it’s 43 cents for the matcha in that split cup.” – [Owner, 07:43]
Online Reaction:
“If I ordered a large pizza, half pepperoni, half mushroom, you don’t get charged for two pizzas...” (08:59)
Blocking and Apology:
“We’ve reached out to Katie and apologized and refunded her drinks…It really is so sad to see people capitalizing on hurting a small business, on directly coming after me for my mental health. You know, as a woman owned business, I would expect that we would encourage each other.” – [Owner, 11:47]
Brett’s Critique:
“It was people who are not even customers, who don’t live in Nashville, who will probably never come here and never try her coffee. Suddenly they are spamming her comment section, dming her awful things and then flooding her Google reviews on all of her different locations with awful messages…” (13:11)
PR Advice:
Brett’s Own Research:
“I got the base level, what they recommend. Matcha coffee latte. That wasn’t even $9 before tax…paying only nine bucks for 24 ounces and two different drinks…seems like a steal.” (18:15)
Bigger Picture: Cost of Supporting Small Business:
“There is a premium cost for these high-end, cleaner premium products. Imagine that. Crazy, crazy idea, I know.” (17:44)
Why the Outrage Feeds Itself:
“It is an entire social media ecosystem that feeds and grows because of this type of content…so that they want to feel like they are part of something important—even if the important thing is attacking a business owner…” (21:15)
Brett closes with a self-reflection: her initial instinct was to join the outrage, but a few minutes of research changed her perspective.
“I looked at it with empathy, human to human, and just tried to learn about what was going on so that I did not become part of that mob…Hopefully we can be better.” (25:41)
On online outrage cycles:
“It really just made me sad…it’s less about what’s circulating around one particular small business and her prices and more about people piling onto people that they don’t know just because they want to feel a sense of belonging.” – Brett (00:30)
On empathy and rational response:
“You are just choosing where you want to spend your money. If you want to buy this, great. If you don’t, you don’t have to.” – Brett (10:04)
On business realities:
“A business owner kind of has to [include straw costs in price]...Straws do not grow on trees. Especially not these because she’s not using paper straws.” – Brett (09:45)
On mob psychology:
“Nothing has changed since [the 1950s]. That’s simply mob mentality. Now there are just greater opportunities for that to occur. But now the dopamine hits…are just too enticing for people online to ignore.” – Brett (23:17)
This episode is a lively and pointed investigation into the anatomy of a modern-day TikTok witch hunt, revealing how outrage can metastasize from a single disappointed customer to an online campaign with little basis in fact. Brett, through characteristic candor and humor, encourages listeners to use empathy, seek context, and resist the temptation to join morality mobs—reminding us that sometimes what feels like “community” online is just conformity in disguise.