Wednesday, October 29
During the night of Friday, October 24, all of the 15 Berlin branches of the rapidly-expanding coffee chain were hit by paint attacks. Staff of the individual branches discovered red paint smeared across the walls and windows of the small stores along with slogans including ‘BOYCOTT LAP. Leaflets left at the scene point towards a political motive for the attack, according to the Berlin police.
LAP, an acronym for Life Among People, has grown rapidly in recent years, with branches spreading to Hamburg and Munich. The chain’s model, borrowed from New York’s Blank Street Coffee, uses fully automated espresso machines to enable it to sell coffee at a lower price point. The fact that LAP is backed heavily by venture capital has drawn criticism from the independent coffee scene, which says that LAP will drive out smaller, artisan cafés.
On the paint attacks, LAP CEO Ralph Hage said: “Dialogue takes priority. We know that parts of this group are organised, including people from the coffee scene. We have information about individual participants and will first invite them to a meeting, if they dare. LAP stands for dialogue – Life Among People. Some of those who damaged our stores buy their coffee from us. We are keeping an eye on them. If it turns out that talks are pointless or the attacks continue, we will involve the police.”
