The owners of Sweetwaters, Dave Auer and Chris Hutton, have been looking for another way to benefit Sweetwaters and Community High students, other than just selling exquisite coffee and tea. Now, they are designing purchase cards for Community students that will give the students a discount when purchasing items from Sweetwaters. These cards will be available soon.

Ever since Sweetwaters opened 10 years ago, it has always been a wonderful place for Community students to work on assignments, eat lunch and spend time with friends. Auer, a co-owner of Sweetwaters, said that about 10% of their business comes from Community students, and that they depend on the students as a part of the Sweetwaters’ consumers. The owners and employees of the business always enjoy having Community students over to Sweetwaters.

In the past, there have been a few problems with students being at Sweetwaters, but they have been overlooked because of Community’s impeccable relationship with Sweetwaters. “I think overall it has been a very positive relationship between Sweetwaters and Community,” Auer said. “So many of the problems that we’ve had, have been out weighted by the benefit of the relationship between Sweetwaters and the students.” Even if Community students do not buy anything from Sweetwaters, they still let them sit in the shop because they look at it as a way to support the students.

Recently, Sweetwaters has been thinking of ways to give Community students discounts on purchases at Sweetwaters. They are trying to find an opportunity to provide the students with purchase cards that give students a deduction to the cost of the item(s) that they buy. Auer and Hutton’s idea so far is that the students or their parents could buy the cards, which benefits Sweetwaters, and then the students get a discount, which benefits them.
As long as Community students prosper from the cards and want to buy them, Auer believes that they will be successful and that they will be a good investment. “If they think it’s a good investment then they’ll buy them,” said Auer, co-owner of Sweetwaters. “If they don’t, then I would love for them to come talk to us about what they do value, so that we can make sure what we provide is a value to them and a value to us.”