In other quarters, however, some entrepreneurs report an upswing in how Oakland customers are responding to efforts to make their businesses special.

"It's going awesome, actually," said Cortt Dunlap, who owns the Awaken Cafe, at 414 14th St. "Since we opened in April, we've found that especially downtown there's a vacuum for independent, community-minded, sustainable business."

Dunlap said he and the business's co-owners discussed the project for years, hitting up friends and family to invest and working hard to get a sense of what neighborhood regulars would want in a new cafe.

"Before we opened, we had a town-hall style meeting; we did conference calls; put out fliers," Dunlap said. "We asked, 'What do you want in a shop like this?'"

The answer, according to Dunlap, was a call to show off Oakland's thriving artistic community, and a desire for "green collar jobs." Dunlap responded with an artist's gallery that cycles monthly and a strict green-product regimen.

"Green materials are between 5 and 15 percent more expensive, but it's what people want these days," he said.
Dunlap also said he took a page from San Francisco's Gratitude Cafe, offering friends and early customers a deal that makes them feel like surrogate partners in the enterprise.

"We said that if they buy a $1,000 gift certificate, we would give them a 25 percent value bonus on top of that," Dunlap said. "If they say, 'Hey, I can see spending a thousand bucks in this place over a long time,' it works for everybody. We keep track for them of what they spend and we know their face and their name. ... Everybody wants that 'Cheers' experience, you know?"

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