By Ashton Thomas
Two women opened a breakfast spot in the middle of a global pandemic with no business ownership experience and no customers allowed in their store.
Now, they sell thousands of avocado toasts every single year.
Meet Emily Allen and Kaity Meyers, the co-owners of Common Goods Co., a Ruston gathering place that has grown far beyond the breakfast spot they originally imagined.
For Allen, the path to Common Goods began in an unexpected place. Originally from Monroe, she taught second grade before deciding she wanted to pursue something different. Her husband was a fan of Railway Coffee, and Allen began baking for the shop. There, she met Meyers. They quickly came to love working together.
Meyers, a Ruston native, had studied business at Louisiana Tech University, but it was the women’s experience working at Railway that gave them a practical education in the daily operations of a coffee shop.
“I feel like I went to school by working at Railway,” Allen said. “Never in my wildest dreams did I see myself ending up here.”
Allen had the idea for Common Goods, and within six months, the two had opened their doors.
They could not have chosen a more uncertain time to begin.
Common Goods Co. opened May 5, 2020, as businesses across the country were navigating the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The shop initially operated only a few days a week, serving breakfast without the kind of in-person customer experience that would eventually become central to its identity.
“The pandemic was awful, but we were able to organically build and open slowly. We couldn’t even have people in the building at first,” Allen said.
Looking back, Allen recognizes just how unlikely their early success was.
“We went from having an idea to opening up a new business within six months,” she said. “In a global pandemic. We should not have made it through that first year,” Allen added.
Meyers, however, sees something more than luck in the business’s survival.
“God intended for this to happen,” she said.
Despite their Railway experience, neither Allen nor Meyers had anticipated the full scope of the work that would come with business ownership. For Meyers, some of the hardest lessons involved money.
“It really is hard financially to be a small business,” Meyers said.
“They almost want you to fail. At least, that’s how it feels,” Allen added, remembering how difficult it was to navigate their taxes and financial realities.
The business also required both women to grow into roles they had never expected to occupy. Neither considers herself particularly assertive, and the prospect of managing a team was not appealing to either of them — at least, not initially.
“Having a team of people would have sounded like a nightmare, but it’s been very fulfilling,” Meyers said.
Allen agreed.
“Neither of us is assertive,” Allen said. “Becoming a boss when you never planned to be a boss is hard when you avoid conflict at all costs.”
To combat this, the two have tried to create a workplace that feels more like a family than a group of coworkers. And this is not just something they talk about; it’s something they live. Barista Jude Hanchey walked in as we were speaking, and they were sure to stop him and tell him what a great job he did during the previous Saturday’s morning rush.
But change doesn’t happen overnight.
“There were days when we didn’t want to come to work,” Meyers said. “It was distressing, trying to figure out communication. We weren’t good at anything yet. It was our first time owning a business.”
Today, those early struggles feel different. As the business has matured, many of the responsibilities that once seemed overwhelming have become second nature.
Allen is careful, however, not to confuse growth with having everything figured out.
“There’s always room for improvement, and we try to teach our employees that, too,” Allen said. “Just because we’re in a new building, we still want to communicate and try to find ways to keep getting better. It’s rewarding.”
For both women, the most meaningful part of building Common Goods has been the relationships that have grown alongside the business. Seeing Common Goods grow into a new space has given them a sense of pride and ownership they could not have imagined when first starting.
“We weren’t pessimists, but it was COVID, and we just didn’t know,” Meyers said. “Seeing the community support something that you’ve started makes you proud and makes you want to keep moving forward.”
For Allen, that relationship with the community is what makes the work worthwhile.
“What makes me proudest is when someone leaves a review and talks about the kind staff,” she said. “We are as connected to the community as they are to us.”
Allen and Meyers also want to give back to the town that has supported them. Through community gatherings, including their New Year’s Eve party, and efforts to connect customers with local organizations in need, they hope to make Ruston a better place to live.
“There is so much need in our town, and that’s just not seen,” Meyers said. “People aren’t unwilling to help, but you don’t have the opportunity because you don’t know.”
Since its 2020 opening, the business has expanded into a new space and realized another longtime goal by opening a cocktail bar. Looking back, Meyers and Allen can hardly believe how far they’ve come, in part because of how much Ruston has encouraged them.
“The community has supported us, and we want Common Goods to exist to make it better,” Meyers said.
