Leadership1 publisher2 min readPublished
Buffalo coffee shop owner writes a no-AI art policy under a stranger's one-day deadline
Megi Endeladze spent about $350 printing and framing a ChatGPT-made menu sign for Penny's Coffee Shop in Buffalo, then apologised on Instagram and committed the shop to human-made artwork within days.
The Board Room · Leadership desk
What happened
- The barista who most recently chalked the drink menus at Penny's Coffee Shop in Buffalo moved out of town this fall, leaving no one on staff with the lettering skill.
- Co-owner Megi Endeladze used ChatGPT to make an image of the menu and had the poster professionally printed for around $150, plus around $200 for a plastic holder.
- She posted a photo of the sign to Instagram and comments began arriving that included "AI Slop" and "SHAME SHAME SHAME", alongside direct messages from customers.
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Why it matters
- cost Cash spending rose while unpaid labour fell: about $350 went out the door for print and holder to replace work employees had done in-house, and the new pledge puts the next sign back on a person the shop does not currently employ.
- exposure The complaint route ran straight to the owner's personal Instagram inbox, where a stranger with a bigger following could set both the deadline and the terms of the remedy.
- decision Owners weighing generated creative have to decide labelling and who answers objections before publishing, because the reversal plays out in public and on the deadline the customer sets.
- precedent The same reaction has now landed on a Vermont bagel shop and on delis whose AI signs circulated widely, so the next small business posting one should expect the objection to arrive as a campaign.
Chalkboard signs at Penny's had always been made in-house, and the duty rotated among whichever employees could letter [5]. When the last of those employees moved out of town this fall, no one on staff had the skill [6]. What Endeladze saved by generating the image was her own time, and she spent cash to save it: about $150 for professional printing plus about $200 for the plastic poster holder, roughly $350 in all [8][9][22].
Photographing the drinks herself took a day at a time. Every few months she shot each new seasonal drink, and told Business Insider, "You have to time it so the foam doesn't deflate" [3][4]. With a three-month-old at home she considered editing her own photos in Canva, then used ChatGPT instead [7][8]. "I felt like a genius, and made posters using AI and frame them," she said [10].
An account with a much larger following told her to take the sign down or it would post about the shop to the local artist community, offered to help her find an artist to pay, and gave her a day to "think about it" [16]. Those messages went to the same inbox she was reading at 4 a.m. while pumping for the baby [14]. Comments under the post included "AI Slop" and "SHAME SHAME SHAME" [11]. One DM read, "I'm sorry it came to this, but AI is a hard no for me" [12].
Within days Endeladze posted an apology saying Penny's would not use AI for menu artwork or promo designs, and asked customers to approach the topic with "kindness and respect" [17]. "What has been difficult for me, however, is the amount of negativity, personal attacks, and messages that followed this situation," she wrote [19].
The scale here is one coffee shop and about a hundred Instagram followers [15]. Business Insider reported the follower loss without any sales figures [23]. The same account reports the reaction repeating elsewhere: a bagel shop owner in Vermont drew vitriolic comments for using AI images on Instagram, and photos of delis using AI to make signs and menus have circulated widely [20].
A generated image is cheap to produce and public the moment it goes up, so the questions of whether to label it and who replies when a customer objects have to be settled before it is posted. Larger operations face the same sequence. Endeladze settled hers inside the day the account had given her [16]. She said she was frustrated at the suggestion she should have been paying a real artist, because the sign work had only ever been done by her or her employees [21].
What to watch
- Whether Penny's hires a chalkboard-capable barista or pays an outside artist for the next seasonal menu, the first test of the pledge.
- Whether the account that set the one-day deadline posted about the shop, since the Business Insider account ends with the apology.
- Whether the Vermont bagel shop and the viral deli signs produce a measurable revenue effect anywhere, rather than follower counts.