Community shows up after man posts video of no customers on first day of cafe opening

Opening a business is often a risky thing, which can go either way. Unfortunately for Tom Oswald, it did not turn out the way he expected it to be. Oswald—who goes by @homeboy.co on TikTok—shared in a video how on the opening day of his cafe in Adelaide, Australia, he had no customers. He had posted it in July 2023. However, thanks to his community and people online, his business picked up eventually.

The 19-second video begins with him getting up from a stool, walking toward the camera, and looking sad. He then flips the camera and shows everything he had prepped for the cafe's opening day. There were cookies, croissants and pastries. Next, he shows the outside seating area. The text overlay read, "Opened a cafe and nobody came." The video was captioned, "Still waiting for a customer." It garnered 1.4 million views on the platform.

People in the comments wanted to support the then-18-year-old. @alzena_x commented, “Hold a small event! Advertise, send out local flyers, and put up decorations. Reel them in one time and they'll come back if your cafe is good!” @not_nathaniel_taplin wrote, “Me checking flights just to come and support this man’s café.” @minnywinny_03 expressed, “I came today (Monday) not realizing you are only open on Thursdays-Saturday. I’ll come back another time.” @tinylifeofmine shared, “I’ll be there in 30 mins! #supportlocal.” @datenightaus said, “This makes me so sad. Tell me where this is so I can come, please.”

Oswald kept posting updates on his cafe. In the week 3 update, he showed how his dad helped him set up for the day. Oswald was first seen taking out the big milk delivery he had that day. Next, he took up the trash and set up outside. After this, his dad was seen bringing in the pastry delivery and then helping around the shop. In the video's comment section, the 18-year-old shared that his cafe was slowly picking up. He later posted that his cafe got its first reservation and he couldn’t be happier. Five months after that, his cafe started to become busy. In the video, he first did the cafe's set-up and then went to get milk from a supermarket. After that, he was seen handing out coffee to a customer in a car and then serving coffee and pastries to people waiting inside the cafe.  

In an interview with News.com.au, he shared, “The cafe can get a little bit quiet at times, but it is something I fully expect and do not get down about it. Quiet days give me time to reflect and research and busy days teach me the importance of efficiency." He said though his cafe had a slow start, his business picked up due to all the TikTok videos. Moreover, many Australian news publications covered his story, and a lot of people from the community showed up to support him. In one of his videos, he also shared about having the busiest week ever. He even created a lunch menu and started to offer a variety of sandwiches to customers. Recently, he shut down the old place where the cafe was running and now he is in the process of starting his cafe all over again from scratch in a new space. 

You can follow Tom Oswald (@homeboy.co) on TikTok for more content on his cafe.