Honeybee Coffee in chaos as new owner dips amid strange messaging: 'We lost our hiveminds'
The signs Honeybee Coffee was changing from a local Knoxville flagship to something else entirely seemed to come all at once.
Beginning June 14, a barrage of bizarre promotional text messages introduced customers to "Honeybee, A Bee Kind Cafe" and began offering $200 gift cards for only $100 with the message: "Holy moly! we lost our hiveminds."
Honeybee's posts and its entire Facebook page had vanished by June 26, and the man behind it all was suddenly unreachable.
That man is Aaron Hensley, a self-proclaimed entrepreneur and investor who bought a majority ownership of Honeybee in early 2024 with a vision to transform it into a franchise that would compete with Starbucks, which he called the "big green monster."
In an interview with Knox News and on social media, Hensley spoke in corporate buzzwords, calling those who didn't share his vision "detractors" and saying he was looking for staff with a "growth mindset." He told Knox News he was personally financing expensive updates to two Honeybee stores.
Honeybee's new wave of messaging said the coffee shop, which added a brewery to its operation in 2021, was "embarking on a journey to serve our community." Honeybee announced it would launch a new food menu July 1 and invited applications for positions that would offer full-time salaries with bonuses.
On the morning of June 24, the company posted to Facebook it was temporarily closing its locations in West Knoxville and at West Town Mall before reopening "better and bolder" by July 16. Its locations in South Knoxville and Sevierville have remained open.
Honeybee's peculiar message: 'drizzled up with some special sauce'
Staff members were quitting in droves behind the scenes as the company struggled to keep its stores open, while prospective employees were promised they would be part of a "new story."
On June 18, the company – newly coined "Honeybee USA" – posted on Facebook it had done away with tips, a critical supplement for service workers with low base wages. The post said the company would pay employees a salary and elevate its service.
Hensley said moving Honeybee to a tip-free model was part of a larger strategy to raise prices and educate the public about the quality of the products the company sells.
"I think it's somewhat disrespectful to flip a screen to somebody and not have the competence to actually ask what you want, which is you want more money," Hensley told Knox News. "If we're going to be especially a higher-end product, people expect to pay a higher amount for that."
Among the posts, littered with grammatical errors and written in a rambling style, were harsh criticisms of former management. Messages claimed the company was "bleeding" from "poor process and poor structure."
At some point, the company's rewards system began measuring redeemable points not by "stars," but by "nectar nuggets."
One post promised Honeybee USA would do better, but the comment section was full of criticism from community members shocked by the company's sharp turn. Promotional messages included lines like, "Holy Beeeeeeezzzzzz CRAZY - YES BABY IT IS FREAKING REAL :)" and "we drizzled up with some special sauce."
"My intent is to build something big enough that I don't even know what to do next with it and that everybody's rewarded and we treat people with the idea that they're going to be part of the family in the future," Hensley told Knox News. "We had some detractors that worked for the company that were intentionally trying to harm the growth."
Honeybee owner planned to 'bow out' before disappearing
An emailed job offer sent by Hensley in June offered a prospective employee a $500 weekly salary and a bonus of 1% of a store's gross sales if the store met certain key performance indicators, or KPIs.
After a month of near total disarray, in which a dwindling staff say they were not paid for hours they worked, Honeybee's reputation began nosediving online. Then, Hensley seemed to disappear.
Though Hensley agreed to an interview June 25, he did not respond to texts and calls a day later. His phone number was either changed or disconnected, according to a recorded message.
Norris Hill, the former owner who kept a minority stake, told Knox News he exchanged texts with Hensley on June 25 about the negative attention Honeybee was receiving under Hensley's leadership. Hill shared with Knox News a text message from Hensley saying he would "bow out" from the company.
Hill declined to comment further as he consults with lawyers.
Former Honeybee barista: Store struggles led to abrupt closings
While customers began noticing strange changes in mid-June, Honeybee's baristas had already seen warning signs from the inside.
Chad Kinder, a barista who started at Honeybee in April 2023 and quit earlier this month, said there was no announcement that Hensley had taken control of the company in early 2024.
It was not until May that Hensley began aggressively pushing the changes he wanted to make, Kinder said. Hensley wanted staff in uniforms and wanted to change products, remodel stores and turn Honeybee into a restaurant with a full menu.
He removed tips and told baristas they would work anywhere from 20 to 60 hours a week depending on business.
"It was very clear from the moment that I met him that he didn't actually care about the business or any of the employees," Kinder told Knox News. "It was kind of like an obvious cash grab feeling."
Almost the entire staff walked out over the past few weeks, Kinder said, and the few that are left are trying to run two locations with a handful of recent hires.
While Hensley said the closures were meant to give Honeybee time to remodel and add a new menu, Kinder said the flood of resignations forced Honeybee to close locations.
Hensley gave himself sole power to hire new staff and made it clear before he left that he did not want any negative thinking from employees.
SoKno Pride, which will host its annual LGBTQ pride event in South Knoxville on June 29, announced in a Facebook post it would remove all events and vendors from Honeybee on Sevier Avenue "in solidarity with our community." The organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Steve Dedman, husband of Knox News visuals editor Jennifer Dedman, formerly served as head brewer at Honeybee. The two are no longer involved with the company.
Honeybee is just one of Aaron Hensley's multiple companies
Hensley, an acolyte of business coach and motivational speaker Grant Cardone, has other Knoxville business ventures that have limited presence on the internet − or clear products and services. Several of their social media pages or websites appear to have been taken down.
According to his email signature and LinkedIn profile, Hensley is CEO of Rise Brands, a collection of four companies including Honeybee.
The other companies include Hensley Capital, which offers "real estate investment opportunities & insights," according to its website. The page hosts links to four rental homes in the Smoky Mountains listed on other sites. It directs users to learn more about investing in real estate, but the link leads nowhere.
Hensley also is CEO of Rise USA, a business coaching company based in Knoxville that lists a wide range of services on its site.
In 2022, Hensley served as director of studio growth for Premier Martial Arts, according to his LinkedIn profile. The Knoxville-based franchise company was sued by multiple franchisees in 2023 for alleged systemic fraud and incompetence that franchisees say lost them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Hensley said he is not a party to the lawsuit and declined to comment further without an attorney present.
