#FocalPoint: In December 2021, Matt Knio and Sam Abbas opened a bakery on East Washington Street called The Great Commoner, named after Abbas’s Dearborn restaurant. The Great Commoner provided baked goods to a number of cafes and restaurants in the Ann Arbor area. Knio and Abbas’s partnership lasted six months, until June 2022, when Knio took over full management of the store. Knio, who owns bakeries in Detroit and Birmingham, rebranded the Ann Arbor store — he redesigned the interior, refreshed the menu and renamed the bakery Cannelle. Knio enlisted his sister, Rawaa Debs, to oversee the bakery. Employees were initially encouraged by these changes, hoping that new management might bring higher wages and more benefits. One former employee commented on the shift in ownership in an interview with The Michigan Daily. This source requested anonymity, describing fears of professional retribution. In this article, they will be referred to as Riley. “At first, we were all super excited,...