What kind of shop would people like to see?

[wmrcomputers]

No. Why would someone pay a fee when they can go to any coffee shop for free

Sorry maybe I should have made this clearer. The idea was a weekly fee to be able to pop in as often as you liked and drink as much coffee as you wanted without paying for the drinks. The weekly fee would have been lower than you could spend in Costa in one afternoon, although we've now moved away from that thought anyway, or at least the members side of it.

We're currently in chats thinking of opening a simple coffee lounge. Yes, we have various proper coffee shops but costwise it's expensive especially if you make it a regular thing. We also have cafe's that make awful tasting coffees and overcharge really for what you get, and lack the comfort of places such as costa.

We're currently thinking of a homely feeling coffee lounge with a good range of coffees etc to choose from and charging an affordable fee of around £1.20, with refills the same day being charged at a lower cost to encourage people to stay and relax a while. The location is out of the hustle and bustle of the town centre itself although not too far, and has free car parking available.

Comfy sofas, reasonably priced hot drinks with a loyalty reward, homemade cakes, possibly free wifi plus a couple of free to use computers, and a friendly atmosphere that would hopefully make it an enjoyable meeting place... But not a youth club

Any feedback on this whether it be criticisms, likeliness of dropping in, other ways it should be run or anything else will be much appreciated.

 

[John Marwood]

http://www.quora.com/Why-do-most-café-startups-fail

 

[Carole]

We're currently in chats thinking of opening a simple coffee lounge.

We're currently thinking of a homely feeling coffee lounge with a good range of coffees etc to choose from and charging an affordable fee of around £1.20, with refills the same day being charged at a lower cost to encourage people to stay and relax a while. The location is out of the hustle and bustle of the town centre itself although not too far, and has free car parking available.

Comfy sofas, reasonably priced hot drinks with a loyalty reward, homemade cakes, possibly free wifi plus a couple of free to use computers, and a friendly atmosphere that would hopefully make it an enjoyable meeting place... But not a youth club

Any feedback on this whether it be criticisms, likeliness of dropping in, other ways it should be run or anything else will be much appreciated.

Ok. My thoughts.
Who are your target customers? What sort of people are you hoping to attract?

My concern is how you think that you can get a return on your investment. by the time you have bought your coffee machines, installed a serving counter, bought all your sofas, paid staff, rent, rates, tax etc. If you are only charging £1.20 AND encouraging people to stay for hours how are you going to make a profiit?

I know that there is a huge markup on coffee but the profit depends on selling thousands of cups of the stuff and if you are out of town, how are going to achieve this?

What else would you be selling apart from coffee and cakes?

I am only speaking for myself but I personally only usually go to a coffee shop if I am meeting a friend, but I wouldnt go out of my way for one.

If you are hoping to attract people in the local vicinity then you would need a huge amount of regular customers to make this work.

 

[kyoto49]

I love your idea of a community cafe, where prices are reasonable and people are welcome to stay, but is it really realistic? You'd do well to get 100 people in on a weekday, so £100 taken. Out of that you have to pay for staff, your own wages, heating, lighting, and rent, to name a few. Being honest, you;d be lucky to take £500 a week before costs. If you're doing it fir something to occupy yourself and to meet people, great. if you want to turn a profit I suspect it's a little bi unrealistic. Sorry.

 

[littleme]

Well I think its a good idea - I'm sure that @wmrcomputers knows enough people to fill a coffee shop at least 6 times over

 

[age'd parent]

It just struck me that a new "Reg Horn's", produce sold from the allotments and any cheap canned foods, with attached coffee shop / repair computers, you would need a large lockable shed though in your garden made of railway sleepers to be authentic.

 

[John Marwood]

Have you thought about becoming a personal part-time butler

Have you looked into what directives Government has to adhere to and therefore has a budget to carry out

Have you thought about running a high quality painter and decorator operation

Have you found an efficient way to make GP Practices run better

Have you considered starting a specialist recruitment agency


Of course not - because you want to open a shop

However, these were some of the new businesses that opened last year and are still open

Maybe sell coffee to GP Practices, thirsty posh decorators and office workers, from your WMR mobile latte van?

 

[kyoto49]

There's something in what John says. Where I work we have 2 food vans that come round, both sell sandwiches, crisps, chocolates,, hot pizza, spuds, pies, all highly calorific, not that nutritious and a bit boring. If someone could deliver proper hot healthy dinners to our place they'd make an absolute killing and I suspect other places would be very interested too, particularly on the Industrial Estates that aren't near any shops or food retailers. It seems to be only burger type vans serving bacon sarnie type stuff or sandwich related things. Where's the mexican food van, serving healthy burritos or fajita's, or the indian food van serivng lovely curry and naan!! Just a my ten pence worth... at work feeling hungry now

 

[wmrcomputers]

Ok, first of all I'll mention the expenses as it were. There would be no staff wages as this would be a family run business (well, actually between 2 families). Business rates would be free for at least 12 months due to the rateable value of the premises. We wouldn't be using £10,000+ coffee machines as the idea is just to be able to offer a nice cuppa (quality instants not just basic nescafe) at lower than cafe prices, so a hot water urn etc. is all that is required. Rent and bills including insurances etc. come in at around £110 per week and we would be happy initially at the thought of breaking even. It shouldn't take many coffee's per day to acheive that - although we're realistically minded enough to know that we stand to lose out if we don't pull people in in the first couple of months.

It's not about dreaming of mega profits. If I'm honest, it's more about having something for Mrs WMR to focus on and as @kyoto49 points out it is about occupying ourselves and meeting people too. Target customers... as @littleme says I know a lot of people! I would say that around 20% or more of my customers know me on a personal enough level to almost class me as a friend and would be invited to pop in. Of course we'd love it if some Stafford Forum faces popped in too on occasion. We'd want it to feel like a home-from-home rather than just a coffee shop.

If we sold enough brews each day to pay the rent then we would be quite happy to plod on with it. This might sound bizarre to most people as a way of going into a business, but we're thinking of it more as a project than a business. If it works, fantastic. If it doesn't then we'll look back at what silly fools we were wasting a few thousand but be able to say we've given it a go. Besides, I've spent almost a third of that amount on a quadcopter, more than that amount on a daft hot tub which was sold at a huge loss 3 months later, and more than that each year on a dirty smoking habit. We've decided one more item on the list of wasted money would hardly change our lives if it all goes "tits-up".

 

[kyoto49]

Well @wrmcomputers, I would use a nice coffee shop that didn't charge £3 for a slice of cake myself. I like nice back ground music, the Guardian to read, comfy sofa's/chairs, and a decent Victoria sponge Provide that and I'm in!! If you can combine it with a second hand bookshop for me browse at the same time it truly would be my idea of bliss . Maybe you could run the cafe side and get someone to run the bookshop side for you, like a concession type thing??!!!

 

[proactive]

Ok, first of all I'll mention the expenses as it were. There would be no staff wages as this would be a family run business (well, actually between 2 families). Business rates would be free for at least 12 months due to the rateable value of the premises. We wouldn't be using £10,000+ coffee machines as the idea is just to be able to offer a nice cuppa (quality instants not just basic nescafe) at lower than cafe prices, so a hot water urn etc. is all that is required. Rent and bills including insurances etc. come in at around £110 per week and we would be happy initially at the thought of breaking even. It shouldn't take many coffee's per day to acheive that - although we're realistically minded enough to know that we stand to lose out if we don't pull people in in the first couple of months.

It's not about dreaming of mega profits. If I'm honest, it's more about having something for Mrs WMR to focus on and as @kyoto49 points out it is about occupying ourselves and meeting people too. Target customers... as @littleme says I know a lot of people! I would say that around 20% or more of my customers know me on a personal enough level to almost class me as a friend and would be invited to pop in. Of course we'd love it if some Stafford Forum faces popped in too on occasion. We'd want it to feel like a home-from-home rather than just a coffee shop.

If we sold enough brews each day to pay the rent then we would be quite happy to plod on with it. This might sound bizarre to most people as a way of going into a business, but we're thinking of it more as a project than a business. If it works, fantastic. If it doesn't then we'll look back at what silly fools we were wasting a few thousand but be able to say we've given it a go. Besides, I've spent almost a third of that amount on a quadcopter, more than that amount on a daft hot tub which was sold at a huge loss 3 months later, and more than that each year on a dirty smoking habit. We've decided one more item on the list of wasted money would hardly change our lives if it all goes "tits-up".

Have you thought about what hoops you will need to jump through Health and Safety wise, like hygiene certificates, any by-laws pertaining to coffee shops etc, how you would handle visits from the council food.drink safety officer. I know you'll only be running it as a tiny business but you'll still have to jump through the same hoops as the big boys.

 

[Wormella]

If I have a coffee out I'd expect to have it from fresh beans - not an instant, but then I don't use instant in the house so that might just be me.

To be honest - what Stafford could really do with is a decent sandwich shop, one that allows you to pick your own filling etc. There's McGregors but I can't think of any others in the town.

 

[1JKz]

Dave Gorman sums up my thoughts on the matter, and I hope you take it into account WMR!

 

[The Hawk]

If I have a coffee out I'd expect to have it from fresh beans - not an instant, but then I don't use instant in the house so that might just be me.

No instant "coffee" could be described as "quality coffee"; personally I would not even describe it as "coffee".

Sadly, most coffee shops, including the big chains, sell coffee made from roasted beans that have been left lying around for far too long (over 2 weeks) and, therefore, have gone stale. Have a look at the description that many use. They'll tell you that the beans are freshly ground; few will tell you that the beans themselves are freshly roasted (and if they do, many of those will be lying).

You are quite right to want coffee from fresh beans, finding it is somewhat more difficult.

In Stafford I use Bean Encounter, as they roast their coffee on the premises, and at home I have my own coffee roaster, so that I can ensure a supply of fresh coffee.

 

[littleme]

*sigh I think you lot might be thinking too big....@wmrcomputers sounds like he's offering a cosy place for a coffee n cake, some chat & maybe some WiFi while you're there - not another overpriced artisan style coffehouse & pâtisserie...

.. you never know, he might even stretch to tea & hot chocolate too!

 

[wmrcomputers]

No instant "coffee" could be described as "quality coffee"
In Stafford I use Bean Encounter, as they roast their coffee on the premises, and at home I have my own coffee roaster, so that I can ensure a supply of fresh coffee.

You are obviously content to pay a few pounds for a cup of the real stuff, for which I'm not knocking you. Not everyone can afford that though. And there are quality coffee's in instant compared to the basic bottom-of-the-range Nescafe that most basic cafe's charge around £1.50 a cup for. Don't get me wrong I LOVE real freshly ground coffee - but I also enjoy some of the better instant coffees too.

*sigh I think you lot might be thinking too big....@wmrcomputers sounds like he's offering a cosy place for a coffee n cake, some chat & maybe some WiFi while you're there - not another overpriced artisan style coffehouse & pâtisserie...
.. you never know, he might even stretch to tea & hot chocolate too!

Thank goodness someone gets me!
You've hit the nail precisely on the head in everything you've just said. Thank you

 

[PeterD]

If the overall ambience was right and location was a walk away I would go for that. Not some white stark echoey place, somewhere you want to spend some time.

 

[John Marwood]

A business needs a get out with a profit plan

That is why people who charge by the day or hour for their service have nothing left to sell on once they have had enough and want to move on

 

[bpelectric]

If i can get a brew without it coming from a flask or those vile paper cups at the garage Great
I'll never use those over priced Costa and Starbuck joints every time I've been in I've been looked down on just because me shoes don't shine and my logos on my shirt we don't all push paper for a living

Any way WMR you'll get my business when im working round town one thing that might be an advantage would be a Microwave to warm up a pastie and being able to park close by is a bonus for me

 

[wmrcomputers]

If i can get a brew without it coming from a flask or those vile paper cups at the garage Great
I'll never use those over priced Costa and Starbuck joints every time I've been in I've been looked down on just because me shoes don't shine and my logos on my shirt we don't all push paper for a living

Any way WMR you'll get my business when im working round town one thing that might be an advantage would be a Microwave to warm up a pastie and being able to park close by is a bonus for me

Your thoughts and comments appreciated Also, if it goes ahead and we need anything electrical doing it goes without saying that you'll be getting a call from me