What does Revscene want in a Coffee House

[Boostslut]

Originally Posted by DavidNguyen

I wanna be able to drink coffee and chill with dogs in a cafe.

I have two dogs at home, i can bring them in for you if you like. One of them will lick your face off, and the other one will just lay there like a couch potato. Let me know when your coming in!

[320icar]

Don't forget that if you ask an electrician buddy, lots of them will have accounts with local hardware or interior stores that can net you massive discounts

[Galactic_Phantom]

Not exactly something I want, but something you should consider. I know it sounds easier than it is, but try to think of a signature drink or product that is eye-appealing and could strike up a fad. Something that could be trending on facebook/instagram. Try to make it cool or cute as possible.

Think 720 Sweets and their dry ice in a cup ice cream. Everyone is rushing there to go take pictures and post it on instagram. Hell, I even saw an entire ice cream thrown out in the trash. Dumb lgs just want to be 'in' and farm for likes on fb/ig.

Another example would be the SeeNay pizza at Steveston Pizza. It was once a $120 pizza with lobster, white truffle, caviar etc. and nobody knew shit about it. Once mainlanders started to pay attention, they jacked the price up to $850. Eight hundred fucking fifty dollars for a pizza. Why? Because mainlanders see posting it on social media as a social status thing and don't give a flying fuck about shelling that kind of money on something that ridiculous. Point is, make a fad that will catch on, and you'll have endless supply of dumb sheeps lining up to buy it.

[Expresso]

Originally Posted by kr4l

Honestly, opening a coffee shop in Richmond is a terrible idea. Your clientele will be 99% Asian. The older crowds drink McDonald's / timmys and the younger crowds drink crackbucks / blenz / waves.

Fresh Press in Richmond seems to do ok, so i dont think you can just generalize.

Keep it 3rd wave and offer lots of Ethiopian varieties.

Forget the gimmicks, just make good coffee.

[meowjinboo]

Location Location Location. Brew good beans (Milano does an awesome job)

Really hipsterish decor, home made pastries (try and be different, even some packed krinos spinach spiral pies and cheese pies would be good).

I am white and live in richmond, and go to asian businesses. If you make a comfortable coffee shop where I can dress like a filthy fashionable hipster that I am, I will be there everyday.

Good luck.

Also I really hope you are opening it in steveston village... asians suck here.

[kr4l]

Originally Posted by Boostslut

Thanks again bro's!

kr4l, thanks for your help. I might just do that, or get you to drop by during the process to see how it's going. Or maybe, we can hit up your place and have a nice little chat! Personally, i might be totally wrong here and delusional but I thought in the area that i'm going up, it's such an up and coming area with a lot of younger people there it'll be a great area soon! I'm thinking about 2 years out at least.

Board games do sound like a lot of fun also. Also, i want some sort of intellectual conversation sort of nights also. I have some writer friends that might be able to help me out, and would be cool to get people have good conversation about the world, current events, books, and interesting topics.

And, i'm also quite sure that i won't have bubble tea in my shop either. Sorry!

Cheers!

If you by chance come down to Richmond or wanna chat, Im always up for it. However, I'm really fucking blunt and stubborn so don't take me super serious. I'm also not at the shop all the time so drop me a pm before hand.

Also for the electrical outlets and stuff, you guys are describing the 3 big coffee chains. If you are in the market to compete against them, good luck.

Coffee sales are about turnover. How much is that one seat worth in sales to you? If you have a 4 top and 1 guy buys a $3.00 Americano and sits there for 5 hours, you're not making much money off of it. If it don't make money, it don't make sense.

Your highest cost is not the rent, but your labour. I have 16 staff which is ridiculous, but I sacrifice some profit to get drinks and food out fast so customers don't have to wait.

Your clientele in Richmond is 99% Asian. If it's not, you're going out of business, fast. Trust me on this one. Hell even Vancouver, your main focus should be Asian. You need something that makes you different from other places. Richmond is a different beast compared to Vancouver. (My experience)

[westopher]

Host thursday night meets.
For me it would come down to some good snacks. Have some muffins, donuts, croissants that you can't just get anywhere.

[kr4l]

Originally Posted by Expresso

Fresh Press in Richmond seems to do ok, so i dont think you can just generalize.

Keep it 3rd wave and offer lots of Ethiopian varieties.

Forget the gimmicks, just make good coffee.

What's ok? No one will understand unless you're a business owner. Just because you see a place packed when you're there for 30 minutes doesn't mean it's doing great. Come to my store Saturday night at 9pm in the summer and you won't find a seat or a place to stand. Doesn't mean it's all good during December when it's freezing cold and my place is empty.

My plan to open a business is not to make a shit ton of money, but to buy myself time to live my life comfortably without having to work as hard. Also to work smart, and not hard. If the owner works 12 hours a day, 7 days a week and makes a decent wage, is it worth it? Trust me, I've owned and operated 2 businesses at one time, working 16 hours a day.

In the end, what is yours goal? If it's to make a ok wage, why risk spending $100k on a Reno for a coffee shop which 99% of the time will close down. Why not just work a 9-5 and get a cheque every two weeks. What's your risk tolerance? What happens if this idea flops?

[v_tec]

I'm not sure if by-law / building allows, but maybe open later...and close later (11pm-2am) or even 24 hours.

[IfUCare]

Hi K4rl,

you might want to train your staff to do a better job with the coffee, the last two time i had a latte and americano it tasted liked burnt plastic.

sorry, didn't mean to derail this threat.

[Expresso]

I feel like everyone's suggestions is to open a bubble tea shop lol.

[fishCak3s]

I would agree with opening late. After the morning and after lunch/afternoon rush, people usually bunker up with their books/laptops and stay for hours.

Pet friendly would be great, or at least allow an owner to bring their pet in to grab something then leave instead of leaving them in the car.

Free delivery within a certain distance if they reach a certain $ amount? Collaborate with companies taking care of their coffee runs? Just thinking out loud here.

Will it be all to go cups? Standard bring your own mug discount, daily specials, RS discount

waffles...yummmmm......

[kr4l]

Originally Posted by IfUCare

Hi K4rl,

you might want to train your staff to do a better job with the coffee, the last two time i had a latte and americano it tasted liked burnt plastic.

sorry, didn't mean to derail this threat.

Thanks for the critique. Will definitely check on that. I'm not sure why it would taste like burnt plastic unless it is from our beans. Let me know next time you come in and your order will be on me.

[kr4l]

Something you need to ask yourself is, what is around your location? Residential? Commercial businesses? What's your clientele? Competition?

Is your business mainly based Monday - Friday sales or just weekends? Lunch time? Dinner? After dinner? whats the minimum you need to make a day to stay afloat? Food cost? Labour cost? Fixed costs? Rent?

[kr4l]

Also pet friendly is not up to the business, and it's actually not sanitary to have pets inside food establishments. It's ok until you get caught by the health inspector or some asshole eating at your place decides to call Richmond health.

[mk1freak]

if you follow your sn and call it coffeeslut....i'd come. (that and make sure there's parking....)

[snails]

0 wifi
0 wall plugs

so people cant sit on their laptops all day.

i actually avoid certain starbucks because i cant go in and sit down because all seats are taking by people just sitting on laptops..

maybe it will encourage people to.. talk to eachother! its a crazy idea i have but it could work!

best of luck with your shop!

[mk1freak]

i'd talk to you snails...but only through facebook messenger

[ZN6]

kid's size, small, medium, large.

I've had enough of people not knowing what size they are ordering and turn it into a fucking science project. Also had it with 20 variations of pronouncing "grande"

I've heard so many and here are some of the top picks: Gran-dee, Gran-duh, Grand-day, gran-doo, great, granola, god damn.

[ZN6]

Originally Posted by snails

0 wifi
0 wall plugs

so people cant sit on their laptops all day.

i actually avoid certain starbucks because i cant go in and sit down because all seats are taking by people just sitting on laptops..

maybe it will encourage people to.. talk to eachother! its a crazy idea i have but it could work!

best of luck with your shop!

BUT BUT BUT...... How are people supposed to work their play-writes or novels?

[kr4l]

Originally Posted by snails

0 wifi
0 wall plugs

so people cant sit on their laptops all day.

i actually avoid certain starbucks because i cant go in and sit down because all seats are taking by people just sitting on laptops..

maybe it will encourage people to.. talk to eachother! its a crazy idea i have but it could work!

best of luck with your shop!

Problem is, that's what people want. Are you going to not offer it because that's not what you want?

It's about making money. Why do you think Starbucks is a billion dollar company? Cause it works. I personally think you'd be asking to close down if you don't at least offer wifi. I do agree with people not talking to each other nowadays

[tdeweyn]

+1 for board games

[snails]

Originally Posted by kr4l

Problem is, that's what people want. Are you going to not offer it because that's not what you want?

It's about making money. Why do you think Starbucks is a billion dollar company? Cause it works. I personally think you'd be asking to close down if you don't at least offer wifi. I do agree with people not talking to each other nowadays

they are a billion dollar company because their grande coffee cost 53$..


and the wifi thing was a stretch. but they are also losing money having people buy a single coffee and then loiter for 5 hours.

i know im not only speaking for myself when i say that when seating is limited its extremely annoying when everyone is sitting there on a laptop so thay can watch fcking netflix, write a screenplay or w/e

and yes i do get that some actually go there to do homework and for whatever reason they dont have a home.. or internet. but thats not the majority at all

[kr4l]

Originally Posted by snails

they are a billion dollar company because their grande coffee cost 53$..


and the wifi thing was a stretch. but they are also losing money having people buy a single coffee and then loiter for 5 hours.

i know im not only speaking for myself when i say that when seating is limited its extremely annoying when everyone is sitting there on a laptop so thay can watch fcking netflix, write a screenplay or w/e

and yes i do get that some actually go there to do homework and for whatever reason they dont have a home.. or internet. but thats not the majority at all

I get what you're saying and that was exactly my point in one of my points above about a 4 top and having a single person sit there for 5 hours buying a $3.00 Americano.

Problem is, that's what a coffee place is. To go surf the web/homework and lounge around for hours having a single coffee. But if you don't offer that, people will go to one of the big 3 for it.

You'll then say, hey that's not my clientele. Ok cool, what is your clientele? If you're telling me your clientele is the other xx% of the population that want what you offer, cool. As long as xx% is more than the other percentage of people that want a place like Starbucks.

In the past few years since I've been in business, I've only seen 1-2 Starbucks close down. That's a pretty damn good ratio of success to failure so I doubt they are losing money.

Ironically, one of the locations that closed down was in Aberdeen centre in the heart of Richmond. Another one was on Robson where there was 2 across from each other, and it was because of a rent dispute.

Edit: again im sorry if I sound like a total ass, but I hate seeing businesses close down because owners don't know what they are getting themselves into. It's a 99% chance your business will fail. Why we try I have no fucking clue.

[Berzerker]

Originally Posted by Boostslut

Thanks for all the responses so far. You guys are awesome!

MG1, thanks for the great answer. I can't totally see where your coming from, and i'll do my best to take people on a great journey of different coffee's from around the world. I want to be able to have the time to tell customers the history, facts, and interesting things about coffee. I have a coffee roaster lined up that it all about getting high quality coffee's from around the world, in small batches. I hope I can get you to come down when i'll be open in January - Feb 2016. Oh ya, I've got a name. It's in Richmond, i'm sure many people here have driven by it all ready, and maybe even noticed it.
!

Looks for MG1 post......... Dafuq?

Berz out.