Advice on supplying coffee shops

[ekimzey14]

Hello all!

I come to you today as a supplier to a number of coffee shops in my area. I was wondering if any of you fine folks would be willing to answer a couple of questions.

I would like to grow my coffee shop business and was curious, what snack type items do you find hard to come by but you know will sell in your shop/kiosks?

My lines can add a new revenue stream to coffee shops, does that even matter or are you so concentrated on doing what you do, coffee, that the extra revenue is nice but not a priority?

Is there a specific price point you look for, or simply just look at the individual item?

We have built a website dedicated to shipping our product all over the country (I posted it in the B2B forum, you can check it there), is this a service a shop might utilize?

Thanks again for any help.

 

[John P]

Good duck tongues are hard to find here, but they would be eaten like popcorn by our Taiwanese and Japanese customers.

It depends on the taste and chewiness of the duck tongue what it's worth (per 100 tongues).

If you have a good line on fresh duck tongues for snacking, please post a public link.

 

[ekimzey14]

Uhh .. ok? I will call my local duck farmer I guess ..? And uh, ask him if I can have their toungues .. ? Right .. ?

 

[PinkRose]

Hello all!

. . . what snack type items do you find hard to come by but you know will sell in your shop/kiosks?

Duck tongues are certainly an out of the ordinary snack that would be hard to come by.

Most coffee shops focus on selling coffee. Any extra revenue gained from selling snacks wouldn't be a priority. Snacks (chips, candy, beef jerky, etc.) really don't belong in a coffee shop.

You said that you're a supplier to a number of coffee shops in your area. What type of items are they buying from you? Have they made any special out-of-the-ordinary requests?

 

[John P]

OP,

PRose has it right. Which is exactly what I was trying to illustrate... although duck tongues are a real Taiwanese snack.

Those coffee shop owners who would be interested in your product as "a new revenue stream" are either failing or about to fail. No coffee shop owner who knows how to run their business (which is coffee) would need "a new revenue stream" nor would they add a non-coffee related item to do it.

Beware who you seek as customers. They may not be around for long.

 

[eldub]

I don't like duck tongues. Too chewy for me.

 

[ekimzey14]

I sell organic snacks, energy bars, healthy snacks, gluten free baked goods, high end chocolate, ready to go organic oatmeal, muesli, granola, quinoa and more, we actually do REALLY well in the shops we service (upwards of 1k per week in our best locations). I also sell bulk items such as nuts, grains etc.. that the shops bake into home made snacks.

As a business owner, I see what you are saying but I have to respectfully disagree. Sure we all love what we do (or we wouldn't do it) but we still need to make money. Adding new revenue streams, snacks, soda, whatever, not only brings in more revenue it also brings in new customers. Do what you do well, coffee, but use that extra counter space to make an extra buck or two per customer. It makes business sense to me. Because at the end of the day as a business owner we still have families to feed, bills to pay and retirement to think about