advice needed for starting a coffee/comic shop.

[MilkNCheese]

I am a Business student from Massachusetts and i am planing on opening a Coffee shop that sells comics. I think this would be a good idea since i would be able to make a net prophit from the diversity of goods i will sell at this store. I truly have no idea on how to exactly start this type of business, so any feedback would be truly appreaciated. Thank you. :-D

 

[topher]

Aren't you worried that you will be focused on one group? I understand that you have 2 different products under one roof but.....will people come? Not trying to be harsh but I do not think I would go into a comic book store for an espresso...I mean you can say that you are having a wide variety of products at lets say a nudy bar with nuns dancing...wait better yet a head shop with police uniforms...oh well I hope I am wrong and you are very successful! :wink:

 

[BaristaTrainer]

M&C

Here is a page on our site where you can find a wide assortment of education books on starting and operating a coffee shop. This may be a good place to start: http://www.espresso101.com/catalog/coffee-book

You may also want to look at the SCAA's resource center: http://www.scaa.org/shop/products_catalog.asp

Good luck with your research phase of start-up.

- Matt

 

[MilkNCheese]

I see your point, I wasn't planing on having a huge line of comics though. I was thinking of how a cafe may sell paintings. Coffee would be the main product, but the comics would probably be mostly independent labels insted of the cookie cutter super hero comics you see everywhere.

 

[javahill]

Think of your business as having 2 knds of products: traffic items and margin items. traffic items are those that get people in the door and margin is what keeps you in this year's fashions. coffee can do both.

Dunkin Donuts sells 13 donuts for every cup of coffee, but based on models we've run, they make about 60 percent of their profits on coffee.

Comics would be... traffic items - branding for your store to differentiate it from other coffee shops. They might also be anti-traffic items if people look in the store and have an image of 30 years olds living in their mom's basement IMing their krew about Deep Space 9. If your city has the population to support a comic shop (Boston does) you can probably add in a coffee bar. You'll make more money per customer and keep them in the store longer.

I remember shopping at Newbury Comics in 1984-5. They had music I could not get elsewhere - I was looking for German imports. Their ability to get stuff that nobody else had plus competitive prices enable them to grow. Do you have the stuff people want but can't get elsewhere? Coffee people can get most anywhere - or at least they think they can.

I take it back - the coffee market is so saturated, if you have a good location, people will come in looking for coffee. Otherwise, it is the books that will need to deliver the customers for you to shake down at the register.