Convenience store coffee...kind of

[stellaxtine]

I'm opening up a "convenience" store in a strip mall near a well-to-do neighborhood in the-middle-of-nowhere. Besides the restaurant, vet clinic, karate studio, and pet hotel next door, the only things nearby are a school and hospital, so by convenience, I don't mean Circle K, but more one-stop convenience services for the neighborhood (mail services and such). I want to make half the store a little cafe, so people can have coffee, wifi, and a nice place to sit and wait for whatever. I'm hoping to serve brewed coffee, espresso, and blended drinks.

Now here's where I'm hoping not to get lynched by everyone here (if you already haven't figured it out)
I know nothing about making a good cup of coffee.

I enjoy coffee but I have no experience being a barista and I'm certainly not a passionate coffee drinker. I've been trying to wrap my head around the coffee side of things for a while now and realized that maybe I should partner up with someone who does know a few things about coffee and who is much more excited about coffee than I am to run that area and have fun making coffee, while I do all the business work. The problem is, I don't know anybody who is passionate about coffee, so how would I even go about finding them? Would a knowledgeable barista be enough for the job?

 

[CoffeeJunky]

Stella,

First, welcome aboard.

I have few suggestions with your dilemma.
Where are you located and can you take few days to go on training?
Lastly, how much are you budgeting for coffee section.

CJ

 

[PinkRose]

Hello "stellaxtine"

Welcome to the Coffee Forums!

What state are you located in?

You'll obviously need a partner or employee who knows about coffee. Since you'll be handling the business end of everything, a very knowledgeable barista should be able to handle the mini-cafe part of the business. It doesn't sound like you'd be doing a lot of volume in the cafe part. Maybe that person could help out in other areas too.

Rose

 

[CoffeeJunky]

If she does it right, she could do very good business.
I have a friend who put a small cafe in their store and they now need 2 people to run the store.
It became one of the cool place for people to hang out quickly.

 

[stellaxtine]

Thanks for the welcome I'm in Phoenix, Arizona. The strip mall is actually located at the base of a community that goes up the mountain- residents have to drive past it every morning to go to work and on the way home. That's the main reason why I think the mini cafe would do well *knocks on wood* I do have time to take a few days and get training, and I think it'd be good for me to have basic knowledge of what's going on in the cafe and how to run it (just in case), but for the most part, I'll want to hire a barista. Not exactly sure about the budgeting for the cafe area yet, was kind of putting it off because I had no idea about it haha.