Displaying coffee beans...

AJPRATT

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I was wondering how you display your coffee beans. I have seen glass containers and I have seen dispensers. I was just wondering what your preference was.
 
Beans for purchase or for the shop's daily use?
 
if exposed to the air they will go bad quickly, only use bin type display if you sell alot on a daily bases otherwise i suggest sealed retail bags.
 
Hey, thanks for responding! These would be for the purchase of beans.

And, yes, the freshness is a concern to me. I have seen them displayed in glass jars, and wondered how fresh they could be.

I want to offer the best product possible.
 
Those I roasted for store usage, I put them in jars with roasting date. Those to be sold by the pound, I package them in sealed valve bags, also with roasting date. If you have a system and properly manage it, freshness is assured.
 
Thank you... I went to a nearby store and saw that they stored their roasted coffee in glass canisters with the metal lids. There had to be 50 different flavors/types of beans in the display. I know its a popular store, but I was pretty sure people were buying mostly stale beans.

Who would you recommend for the valve bags?
 
Glass Jars a BIG "NO" as you have rightly thought, probably stale beans.
Roast date everything. Do not sell any beans over 7 days past roast date, regardless of the bs someone tries to feed you, it would be cheating the customer. So display beans in bags to be sold. Don't roast/carry more than you need. Give older beans free to employees or use for yourself. Don't sell week plus old beans to customers even if asked.

Valve bags.
If coffee is sold fresh, packaged well, and customers are educated on consuming fresh (within ~ 10 days to 2 weeks), and storing properly (cool, dry, dark place )they are nice, but not necessary.
 
Thank you, John, for confirming what I suspected. Every shop I go into, has beans displayed like that. I would love to have some sort of attractive display like that, but I don't want to sell a subpar product. What to do, what to do... I can always bag the beans and have them displayed on shelves.
 
John is spot on about the freshness (thumbs up!) You might want to set up a display right next to your pos. We have a nice wicker display basket with the bags nicely arranged next to the pos. Doing this is nice because as the customer is waiting in line the bags are just screaming out their names to be bought. Or if you have the counter space a nice display case with the bagged beans ready to be snatched up and bought? An extra $10 added to the bill is always nice at the end of the week. Also you might want your baristas asking the customers maybe starting on Wed. if they need beans for the weekend. Folk are busy and have tons on their minds and sometimes need that little reminder of what they will need for the weekends.
 
Thanks for your suggestion. I guess because I've seen so many lose bean displays I feel compelled to do the same. I want my customers to see what we offer, but I don't want to compromise quality.
 
AJPRATT said:
There had to be 50 different flavors/types of beans in the display. I know its a popular store, but I was pretty sure people were buying mostly stale beans.

Stale and inferior quality; one does not take a premium quality specialty coffee and douse it with "butterscotch" flavored chemicals. Anyone can dump artificially sweet flavoring on bad coffee; very few can correctly prepare a naturally sweet cup of coffee. Your business will be more unique and face less competition when you do the latter.

Stick to the upper end of premium single-origin coffees and thoughtfully designed blends; no more than 4-5 in your shop at one time so that you can easily manage the inventory. Find some other mechanism to advertise your whole bean sales at the point of purchase and bag them only as needed; pulling from your fresh inventory.

Best,

Andrew
 
Thank you. I spent the afternoon in a local shop with the owner. They had most of their coffees bagged and displayed. They had a few loose beans on display, only 4 or so in glass containers. The bags looked wonderful they way they were set up. I was actually able to be there as she roasted on an Ambex YM30. Serious stuff! It was great to watch and experience and help out. It was also great to see the expression on people's faces as we roasted. It was very inspiring. She gave me full access to her shop (its her 2nd) and even let me get behind the counter and she gave me lots of tips on layout and efficiency. What an experience.
 
You could always use stale beans to create displays/wall art, etc. not for sale.
 
Thank you! I saw a neat display somewhere I'd love to recreate. I'm also open to suggestions!
 

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