Hospital Location

[DeTejas]

Hello All,

I am wondering if anyone has experience in opening a coffee shop near a hospital.

I live in a town of approx. 25k people with 64k in the county. We are in the process of building a new hospital to replace the existing one that is in a 60+ year old building. The hospital has 135 beds and employs 800 people. The new facility is being built in an area of town that is growing but currently has no coffee houses and just a few fast food restaurants. The traffic counts from 2004 for the intersection where the hospital will be were 21k and 11k and I think it is safe to say those numbers will increase quite a bit with all the hospital traffic and new businesses the hospital will bring.

Here is my thinking:
- Open the coffee shop as close to the new facility as possible
- Provide a great tasting product in a comfortable environment
- Include a drive thru window
- Sell sandwiches from local cafes. I would rather not make the sandwiches but sell pre-made from local cafes. The old hospital has a couple of popular cafes that hospital personnel can easily run to and pick up a quick bite to take back to work. Since the hospital is moving this could possibly enable the cafe(s) to keep providing their product to regular customers that would no longer be able to eat their food. I''m not sure how feasible it would be to make an agreement with one or more of these cafes to provide a certain number of pre-made sandwiches a day. Does anyone have experience with this or opinions?
- I have tinkered with the idea of providing space for local businesses to have offsite meetings but that might take up to much room and be too ambitious at this point.

I would appreciate any thoughts on this idea and the location potential with a hospital. Thanks in advance!

 

[Bafa]

I work at a hospital and they opened a coffee booth in the lobby... was a cart with umbrella, small fridge and whatnot. Big enough that he could make whatever you wanted really. The guy ALWAYS had bussiness. I have no idea what the hospital was charging him, but after a couple of years they opened aan actual Starbucks shop in a spot near the lobby closer to the dinnig area.

 

[DeTejas]

Here is something else I wonder...

If the coffee shop is located nearer to the hospital (very close walking distance) or nearer the street what would be the better location? Closer to the street would get you more vehicle traffic but it's far enough away that you probably would not get much walking traffic from the hospital. Is the foot traffic of the hospital worth sacrificing some vehicle traffic?

The difference in location would be a few hundred yards off the road(basically a block or two driving distance) vs. right on the road.

 

[susansaddiction]

hospital location

I've had a coffee shop in the main lobby of our regional hospital for about 1 1/2 years now - and it is an awesome location. If you'd like to send me a pm I'll give you some more info - but I say go for the contract right in the hospital....
Susan

 

[jfpetesn]

I have an oppritunity to locate a coffee bar in a hospital lobby. I am trying to run the number and have a lot of questions. Does anyone have any experience operating within a hospital environment?

 

[ladyrose]

Hospital

I have been considering a coffee cart and been looking into locations. A hospital sound good but don't all hospitals have big cafeterias? I know all the ones near me do and offer coffee and all the snacks I would carry. Most of them offer Starbucks. Would it make sense to put a cart in the lobby of someplace that already has a cafeteria?

Rose

 

[Caffe Latte]

wow, hospitals that sell real coffee. I am surprised :shock:

While the best place for the doctors, nurses, and staff would be INSIDE the hospital, that may make it so that you get little to no foot or car traffic from the outside.

Having worked and working in hospital/rehab centers I can say that the best place for a coffee shop is within a one-block area. any further and it's hard for people to take a "ten-minute" break if it takes 5 to walk there, 5 back, and the line can be 5 minutes as well. Try to stay either on the same side of the street or across from the hospital. Doctors drink a boat load of coffee and the hospital coffee has always sucked (the place I am at now is grey. I am dead serious. GREY)