New business

[cruise182]

Hello,
I am new and may be adding a small coffee shop/cafe/cart to my business. I have a candy/gift store with over 600 products. Chocolates to nuts. Currently sell green mountain beans. I have been approached by a man who owns 2 small coffee cafes to rent him some of my space in my store. I do NOT want to do this, but would love to add it myself. I am in the process of getting the lottery machine from a deli next door. He has sold to a pizza guy who does not want the lottery. I will be gaining a foot traffic of about 80 people ad day on top of my existing foot traffic of about 40.

I have decided to go with a Concordia Coffee Systems. From what the sales rep said the 1500 model is priced at about 7k. If I sold 20 cups a day I should be able to pay off the machine in 8 months. I DO NOT want to get into buying and learning all the different aspects of coffee. Just sell some good latte/espresso at a good price. It will be self serve. The machine does lattes espresso and such. I want to offer more then just coffee. pastries and cakes and such. I am not sure where or from whom to get the product from. I want it to be prepackaged to save me any aggravation. It will be in a grab n go merchandiser. Any recommendations to a supplier would be great. Any advice? Suggestions? Any and all responses would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[AJPRATT]

If I were you, I would consider the offer from the guy with the cafe, maybe for a short term. You'll wind up making some money and hopefully offer a better product than a bunch of chemicals from a machine. If it works out, then maybe you can look into it for the future.

 

[nemoscoffee]

I agree...
If you want to do coffee, then invest some time to learn about it and do it right. The self serve machines are gimmicky and people will love them once. Repeat business will probably not be very high, and the machines break down often. They put one in where I worked in 2002 and it was the 'talk of the town' for a couple of days. Then it broke. They fixed it, and it broke again. They fixed it, and it broke again. They did not fix it again, and it was a boat anchor for six months before they finally removed it.

Make a few bucks off the guy that wants to rent space, and learn what you can until you want to do it for yourself.

Good luck,
JD

 

[AJPRATT]

Glad you posted, JD. All I heard was the sound of crickets after my post. I was beginning to think I was way off. Ha Ha...

 

[cafemakers]

I have decided to go with a Concordia Coffee Systems. From what the sales rep said the 1500 model is priced at about 7k.

You might want to look a little deeper into the history of that company before you commit. Look up the history of "Acorto" machines and talk to some of their customers. Same systems, many of the same problems...

 

[AJPRATT]

Not to rain on your parade, but IMHO, I think there is a lot more that goes into selling specialty coffee than just buying a machine. There are water considerations (have your water tested), your market, etc.