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I have considered starting a coffee cart/brick-and-mortar in the past.
However to really have a competitive advantage you need to source your own beans from a small farm in South America and roast them yourself. This is highly desirable in MCOL areas with college money. Many of these areas do not have exposure to single farm beans that are roasted in person. This means you can charge a premium price for a cup of coffee like $4-$6 a cup.
If you can bring quality coffee to areas that have never seen truly good coffee you have a profitable business. I would recommend renting a local coffee shop roaster because it can be a large PPE cost initially sitting around 25K-50K.
I would try to replicate blue bottle coffee on a smaller scale. In MCOL areas that are college towns.
I think the best business model is to have fresh beans, good pastries and muffins, as well as a killer BEC (Bacon Egg and Cheese). Good customer service is a must.
Also, I think dark chocolate almond milk should be in coffee shops. It’s pretty tasty and healthy. Typically shops just have plain almond milk and it’s not the same.
I don't drink coffee and never go to coffee shops, but I always had one question:
How do some coffee shops get inside the big corporate offices? Like Starbucks at Apple offices, Costa Coffee in other companies, etc. Is this some national commercial agreement or do franchisees go out on their own? Some of them don't even have a brand on them, they just sell with no end in sight. I assume that these are very profitable (outside of Covid19).
This is actually a great question. I haven't heard of many corporate offices with Starbucks although some mention an in-house barista.
Might be exclusive.
I used to work for Apple in Cupertino and know they have some form of agreement with Starbucks. All of their offices have Starbucks staff or products (if self serve).
The Starbucks business model is high customer service as well as taking very good care of the employees.
There is a book about it:
Joseph Michelli
The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary
https://www.amazon.com/Starbucks-Experience-Principles-Ordinary-Extraor…
A drive thru is key
Yeah seems very beneficial to profits.
You also don't need to rely as much on creating a "brand" for people that just want to grab and go in the morning or whatever. Parking, time and convenience are usually what people care about the most. There is a reason a lot of bars fail....you have to get people to come in to drink and rent is high.
Unless you have a really trendy business/marketing strategy, the coffee shop game is basically all about real estate. If you're in the burbs, you either need a drive through or a place that is incredibly inviting (a place where people can sit and chill). If you are downtown, you need high volume, there is a slim chance that the money you put in the extra sf or lots of seating will translate into sufficient number of sales. At that point, it is all about positioning your trendy or quasi trendy shop in a high foot traffic area. If there are lots of rich people, know that the price elasticity of demand will be relatively inelastic. Think about complementary goods and do your best to cross-sell (train shop employees to recommend lots of things etc).
wework
I think WeWork have their own coffee shops, artisan coffee.
Not sure if 3rd parties can get in.
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