Coffee Shop

blackrock · Jan 18, 2015

Gowing up during high school and college I worked at Starbucks. I was never really into coffee for taste but I liked the hippie relaxed atmosphere, and enjoyed the feeling.

My degree and profession is in a completely seperate field, however I wanted to open a coffee shop as a business just to get my hands wet. Has anyone ever done this.

What would be the starting investment like and how much can i expect to profit?

MooseKnuckles · Jan 18, 2015

There are many factors as to what profit will be, first thing are you renting, buying, how many employees, cost of equipment, insurance, product cost, and so on.

It's pretty hard to ask what profit will be with no information given.

Google&Pubmed · Jan 18, 2015

starbucks makes money out the ass but if you want your own mom and pop shop like a lot of people have in Austin TX it's going to be hard. Like in Austin it is easier because people love going to mom and pop shops and specifically look for them but if you are in a city where people go to a lot mainstream places and it is surrounded by them then it might be a little more difficult.

I mean even in places like Austin a lot of those coffee shops close down and not to mention all the things that blackrock mentioned above go into consideration.

You could also start one on college campuses. Rent will suck dick but thousands of customers with limited places to go. You provide a good enough place and your place will blow up. Plus if you started serving food it'll be a catch also because those kids just want to grab something to eat left and right.

blackrock · Jan 18, 2015

MooseKnuckles said:
There are many factors as to what profit will be, first thing are you renting, buying, how many employees, cost of equipment, insurance, product cost, and so on.

It's pretty hard to ask what profit will be with no information given.

True I realized that after i posted. I am just thinking about it, maybe get it up and running in the next 24 months.

I dont even know where to get started so kinda was an open ended question.. if you have experience in the field please definitely mention or give advice thanks.

MooseKnuckles · Jan 18, 2015

blackrock said:
True I realized that after i posted. I am just thinking about it, maybe get it up and running in the next 24 months.

I dont even know where to get started so kinda was an open ended question.. if you have experience in the field please definitely mention or give advice thanks.

You need to first write out a business plan and get some numbers put together on your approximate expenses, and figure what you would have to make monthly to cover your costs and then go from there, thats what I did before I started my own business, wrote a plan figured an average break even amount and then crunched numbers to see what I would have to bring in on an average customer to make a profit. My investment may be different than yours, I won't go into details but hundreds of thousands is what I investment to get started.

crunchy · Jan 19, 2015

I am about to start a drive through coffee shop. Got a great spot with high traffic (14k-16k people a day) there isn't another coffee shop for 15 miles. I think it will cost me about 40k for the building and equipment. Just need to work out the lease for the lot. I figure if I can get 1% of the traffic stoping I'll do OK. Its a lot to figure out. Big gamble. Best of luck to you in your operation

LiftAmongstGiants · Jul 12, 2015

crunchy said:
I am about to start a drive through coffee shop. Got a great spot with high traffic (14k-16k people a day) there isn't another coffee shop for 15 miles. I think it will cost me about 40k for the building and equipment. Just need to work out the lease for the lot. I figure if I can get 1% of the traffic stoping I'll do OK. Its a lot to figure out. Big gamble. Best of luck to you in your operation

Did you get to open your coffee shop? If so how is it going?

b_cornelius · Jul 12, 2015

Is this a joke? Seriously, it's a reoccurring joke that someone asks about this saturated market.

If you don't know about it, then you probably don't have any thing unique to offer and shouldn't do it. I'd fucking hope that you're a damn expert if you want to compete in this.

boomersooner · Aug 23, 2015

Economic theory says that in the coffee market you and everyone else will have a long-term economic profit of zero. It's a market that is incredibly saturated even. Not only are there many coffee shops there are many options for consumers at every level of product and consumer experiential differentiation.

Unless you have discovered a protectable way to produce significantly better coffee than everyone else I would recommend against risking your financial future to chase this.

If you like the atmosphere and the coffee shop experience I would recommend slowly building up a nice nest egg to, down the road open a shop with very low explicit costs, cultivate the atmosphere that you enjoy in the shop, but realize that you will not be able to feed yourself and your family off of the revenue that the shop brings in.

b_cornelius · Aug 25, 2015

Sure, whatever you don't make in traditional currency, it may be compensated through some other intangible value.

Such as involvement with music and youth. You could get involved with the music scene and screw around with the kids. Many people find this quite enjoyable.

SteveRogers · Aug 27, 2015

Only private coffee shops that I ever see remain open have some kind of niche and/or attract 'hipsters'.

Im a coffee snob and this was my favorite place in college: Saint's Cafe

Living in Pittsburgh there is a fair bit of similar coffee shops that do well but usually economies of scale is going to force the price of coffee up higher than a Starbucks will charge so you aren't going to attract the same market as a chain.

sora · Aug 8, 2019

I like that atmosphere,too.and hoping to open a cafe in the future,hoping to
get suggestions here with you.

felixx · Oct 1, 2019

There are so many coffee shops out there. If you want to earn through it, you have to make yours pretty unique, serve a niche. Also learn about coffee as much as you can, that will make yours look more legitimate.