Coffee shops and cafes have littered the high street of every town centre for decades, offering the finest in frozen cakes and instant coffee. However over the past 5 years, Britain seems to have grown up over its coffee tastes and we now shop at high-end designer coffee houses. This has been majorly influenced by the mega-chain that is Starbucks which originated in the US and has spread around the world. Not a day goes by that we do not see the latest celebrity with their blackberry in one hand and a grandé cappuccino and skinny muffin in the other.
Coffee has become cool. It is no longer acceptable to serve instant coffee. Customers are demanding organic beans ground right in front of us, dripped slowly through a filter and served with the most gorgeous syrups in a number of flavours. To go with our coffee we want locally produced shortbread or a flowerpot muffin with real chunks of dark chocolate embedded on top.
And we are prepared to pay for this luxury. When we once scoffed at having to pay anything over £1.20 for a large cup of coffee, we now shell out an average of £2.80 per cardboard cup, with the average till transaction at Starbucks, Cafe Nero or Costa Coffee topping the £5 mark. And why do we allow the chains to charge us so much? Because it is all fair trade of course!
There is big business in setting up an independent coffee shop so long as you make it cool and edge. Instead of the usual wooden backed chairs and little round tables, the interior design should be all about deep leather seats and heavy wooden benches. Abstract art should line the walls and the latest chrome accessories decorate the work stations. Make the customers feel that they are bohemian and living a French lifestyle and you are on the way to mega bucks.
You can buy your food stuffs from a food service supplier who will deliver you the best in luxury frozen berry muffins and jam filled doughnuts which you simply defrost and place artistically in glass fronted cabinets.
Opening an independent coffee shop on your local town's high street is an ambitious project which, if done right, could bring in major profits. Young people will bring their grandparents instead of visiting the stuffy old cafe, business people will stop by for a quick lunch and caffeine fix whilst full-time mums will pop in on their way back from the school run.
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