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Historically, cafes were social forums where people gathered for hours at a time to read and converse. Maximizing absolute profit by optimizing customer through

by trzy 4y ago

Historically, cafes were social forums where people gathered for hours at a time to read and converse. Maximizing absolute profit by optimizing customer throughput is the modern take. But that’s not what cafes are for and so you should not feel bad for forcing owners to understand their business and optimize for both profitability and the cafe experience.

bottled_poe 4y ago
“Historically” is relevant how? The world moves on, cafes are no exception lmao.
- trzy 4y ago
  You’re right, they’ve moved on from periodicals and discussion groups to laptop usage for hours at a time :)
dustymcp 4y ago
I worked at a cafe, it worked more like a family than a business, we all got food in the evening and had fun together, the restaurant was the main life, but one shouldnt underestimate the café when it was in a good day, alot of people enjoy just coming in and grabbing togo if its good, more than enough to make up for the hangarounds/workers. Also it seemed the more people who where actually there the more business it received.
padolsey 4y ago
I would love a return to that historic ideal, though it just wouldn't be economical on its own. It would end up being a loss-making add-on to some larger enterprise.. perhaps a bookstore or a locally funded community centre? I'm reminded of Ziferblat [1] and other similar "anti-cafes" [2]. They shut down their local one here though, apparently due to not being able to meet the cost of skyrocketing commercial rents. [1] https://www.ziferblat.co.uk/Coventry/discover https://www.ziferblat.co.uk/Coventry/discover [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-caf%C3%A9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-caf%C3%A9
- bombcar 4y ago
  It's more likely the bookstore would be the loss-leader for the cafe. The usual killer, as you've identified, isn't people sitting at the tables but the rents. Possibly you could do a quite "successful" cafe as a non-profit that owns the building it is sitting in.
Mikeb85 4y ago
> Maximizing absolute profit by optimizing customer throughput is the modern take. Because real estate prices and thus rent have gone through the roof compared to the historic average. Coffee used to be expensive relative to wages and rent ultra-cheap. Now that's flipped.

by trzy 4y ago

bottled_poe 4y ago

“Historically” is relevant how? The world moves on, cafes are no exception lmao.

trzy 4y ago
You’re right, they’ve moved on from periodicals and discussion groups to laptop usage for hours at a time :)

dustymcp 4y ago

I worked at a cafe, it worked more like a family than a business, we all got food in the evening and had fun together, the restaurant was the main life, but one shouldnt underestimate the café when it was in a good day, alot of people enjoy just coming in and grabbing togo if its good, more than enough to make up for the hangarounds/workers. Also it seemed the more people who where actually there the more business it received.

padolsey 4y ago

I would love a return to that historic ideal, though it just wouldn't be economical on its own. It would end up being a loss-making add-on to some larger enterprise.. perhaps a bookstore or a locally funded community centre? I'm reminded of Ziferblat [1] and other similar "anti-cafes" [2]. They shut down their local one here though, apparently due to not being able to meet the cost of skyrocketing commercial rents. [1] https://www.ziferblat.co.uk/Coventry/discover https://www.ziferblat.co.uk/Coventry/discover [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-caf%C3%A9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-caf%C3%A9

bombcar 4y ago
It's more likely the bookstore would be the loss-leader for the cafe. The usual killer, as you've identified, isn't people sitting at the tables but the rents. Possibly you could do a quite "successful" cafe as a non-profit that owns the building it is sitting in.

Mikeb85 4y ago

> Maximizing absolute profit by optimizing customer throughput is the modern take. Because real estate prices and thus rent have gone through the roof compared to the historic average. Coffee used to be expensive relative to wages and rent ultra-cheap. Now that's flipped.