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Semi-related: my apartment arranged a setup a coffee delivery service. You ordered the night before, and then between 6-8am a thermos would show up in the lobb

Semi-related: my apartment arranged a setup a coffee delivery service. You ordered the night before, and then between 6-8am a thermos would show up in the lobby labeled with your name. Once done with the thermos, you would leave it at the pickup spot for the next day We got a month of this for free (!!) and it was great. The thermos was reasonably good at keeping coffee warm, there was actually a good variety of coffee drinks to order, the delivery window was not a big deal (I could wander down at the end of the delivery window and it was always there). That setup seems to lower the logistical challenges- you know all orders ahead of time, can brew in bulk, can deliver in extreme bulk. I'm not sure how/if they tracked thermos returns though. But even that failed, the prices were quite steep (~200/month). After the free trial, I stopped using it, and I just checked and it seems like they are out of business. It seems like a difficult, low margin business to be in, in general

sharemywin 4y ago
probably depends on the coffee being served, but how much is a starbucks every day? plus the pandemic probably added to the problems. seems like monthly price point is hard for consumers to gauge value.
- jakear 4y ago
  From $2 to $5, possibly more if you add a bunch of sweeteners or alternative milks. Even at 1/day every day of the month the expensive Starbucks is substantially cheaper than the above offering.
- roywiggins 4y ago
  Pret's coffee subscription is $30-40/mo. No delivery, but still. https://www.pret.com/en-US/us-pretcoffeesub https://www.pret.com/en-US/us-pretcoffeesub
  - lock-the-spock 4y ago
    The aim there is more to get you hooked to come in (1$/day) and then a muffin every third day and they get a good profit. Like Amazon prime.
peteforde 4y ago
I don't even know where to start with this. $200/month to receive a "warm" thermos of coffee every morning just sounds crazy to me. First, even at an outrageous $5/day, Starbucks or any other coffee chain is significantly cheaper - especially if you are someone who travels or can't be in the same place at the same time every day. Second, you can get set up with everything you need to brew coffee at pretty much any budget, depending on your needs, level of interest and palette. Third, this is not the sort of product where you should offer a free month up front. I can't blame anyone for taking a free month offered to them without obligation any more than I can blame them for not wanting to spend $200/month on delivered coffee. If you have the capital to start this company, you would be far better off taking it to Vegas and putting it all on red.
- justsomehnguy 4y ago
  > especially if you are someone who travels If someone can spend $200/m on a warm coffee in a thermos then they surely can spend $25 on a drip coffee maker, a set of filters and whatever exotic ground coffee from Starbucks or just any other place, including Walmart. And then just throw it in the bin when they need to move on.
  - UncleEntity 4y ago
    Hell, they could even get a cloud controlled robot coffee machine and the requisite bean subscription, now with Coffee Authenticator™, and save a few bucks.
- 10u152 4y ago
  Fourth, one of the big reasons I love coffee is spending 15 minutes getting some fresh air, in a different place (not the office) chatting to my colleagues.

sharemywin 4y ago

probably depends on the coffee being served, but how much is a starbucks every day? plus the pandemic probably added to the problems. seems like monthly price point is hard for consumers to gauge value.

jakear 4y ago
From $2 to $5, possibly more if you add a bunch of sweeteners or alternative milks. Even at 1/day every day of the month the expensive Starbucks is substantially cheaper than the above offering.
roywiggins 4y ago
Pret's coffee subscription is $30-40/mo. No delivery, but still. https://www.pret.com/en-US/us-pretcoffeesub https://www.pret.com/en-US/us-pretcoffeesub
- lock-the-spock 4y ago
  The aim there is more to get you hooked to come in (1$/day) and then a muffin every third day and they get a good profit. Like Amazon prime.

peteforde 4y ago

I don't even know where to start with this. $200/month to receive a "warm" thermos of coffee every morning just sounds crazy to me. First, even at an outrageous $5/day, Starbucks or any other coffee chain is significantly cheaper - especially if you are someone who travels or can't be in the same place at the same time every day. Second, you can get set up with everything you need to brew coffee at pretty much any budget, depending on your needs, level of interest and palette. Third, this is not the sort of product where you should offer a free month up front. I can't blame anyone for taking a free month offered to them without obligation any more than I can blame them for not wanting to spend $200/month on delivered coffee. If you have the capital to start this company, you would be far better off taking it to Vegas and putting it all on red.

justsomehnguy 4y ago
> especially if you are someone who travels If someone can spend $200/m on a warm coffee in a thermos then they surely can spend $25 on a drip coffee maker, a set of filters and whatever exotic ground coffee from Starbucks or just any other place, including Walmart. And then just throw it in the bin when they need to move on.
- UncleEntity 4y ago
  Hell, they could even get a cloud controlled robot coffee machine and the requisite bean subscription, now with Coffee Authenticator™, and save a few bucks.
10u152 4y ago
Fourth, one of the big reasons I love coffee is spending 15 minutes getting some fresh air, in a different place (not the office) chatting to my colleagues.