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Writing this for the second time this week on HN...I should just copy and paste ;) Coffee shops: expensive rent for owner because of prime retail location, foo

Writing this for the second time this week on HN...I should just copy and paste ;) Coffee shops: expensive rent for owner because of prime retail location, foodservice business (therefore more requirements with less space to work with). Workspace/office rental: not so expensive rent for owner since it can be located anywhere there is commercial real estate, is not a foodservice business (less restrictions, more space). Bonus: not as much noise and more actual office space with wifi and ethernet and places to plug in. Additional bonus for you: some of these workspaces will have newspapers and other reading material for you to check out without having to buy. Both: offer tables and coffee and food for people who want to sit down and chill. What a lot of people SHOULD be doing is going to a workspace (i.e. in los angeles there's theOffice and Blankspaces off the top of my head) and actually paying per table or workspace by the hour/day instead of sitting at a coffee shop where that per table pricing model is completely infeasible because of what a coffee shop inherently is. Sadly demand for them isn't as high as I would have thought, but the problem has been approached before in a way that doesn't bankrupt the owner (aka a coffee shop with an hourly per-table/seat charge).

wallflower 18y ago
OT but the coworking spaces that seen to succeed (e.g. attract a base of full-time coworkers) are providing more than a desk space for rent - they are involved in the local community. For example, CubeSpace in Portland hosts the monthly meetings of the Ruby users group. The space is more of a salon (in the Hemmingway sense) than a office space.
- silencio 18y ago
  Well, there's coffee shops that do that too :) Both pretty much have to get the word out to survive and that's one way to do it.
sgibat 18y ago
What about an automated coffee shop? A machine that remakes coffee when it gets low with a reserve of beans it grinds automatically, dispensed in different sizes by coin or bill. Have a machine on the inside and on the outside, facing the street. So you can have your romantic atmosphere and make a lot of money selling coffee quickly to people on the go for the mere cost of a machine.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- silencio 18y ago
  But there is only so much space for romantic atmosphere inside a shop (the main issue, really), and existing automated coffee machines are..limited (then again, most people would probably just get ordinary coffee). On the other hand, that sounds like an interesting thing to hack together for home if only I wasn't in love with my french press :) Also when a similar topic came up last week, there was mention of charging a fee (i.e. $20/day) for use of the table, wifi and a bottomless cup of coffee. It would be interesting to see both of these implemented in an actual coffee shop, cause they're not necessarily something I have seen and are certainly one way to approach the problem.

wallflower 18y ago

OT but the coworking spaces that seen to succeed (e.g. attract a base of full-time coworkers) are providing more than a desk space for rent - they are involved in the local community. For example, CubeSpace in Portland hosts the monthly meetings of the Ruby users group. The space is more of a salon (in the Hemmingway sense) than a office space.

silencio 18y ago
Well, there's coffee shops that do that too :) Both pretty much have to get the word out to survive and that's one way to do it.

sgibat 18y ago

What about an automated coffee shop? A machine that remakes coffee when it gets low with a reserve of beans it grinds automatically, dispensed in different sizes by coin or bill. Have a machine on the inside and on the outside, facing the street. So you can have your romantic atmosphere and make a lot of money selling coffee quickly to people on the go for the mere cost of a machine.

deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
silencio 18y ago
But there is only so much space for romantic atmosphere inside a shop (the main issue, really), and existing automated coffee machines are..limited (then again, most people would probably just get ordinary coffee). On the other hand, that sounds like an interesting thing to hack together for home if only I wasn't in love with my french press :) Also when a similar topic came up last week, there was mention of charging a fee (i.e. $20/day) for use of the table, wifi and a bottomless cup of coffee. It would be interesting to see both of these implemented in an actual coffee shop, cause they're not necessarily something I have seen and are certainly one way to approach the problem.