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thats just embarrassing - at 2:40, I love the "No fat Vanilla latte" (my butt).... "Would you like some coffee with that creamy, syrupy slop?" You could honestly serve up the water from my drip tray in my Minore and add all that rubbish in it and make it taste the same. Straight up eeembarrassing.
Originally posted by Menace link=1210849073/0#6 date=1210896150
I think my favourite part was definitely (as 30in30 put it) Bareeeeesta lol
and drive through coffee...
The coffee cafe industry in the US has some major differences/orientations to what youll find in Oz. Most of these are driven by economic factors. The drive up window is a perfect case in point.
Unlike Australia with its year round warm/mild climate where most of the population resides, a huge part of the US population lives in areas where the winter climate is well below freezing for months at a time. Add in on top of this the large percentage of US workers that drive rather than take mass transit and the fact that the average work week for a US worker is a third longer than their counterpart in Australia and you begin to see the driving forces behind the popularity of drive up windows in the US.
While at the recent SCAA conference I was involved in an interesting discussion with someone who was planning on opening a coffee house in a northern city. Also involved in the discussion were several people who were very highly placed with-in SCAA and the industry. The net result of the conversation was that there were several different types of cafes and that your location and facilities would determine if they could succeed or not. Now while on the surface this seems incredibly simple and down right obvious it is neither to all too many people. Especially when you start getting into details.
The main types of cafes here in the US are ones:
Located inside of a larger structure (e.g. Office building, Hospital, Dormitory/student center, or a mall).
Located on the walking route between where people park their car/get off mass transit and their work place.
Located on the driving route between home and work.
Located in a residential neighborhood.
Located in an Entertainment/Dining district/area.
Each of these different types of locations caters to a different set of customers during different hours.
If you are planning on being one of the cafes located along a main route that people take to work each morning here it is almost a requirement for your cafe to succeed that you have a drive up window. In these types of establishments that rely on the morning rush 2/3rds of their business is done at the drive up window. If you dont have a drive up facility you dont get that business as with the plethora of cafe choices out there people will simply go to a competitor that has a drive up window.
Here in the US coffee houses are rarely a destination unto themselves. People generally stop at one thats along the way to where theyre going or stop at one that is in the area of their destination. The main exception to this is the local neighborhood cafe. However, due to the limited number of customers in most areas (its a residential neighborhood after-all), these types of cafes are rarely big earners.
Java "More than you wanted to know about drive-ups" phile
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