Starting A Coffee Shop-The Right Product
You're not going to find the same things at a Dunkin Donuts that you will at a Starbucks or The Beanery. What you have to decide is if you want to be all things to all people or if you want to specialize. Let's start with the coffee itself. Are you going to just have regular coffee but different such as regular, decaf or half and half? Are you going to have flavored coffees? This one option alone opens up a world of possibilities. Are you going to sell coffee beans or grounds so that people can take your coffee home and make their own? If so, will you just have packages that are premade or will you allow customers to mix their own? All these things have to be taken into consideration when planning your product. What about companion products such as donuts, bagels and things of that nature? Are you going to offer them? If so, what varieties? Dunkin Donuts may be more about the donuts than the coffee, if you ask some people's opinion. Starbucks has always been about the coffee and yet, they have quite a nice selection of extras, even though they don't specialize in donuts. What kind of a crowd are you expecting? If it's the cop or passing truck driver, coffee and donuts may be all that you need. If it's the businessman who's looking for something a little more classy, maybe bagels or croissants will do the trick. A cop is fine with a regular cup of java whereas that businessman might enjoy a nice flavored coffee. A lot of what you will sell will be dictated by where you are located and who your customers are. Again, if you're going to sell fancy coffees like Frappuccino Blended Coffee from Starbucks, it's unlikely that you're going to have much luck selling those to the truck stop crowd on the highway and thus keeping that in stock may just be a waste of money. The right product for the right market...that's the key.
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