Can a 700 sq retail space be a good start for a startup coffee house?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “500 sq ft coffee shop“
Can a 700 sq retail space be a good start for a startup coffee house?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “500 sq ft coffee shop“
Yes.
The key is being in a high traffic area. People won’t go out of their way to get coffee, since there are so many coffee shops all over the country.
As a result, your price per square foot will be high. You want to keep that as low as possible and staying under 1,000 square feet is good. If you go larger than that, you will want to have more seating and a kitchen, but that gets into a different issue.
Stay with the size you propose. Make sure you are in a high traffic location and have a great product. Good luck!
Yeah, just make sure the interiors are done after some serious brainstorming, so that the place doesnt look cramped. I’d suggest you go with light simplistic indigenous interiors, one that boosts not only positive vibes but also speaks out loud creativity.
I’ve always heard the phrase “It’s not the size that counts. It’s what you do with it” and I always took that more than the one way it’s typically means 🙂
But depending on the location and some other factors I think you could make it work. Just figure how much space you would need to actually do your work and map that out on paper. Once you figure that out you can see if that still works with the space you have left.
I would strongly recommend working it out on paper first before you pull the trigger. 🙂
Yes. As the former owner/operator of a coffee shop, I can say that smaller is better for a number of reasons, many of which were touched on by Rob McGahen ‘s excellent answer.
The thing to keep in mind is that if you’re selling coffee, you should be expecting an average sale of $2-5. That’s not much, and because of that you can only be profitable with a great deal of customer volume.
Your space needs to be very efficient. Customers need to be able to enter freely, select their beverage options easily, wait a minimal amount of time to get their order, and then be able to quickly adjust their drink with cream, sugar, etc. before going out the door.
These requirements will have a large impact on store design and layout, signage location, etc. Keep seating to a minimum, as customers who are sitting around using your WiFi all day are clogging your store and costing you money.
For godsakes, open in an area with little or no competition, which isn’t easy to find in the coffee business today. People love good coffee, but they will not go out of their way to get it. Good luck!