The Derby Times

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Derby Joe Merchandise

7 Tips For Selling More Merchandise At Your Coffee Shop

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Running a coffee shop isn’t your typical retail business. Everyone involved in owning or managing their own cafe knows the struggles of inventory, marketing, staff, overhead… the list goes on. Merchandising isn’t a core part of the cafe business, but it can really add some revenue to your balance sheet if done the right way. We’ve discovered a few secrets along the way that we wanted to share with you, the aspiring or current cafe owner/manager!

Know your Customer Base

This is arguably the most important part of the entire equation. Coffee shops can sell a lot of different merchandise, but what will your specific customers want to buy? Will it be CDs near the register, Starbucks-style? Perhaps some custom mugs with your brand on them? You need to know what your customers are interested in purchasing before you can narrow down which merchandise to sell.

Define Your Identify

Every coffee shop has a bit of local flavor that ends up influencing the vibe that customers perceive. Defining this unique identify and owning it is the next step towards taking your merchandising efforts to the next level. At Derby Joe, we love music. Our customers love music. Random passerby love music. So we set up a record shop in store for guests to browse an amazing selection of vinyls while enjoying their coffee or cold brew. You have to know who you are before you can sell yourself to someone else.

Come Up With a Plan

Making money selling merchandise is not something that happens overnight. You need to have a plan and know the basics before you even start stocking product. Do your research, come up with your business plan, pick out your first products to sell, estimate your costs/revenue/profits, and only then can you really move forward successfully.

Small and Cheap Up Front

Take a hint from all the retail and big box stores and display small items like candy, mints, cookies, cds, books, etc. up front on the counter. Guests love to pick up these small items and they usually are a cheap/easy way to make a few extra bucks!

Variety is the Spice of Life

Don’t be afraid to try out different products during your merchandising journey. There are so many to test out, including bags of branded coffee, t-shirts, hoodies, decals, travel mugs, ceramic mugs, etc. You never know what might become a hit with your loyal fan base.

Watch Out For the Sales

Some companies try to make money by constantly advertising sales. But that usually just makes customers wait to buy until the price is even lower. Don’t have extended sale periods or gimmicky price schemes. Set a price that you can make revenue from and stick to it.

Keep Things Fresh

Customers get used to seeing the same thing when they come into your cafe. Vary the display/positioning of your merchandise in order to slip past their blind spots and back into their minds! If you are selling high-quality merchandise, your customers won’t mind seeing it displayed prominently.

What tips do you have for other cafe owners or managers? Share with the rest of us in the comments!

What Does Fair Trade Actually Mean?

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Organic, Non-GMO, Sustainable, Farm-Raised, Free-Range… terms like these can often be pretty confusing for the average consumer. Some of these are simply marketing buzzwords, meant to entice you into buying a specific product, and some are legitimate designations that carry weight in the food industry. So let’s consider one designation imperative to the coffee industry: Fair Trade.

The Benefits

Fair trade products must be produced without the use of forced labor, and with wellness checks on the actual working conditions. No genetically modified crops or those raised through unsustainable methods may be labeled as Fair Trade. In order to entice farmers to grow their crops in this manner, there is a set floor price for Fair Trade goods. This means that the farmers are guaranteed to sell them for a certain amount of money, no matter what.

The most common Fair Trade goods are cocoa, bananas, tea, sugar, and of course – coffee.

Fair Trade is also good for the environment because the goods cannot be made using harmful agricultural techniques that have become common in some countries. Farmers that want to be certified must follow the proper guidelines in disposing of waste, reforesting, and conserving as much water as possible.

The Relationship Between Grower and Consumer

Fair Trade also ensures that the consumers of the coffee have a connection to the growers. Any coffee shop serving Fair Trade coffee also tend to know the countries and regions their coffee is coming from. Small farms are able to succeed and expand because of these key relationships, and Fair Trade ensures that the product is second-to-none.

These days we are seeing more certified Fair Trade coffee than ever before. But the U.S. still lags behind on overall money spent on Fair Trade goods (which is definitely something we need to work on). Individuals can up their own Fair Trade purchases, but larger businesses and corporations also need to embrace it for Fair Trade to really scale up.

Starbucks now sells a few Fair Trade coffees, and soon they hope to add even more to the menu. Companies like this that serve millions of cups of coffee a day can really make a difference in the lives of these Fair Trade farmers.

The Difficulties

Fair Trade is an amazing system, but not a perfect one. In order to facilitate the Fair Trade certification process, farms are allowed to submit themselves as a “producer network.” They are then analyzed together, rather than as separate farms so some less-than-perfect producers may slip under the ropes. The vast majority of Fair Trade coffee comes from reputable, hard-working farmers in the proper climates across the globe. So you don’t have to worry about getting a subpar product when buying something labeled Fair Trade.

What do you think about Fair Trade certified products? Do you think it’s worth trying to go out of your way to buy them? Let us know in the comments!

The Coffee Wars: Espresso vs. Drip

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There are a lot of myths out there when it comes to coffee. Drink a cup in the afternoon and you’ll be up all night. Drink too much coffee and you’ll be dehydrated. Drink enough coffee and you’ll lose weight. Each and every one of them can be categorically proven false.

One of the most popular myth is that people who drink espresso risk overdosing on caffeine. After all, each one of those shots is said to have way more caffeine than a single cup of coffee, right?

Turns out that myth is busted too, thanks to Kicking Horse Coffee. They posted an exposé on the subject and broke down exactly why espresso doesn’t necessarily have way more caffeine than coffee. The difference comes in how the caffeine is measured.

One Cup vs. One Shot

A cup of coffee is generally thought of at 12 ounces. A shot of espresso is just 2 ounces. Many people claim that a 2 ounce shot of espresso has more caffeine than a cup of coffee, but it really only has around 80 milligrams. One 12 ounces cup of coffee can have up to 120 milligrams of caffeine. So one cup of regular coffee will actually get you up and kicking quicker than that “extreme” espresso.

Let’s Get Voluminous

When compared by volume, the differences become more clear. Ounce per ounce, espresso is around 4 times as strong as coffee in terms of caffeine. So you’d have to drink 4 times as much coffee to get the same kick as espresso. So while a shot of espresso might actually have less caffeine than a cup of coffee, it hits you harder because of the smaller volume. It’s much easier to down a shot of espresso than it is to sip an entire coffee, right?

Why the Difference?

Caffeine is water-soluble and will be removed from the coffee during the brewing process. There are many things that can affect how much of the caffeine makes it into the final product, like the temperature, how long it’s brewed, how finely ground it is, and how saturated the coffee becomes. Hotter temperature, longer brew time, and a finer grind can all lead to higher concentrations of caffeine compared to the alternatives.

Espresso is made using a specialty machine that forces boiling water through the ground espresso beans at a rapid pace. The speed with which it works means it extracts more caffeine per ounce than regular drip coffee. Drip coffee machines let the water do its job more slowly and don’t force it through like the espresso machine.

Espresso beans themselves can be identified from regular coffee beans by their darker and more oily appearance. These beans have been roasted until the last possible point to bring out all those caramelly, bold flavors. The beans are ground much more finely than regular coffee beans, and they are packed down tight prior to brewing. The brew process only takes around 25-30 seconds, compared to the minutes it takes to make a regular cup of coffee.

So which type of coffee do you prefer for your morning caffeine rush? Share with us in the comments!