# Food/staff dilemma



## Coffee Jo (Jul 27, 2015)

Hi All, I'm after some advice. I work in a large shop in a tourist town that sells vintage/retro/industrial furniture. We have a cafe that originally sold coffee/tea and cake and had one member of staff. Then after many people asking if we sold lunches we jumped in - invested in a small kitchen area and now sell vegetarian lunches and soups. Our problem is that an oven is on all day for the lunches to be warmed, the heating needs to be on in the shop (during colder months) so that customers can sit without wearing coats AND we require 2 members of staff so with staffing and electric bill the coffee shop is barely breaking a profit. Do any of you have suggestions for the best way forward?

Many thanks Jo


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## Yes Row (Jan 23, 2013)

Raise your prices to achieve the required GP?

Then cut your costs to achieve required net profit

How you achieve the latter is more complicated and needs a full business review but the former is essential and basic


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## jeebsy (May 5, 2013)

If doing food isnt making you money then rethink that


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

What are your prices like?

Obviously assess this on the basis of those shops around you, but if your trade is tourists then look at high margin well presented food. If I'm in a tourist town and my coffee and a snack (think croissant or something) doesn't cost over £5-6 I would be surprised.

Two coffee's and two waffles cost me £21 recently on a trip to Windermere, expensive but I wouldn't have hesitated to go back as it was great food and drink.


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

Maybe there aren't enough vegetarians.

Try offering some meat based produce instead.


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## mrsimba (Mar 17, 2014)

Jumbo Ratty said:


> Maybe there aren't enough vegetarians.
> 
> Try offering some meat based produce instead.


This was my initial thoughts on reading your post also, maybe its your menu that needs a redesign to entice & attract more customers, local produce, locally sourced, & simple dishes its a format that Gordon Ramsey follows in just about all his restaurant turnarounds.

if you already have enough customers though then its your pricing structure that needs re-working rather than your menu!


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## Coffee Jo (Jul 27, 2015)

Thanks everyone. We have a cafe in the shop to attract people to cross a road and entice them into our building which does the trick. All our food is locally sourced and homecooked/prepared. A typical lunch, for example, a veggie bake, pizza or veggie burger with salads is £7.50, soup and artisan roll £4.50, coffee/tea £2 cake £2.50. Pretty much the average price locally and as we only offer lunch feel that £7.50 is enough... maybe not, I'm thinking now, that the soup is very under-priced.  Lack of meat doesn't put many off and is an attraction locally.

As for cutting costs.... lose a member of staff and simplify the menu greatly......

Anyway, once again thanks for your feedback. It will give us some 'food for thought' over the coming days.

Jo


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

Has having a cafe attract people into store increased furniture takings?


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## Coffee Jo (Jul 27, 2015)

That's an interesting thought Dylan. The cafe has always been with us although initially just coffee/tea and cake. Whether, without it, we'd lose customers shopping is something we need to consider.


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## timmyjj21 (May 10, 2015)

From London perspective, those prices are super cheap. As you said, the soup is underpriced. If the coffee is any good then that would definitely need attention too!


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

Coffee should demand a premium over a tea bag, unless your just serving instant. The margin on coffee will never be as good as regular tea but if you make a better cup than your immediate competition then its worth charging more. It really does depend on how good your coffee is however, everyone on this forum holds coffee to a very high standard.


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## 7493 (May 29, 2014)

You're not in Hay-on-Wye by any chance?


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## Yes Row (Jan 23, 2013)

The selling prices are worthless at indicating profitability. You have to do costings, for everything you sell! I have a pub and I have the GP of all products stocked and nothing is sold by just thinking "that's about the right price for a pint/spirit/cob"


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## Jumbo Ratty (Jan 12, 2015)

Coffee Jo said:


> As for cutting costs.... lose a member of staff and simplify the menu greatly......


Perhaps instead of this you could look at when you are busiest during the day, I would assume thats around lunchtime.

You could get the staff to both work shorter hours and start at different times, IE one comes in, opens up and gets everything ready for trading and the other member comes in 3 hours after and stays to close up. That would give you greater coverage when you need it during the lunch time rush.

If the staff where aware one of them could possibly loose their job because of redundancy / cost cutting they may be amenable to this arrangement.

Also state that should the cafe start to show more profitability then they could potentially go back to full time positions.


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## wantice (Jun 7, 2015)

Have you thought of getting apprenticeship staffs ? I just opened up 3 weeks ago.....the government grant is £1500 per person max 5. Of course you would get any staff if you pay them £3 per hour. What you can do is pay them min wage.....you have to offer them 30 hours per week but the grant will off set their wages by approx £30 per week. The contract is 1 year and you get your money after 12 weeks.


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