Are cafes still hurting?

blackbird

Hi,

Just wondering if cafes are still hurting or are recovering from the GFC in your local area???

Brett H

Mate, I would have thought that the GFC would be less of an impact on cafes than the every-day rigors of th e cost of doing business.  People still need to eat and courtesy of the Aussie mining boom (love it or hate it) Joe Average still has money to spend.  The GFC was a massive liquidity crisis driven by the writing/underwriting/selling of bad and doubtful debts.  I don't think cafes can blame the GFC entirely for a downturn in business unless the owner is margin called for NTA rebalance or some such.  The cafes I patronize albeit infrequently due to my lifestyle of having great coffee at home, are seemingly always busy and the one cafe in my area that closed down was reopened within a month and is going gangbusters!  They do coffee, cackles and Pizza and it is superb food, quite decent coffee and tough to get a table on Thursday night or any time on the weekend. What are you seeing with your business causing you to attribute negitive GFC factors?  There are some incredible resource people here on this forum.  Perhaps pick up the phone and have a chat to a couple of our prominent sponsors? Or... Perhaps you are doing brilliantly and want to share your success?  It's hard to gauge how to reply from your post, but it's an interesting topic! :thumb:

beanflying

Based on the cafes I dropped in on yesterday and last Friday in Melbourne NO. Little to no room at most of them. Locally where I live that is a little different we have seen a drop off in tourism caused in part by the strong AUD making overseas travel more attractive. Another part of this drop off has come from the retirement segment who have had their funds slammed generally. There is a couple here I suspect are doing it a little tough because they don't get the same level of local support (expensive and rubbish coffee). Interest rates are fairly low most of us have work if we want it and coffee is still essential  :coffee2:

Jonty

From my observations and what my opinion is worth (sweet FA) b/c I am not a subject matter expert (SME), I don't believe so if you have the fundamentals right - good coffee, good food, personal touch and consistency with your product. That creates a word of mouth in the public domain and that can be worth it's weight in gold for free marketing! Plenty of coins still being spent but I believe people will still pay for quality - just gotta know your limits and not over cook price.. Diversify products with lower CoG and increase margins is the key along with quality! BF - happy to give you honest feedback when the time comes as a 'free' consultant!  :stir