The cat economy is crazy! The History and Space Culture of Cat Coffee how to Open a Cat Cafe

Professional coffee knowledge exchange more coffee bean information please follow the coffee workshop (Wechat official account cafe_style)

Authors: Lin Runhua, Chi Hengchang

Bring a cup of hot tea, sit in the warm yellow light, perhaps your home, or a warm coffee shop, with a warm fire, the cat leaning against you or sleeping on your lap. This is the most desired healing moment for many cat lovers in winter, and now you don't need to have a cat to have this warm experience. Sounds like a commercial, doesn't it? However, this is exactly the consumption experience that "cat caf é", which is popular all over the world, attempts to provide to consumers. Standing on the cornerstone of geography caring for the relationship between human beings, animals and space, this paper will introduce "Cat Coffee", a consumption space in which human beings and animals coexist. On the one hand, the author focuses on the historical evolution of "cat coffee". On the other hand, after going through a lot of cat coffee, the author finds that the space of cat coffee is not a standardized "cat window". Through the joint "contribution" of consumers and operators, cat coffee is full of cat-related artistry and memorial, as well as cat-related culture and memory. All these make cat coffee not only a novel place to provide "watching cats" and "consumer cats", but also a theme space to display the unique personality and life stories of each store cat.

Figure 1 people interacting with cats in cat coffee (author's selfie)

Come and go, Cat Coffee?

How to accurately define "cat coffee" has always been a headache for us: as long as there is a cat, is it cat coffee? Does a cat count? Do I have to sell coffee? But some cat coffee doesn't sell coffee? After visiting a lot of cat coffee, we find that different places often cultivate "cat coffee" with very different characteristics because of differences in culture, society or the concept of animal welfare. However, there are still a few features in common:

Operators keep more than 2 live cats in catering space

In principle, cats can move freely in the whole store or in a specific space in the store.

Consumers are more attracted by the interaction of "having fun with cats" than meals and go to spend.

And this "let animals eat tea / coffee" dining space is no longer limited to cat coffee in recent years, other types of animal-themed coffee shops, such as Owl Cafe, Goat Cafe, Raccoon Cafe, Rabbit Cafe, firewood Dog or Corky Dog Cafe, are also popular in different cities around the world. Some theme cafes that keep raptors bring more "curiosity-hunting" gimmicks, but more animal cafes use "healing people" as their selling point, and even try to include "life education." the animal cafe has become a field for modern urbanites to meet, interact and educate with animals.

Reviewing the development history of cat coffee, many reports and studies have identified the "Cat Garden (Cat Garden)" opened in Shilin in 1998 as the founder of cat coffee in Taiwan and even in the world. However, the mode of operation of "cats become part of the dining space" can be traced back to the popularity of themed restaurants in Taiwan in the 1990s. What is more noteworthy is that although the basic mode of operation of cat coffee has developed in Taiwan, the embryonic form of the concept of cat coffee can be traced back to the serial cartoon "Cat also Crazy" written by Japanese cartoonist Kobayashi from 1984 to 1989. In the 19th sentence "Cat eating Tea Shop" in Volume 1 of the cartoon, imagine a "Cat appreciation Cafe" with various kinds of cats as window models, attracting many cat-loving consumers to enjoy cats and drink coffee. However, this dream coffee shop did not gradually become a physical space until the "pet restaurant" became popular in Taiwan in the 1990s. Compared with dog-themed pet restaurants, cat-based pet restaurants do not emphasize entertaining pet cats brought by consumption at the same time, but emphasize that "shop cats" raised by operators accompany guests to drink coffee. At present, the commonly used words of cat coffee, such as "cat shop manager", "cat sitting on the stage", "signature cat" or "cat shopkeeper", appeared in the media in Taiwan in the 1990s. Used to emphasize the particularity of cat-based pet restaurants (Lu Youlun, Qian Jiaqi 1996). At present, the first "cat-accompanied restaurant" recorded in Taiwan should be the "cloth Cat Restaurant" opened around Dunhua South Road in Taipei City around 1991, and then the "Cat House" opened on Minsheng East Road in 1995. Although the cat house mainly provides pet supplies and services, it is closer to the cat coffee with the function of "watching / playing cat appreciation" in "Cats are Crazy".

Fig. 2 the first Cat Coffee in Osaka, Japan (author's selfie)

The start of the operation of "Cat Garden" in 1998 can be said to be the turning point of the internationalization and vigorous development of cat coffee. As the large number of cats in the kitten garden shop has become a spectacle, it has gradually formed a reputation among cat-loving consumers. and, fuelled by the production of the "Taipei Cat Park" feature on Taipei Tourism Intelligence's Japanese tourism website "Travel Taipei" in 2003 (Travel Taipei 2003), it attracted many Japanese tourists. Although the "cat culture" is deeply rooted in the daily life of Japanese people, at that time, there was no physical consumption space for "playing cat" and "diet" in Japan, which prompted cat coffee to become a must-visit attraction for some cat travelers to visit Taiwan. In 2004, tourists who often visited the kitten garden brought the concept of cat coffee back to Japan, combined with the business model of timed coffee shops (such as online cafes or comic book cafes). The first Japanese cat coffee was opened in Kurozaki-cho, Osaka (figure 2). Since then, Cat Coffee has officially taken root in Japan. It triggered the first wave of "cat coffee" in Japan, and it has also become an abuse of "cat coffee" in different cities around the world.

"it's not just a few cats," okay?

Cat Coffee doesn't just put a few cats in the restaurant. In a sentence from the operator, it is said that if a cat coffee is to emerge as a new force in the highly competitive catering market, it cannot just rely on the store cat to stay in the shop; the decoration or story of the store must be done by surprise in order to grasp the hearts of consumers to taste fresh. In the cat coffee we have passed, many operators are presented by adding cat-related elements to the space, such as shop name, decoration, or restaurant meals, as well as the personification or life story of the cat in the store. make the neutral dining space full of cat-themed carriers and become the main source for consumers to gain novel consumption experience. In the case of most cat coffee in Taiwan, stores adopt different strategies in decoration and space management, so that this "cat stage" echoes with live cats in the store, showing different types of theming trends. Among them, under the effects of "different forms of reproduction of cats in space" and "consumers' contribution" to small corners of the restaurant (such as giving cat-related souvenirs or decorations to the store to decorate the restaurant space), cat coffee has become a novel space that is "not just a few cats".

Fig. 3 murals in a cat-themed restaurant (self-taken by the author)

When "check in" to mark / show off the habit of consumption type and place of consumption has gradually become the main stage for people to perform their daily life, operators also gradually adopt the strategy of "spectacularization" when operating their cat coffee. In addition to common strategies, such as misappropriating specific features of a cat's body into spatial elements for decoration (markings, cat heads or cat footprints), many operators also like to display cat-related works of art. emphasize the operator's preference, knowledge or artistry of cat culture. Common materials include large murals, paintings, photography or handmade works about cats, etc.; in particular, murals adapted from famous animal paintings are very popular and often serve as the main landscape walls of coffee shops (for example, figure 3). Interestingly, when these cat-themed arts are presented, exotic natural landscapes are often adopted. No matter continuing the exotic elements contained in the original painting or trying to create a sense of space that "feels broader", they deliberately displacing their own shop cats in nature and become a "parodic" stage, imagining the appearance and relationship of cats in nature, even if the appearance is not real.

It is worth noting that the cat reproduced in cat coffee seems to be misplaced or imitated, but the appearance of "cat" is not without reason. Most of the texts depict cats raised by shops or operators at that time, but some stores take the opportunity of decoration to highlight the "commemoration" of specific cats, making cat coffee accidentally become a "commemorative space". Some cat coffee hangs paintings or photos of dead cats to commemorate the important turning point that prompted operators to switch from other industries to pets or halfway businesses. Some stores even put the urn of the cat in a small corner of the store (figure 4) and record the story of the cat getting along with its owner on the wall, which not only allows the operator to remember his cat from time to time, but also allows the cat's "fans" to come to the store to "see him" from time to time. No matter whether the present or dead cat is used as the protagonist of the interior decoration of cat coffee, cat coffee is no longer just a spectacle of cat park for entertainment and consumption, nor is it just a place to clock in; on the contrary, some cat coffee has become a memorial space to display and commemorate cats that have passed away. Consumers understand the story of cats or the concept of operators through watching and explaining by operators. Therefore, choosing which cats not only show the emotional and attachment relationship between the cat and the operator / owner, on the other hand, shape the "memorial" of cat coffee, but also show the connection between specific cats and cat coffee shop owners.

Fig. 4 the memorial space of love: a corner of the urn of cat ashes in the store (photo taken by the author)

In addition to the built environment planned by operators, the long-term interaction between consumers and cats also participated in the formation of the theme of cat coffee space. In some cat coffee, cat-related exhibits come not only from the collection of operators, but also from gifts from regular customers, including pictures drawn by consumers for the shop cat and photos taken with the shop cat, or souvenirs (souvenirs or postcards) brought to the store during the trip. The most interesting thing to talk about about the relationship between guests and cats is two pure white shop cats in a cat coffee shop, "steamed buns" and "steamed buns". Steamed buns and steamed buns are not only white and rich, but also know how to indulge human beings, so they are very popular with cat coffee customers. In fact, every afternoon, a middle-aged uncle, who is the most loyal fan of steamed buns and steamed buns, is sure to report on time in order to spend quiet time with the two cats.

However, the seemingly popular "steamed buns" and "steamed buns" have a somewhat sad life experience. It turns out that steamed buns and steamed buns are domestic cats abandoned by the original owner under the guise of accommodation. At that time, the cat coffee shop also operated a cat hotel in addition to the coffee shop. when they found the cats who had lost their bags, they noticed that their whole bodies were dirty, their fingernails were bent because they were too long, and they also had skin diseases. it is clear that many of them are not well taken care of. Then, the original owner could not avoid coming forward, making it convenient for the cat coffee shop to make efforts to restore these "sick cats" to health, and on the other hand, in order to prevent them from being notified of abandonment, they were sent to shelters in poor conditions. instead of repeatedly contacting and negotiating with the original owner who abandoned the cat, in order to gain the right to take care of the two cats.

Cat coffee shop owners share the stories of steamed buns and steamed buns with customers, not only because their popularity makes people curious about steamed buns, but also because they share the "secret love" of each shop cat. It also has the opportunity to educate customers and their families, especially every consumer with accompanying animals at home. Although later, because the hotel business was busy, the cat coffee owner had to end the cat coffee business and devote himself to running the cat hotel, but the opportunity for life education through the cat shop did not disappear, and the story of steamed buns is still spread among the guests of the cat hotel.

The narration and material of the interaction between the consumer and the cat participated in the process of thematic construction of the store space, and the operator's stories about the exhibits and the giver were also valuable. It shows that these substances are not only gifts, but also the establishment and exchange of social relations in cat coffee. The memories of different consumers' consumption in cat coffee and the memories of interaction with cats can be transmitted from time to time by telling material stories. Connect operators with consumers, and even consumers. I once gave an illustration of "Cat in Prague" to a store I knew well, and then posted the picture on the wall, occasionally telling other customers the story of me, my personal cat and the store owner. The theme of cat coffee space is intertwined and accumulated through the management of shop owners, the positive contribution of consumers and the performance of cats, and finally enables consumers to actively and intensively participate in "human-cat interaction" and "human-to-human interaction" in the space. create a novel consumption experience, but also make each cat coffee development different from other stores' characteristics and stories, creating market segmentation Make the cat coffee space and consumption experience more unique.

Cat Coffee: not just playing with cats or clocking in.

This paper attempts to point out that cat coffee is a space composed of multiple "social-spatial processes", full of the relationship between people and animals, as well as all kinds of chisels and memories of different people in this space. It is true that cat coffee is a "cat stage" for displaying cats and performing cats, but each "cat stage" is not a monotonous or standardized configuration. Through the artistic and commemorative shaping of "cat" in cat coffee, as well as the process of consumer participation in space generation, cat coffee is not just a space to provide novel consumption experiences such as "watching cats" and "consuming cats". The "cat" in each cat coffee, which is endowed with a unique personality and story, has also become a jigsaw puzzle of the complete cat coffee theme; each store cat's unique personality and unique life story are exchanged between operators and consumers, creating the unique existence of each cat coffee, becoming a cultural and social landscape that can be seen, displayed, and exchanged relationships and narratives. In the next article, we will shift our focus from space to the frequent human-cat interaction in cat coffee to understand how people and cats interweave and complete a warm and healing "cat stage".

This article is revised from Lin Runhua and Chi Hengchang. 2018 . Evolution and spatial creation of cat coffee in Taiwan. Journal of Geography (91): 59-82.

END