In-depth analysis: why most coffee lovers don't like chain coffee shops?

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On the Internet, it is often heard that coffee lovers take turns to diss major coffee chains, Starbucks, Costa, Lucky, and even Coffee. The more popular coffee shops sell, the less they are loved by coffee lovers. It is obviously an internationally famous large chain coffee brand, and people all over the world vote with their feet. Why don't coffee lovers like it? Is it true that there is no good coffee in the coffee chain? Or is it that the more experienced coffee lovers, the more hypocritical they are?

Before we want to know why most coffee lovers don't like chain coffee shops, let's analyze how coffee lovers should protect themselves from lightning. According to the statistics of Central Finance and Economics at the end of last year, the number of cafes in China has exceeded 140000. To know how to successfully protect against lightning in front of more and more coffee shops is much more important than successfully recommending a high-quality coffee shop.

1. Do not choose a coffee shop with a good location

Let's talk about it first. How much does a cup of coffee cost 30 yuan? 40%? 35%? 30%? The truth may be lower than you think, "Catering Management: 99% of people's problems are solved by institutions." after studying ten food service formats and cost models, Takutaro Mitsui found that coffee chains sell coffee. but brand awareness comes from trying to open the store in a prime location.

And what about the key cost of ingredients? Unexpectedly lower than the fast food restaurant (fast food restaurant)!

If we strictly divide the ingredients into "drinks (coffee)" and "meals", the cost of coffee will be even lower. Less than 30% of your 30 yuan will be spent on beans, and the rest will be contributed to store rent and staff salaries.

Let's deduce it backwards. In terms of the consumption motivation of coffee shop customers, the nature of consumption can be divided into two types: random consumption and purposeful consumption.

Random consumption means that customers do not have a plan before entering the store to buy coffee, and the products operated by the shop are not necessities for customers, just like common chain coffee shops. Although the turnover of this kind of shop is also affected by product quality, it is more dependent on the number of customers, which requires a better location of the shop.

Purposeful consumption means that customers already have a clear consumption goal before entering the store, just as customers want to drink a good cup of coffee and go straight to their favorite cafe. If they want this kind of shop to do good business, they mainly rely on the quality of the products and a large number of loyal old customers, but the dependence on the location of the store will not be so high.

Of course, the requirement for the location of the store here is not so good, which does not mean that it is necessary to choose a coffee shop with a particularly remote location, but that high-quality and confident coffee shops usually have a similar location when choosing a location. I'm not looking for places with ultra-high rents and a high flow of people. After all, boutique coffee is always a very niche thing. Sometimes the market acceptance of high-quality coffee is low, and the promotion of high-quality coffee does not mean asking the boss to subsidize the rent out of his own pocket. Good location = high rent, in coffee shops with high rental, decoration and maintenance costs, if you want to survive, you often have to tamper with the cost of the product.

People who don't spend money in coffee shops in prime locations have no other reason: "I pay for coffee, not to rent seats."

2. Do not choose coffee shops that are not self-baked.

For a coffee shop that focuses on coffee, coffee beans are definitely the soul. Because the main composition of coffee is only ground coffee and water, in the face of the rising tide of coffee in recent years, the selection of coffee beans has a great impact.

With the development of coffee consumption market, consumers' pursuit of coffee quality is gradually improving. Their own roasting coffee shops can regulate and control the quality and stability of coffee beans to a certain extent, especially the two most important points in coffee shop management: freshness and stability of coffee beans. The shelf life of roasted coffee beans can be as long as a year, but the real "delicious" shelf life is only one or two months. As an agricultural product, the quality of raw coffee beans varies greatly every year, every region and even every batch. A reasonably planned self-baked coffee shop can not only provide coffee shops with freshly roasted coffee beans that are always in the shelf life, but also control the changes in the quality of coffee beans from the source.

So, many coffee shop chains also bake at home, so why are they still unpopular with coffee lovers?

Because well-preserved fresh coffee beans is the basic requirement of a good cup of coffee. And usually large chain enterprises, in order to control the stability of raw bean quality and avoid the impact of international futures prices, it is possible to hoard relatively large batches of seasonal raw beans at once, but when to clear the inventory and when to change the production season, I am afraid it belongs to the level of trade secrets.

At present, the chain coffee brands in the market are vigorously promoting "freshly ground coffee", but do not mention the production season and baking time of the coffee beans used. This is because the beans of many chain coffee shops are purchased and baked abroad, and it takes 3-4 months to arrive at home, which does not add the time from the port to the stores, which greatly exceeds the best taste period for coffee beans. Even for domestic roasted coffee brands, if their own inventory and logistics system are not perfect, the larger the scale, the more likely this situation will occur.

If you use coffee beans that don't know what season or when to bake, even if you can make a flower. I'm sorry, it still has nothing to do with high quality.

Of course, this is not to say that a good coffee shop has to bake itself, but in non-self-baked coffee shops, the cost of coffee beans will be relatively high, and this part of the cost will eventually be transferred to consumers. A cup of fine coffee that tastes painful is not good for coffee lovers who are addicted to caffeine.

3. Do not choose a coffee shop without a seat at the bar

The manager of a coffee shop with a seat in front of the bar must be a person who is eager to share and likes to communicate. The establishment of a bar stand at the bar can be said to be to make the bar a stage, or to establish a platform for communication and learning. The person sitting at the bar is an audience, a debater, maybe a teacher and a student.

I once heard the elder say, "if you want to know the reputation and fame of a coffee shop, it is enough to see the people on the table." This sentence may not be entirely true, but a coffee shop with a bar is really worth a try. At the very least, baristas who can face the guests in the bar are confident enough. After all. As we all know, sometimes the people who choose to sit in front of the bar are not ordinary people.

The details of the bar seat can see the intention of a coffee shop. The space in front of the bar is very important, which directly reflects the design and planning of the space in a coffee shop, the requirements for the placement of materials and utensils, and the meticulous degree of care for guests. The comfort of the bar stool, the height of the bar seat, the distance between the bar seats, the space under the bar seat, the light in front of the bar seat. All of these can vaguely reveal the requirements of a coffee shop for details.

Perhaps many people think that coffee shops do not necessarily need bar seats. Yes, there are numerous foreign coffee shops without bar seats, and there are even some coffee shops that do not have seats at all, and guests are willing to drink that cup of coffee standing up. But the cultural background is different, at least in the domestic coffee shop, most coffee lovers still want to have a platform for direct communication.

For many enthusiasts, the seat in front of the bar will have a glass of timely water, see the brewing details, and communicate directly with the barista. The quality of service at the bar is usually the best, because the bar and the barista are right in front of you. The seats in front of the bar are like VIP seats in a cafe, but there is no class distinction. Bar can give coffee lovers a good platform, whether it is ideological confrontation, knowledge sharing, and people-to-people exchanges, they can use a simple cup of coffee as a medium to connect this exciting and peaceful desire.

Unfortunately, this wonderful communication experience is usually not enjoyed in a chain of coffee shops where people come and go.

The standard of good coffee: "price", "quality", "service"

So let's get back to the subject, the above "lightning protection guide" summed up as a very simple "three noes" principle: "do not choose a coffee shop with a good location", "do not choose a non-self-baked coffee shop", "do not choose a shop that does not have a seat at the bar". These three principles are very simple, in fact, they correspond to "price", "quality" and "service", which are very important factors for a good cup of coffee.

There is no good coffee in the chain coffee shop? Of course not. But if you pay close attention, you will find that most of the coffee chains on the market have just stepped on these "thunder": the performance-to-price ratio of coffee is not high, the quality can not keep up with the demand, and there is no platform for communication and learning. Excuse me, how can those lovers who are really obsessed with coffee look up to the chain coffee shop?

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