In this bizarre coffee shop in Japan, 97% of the employees are women.

Can women hold up half the sky? No, it should be a whole day!

In Japan, there is a store that deals in coffee beans and imported food. 97% of its employees are women, and most of its male employees are engaged in logistics-related jobs. And the shop assistants are all women. This bizarre coffee shop is called Caldi Coffee Farm. The head of the company, Nobuo Oda, believes that in Japan, women decide the diet of a family. Therefore, female employees know better how to "capture" the hearts of female customers.

We have learned that the average area of a shop in this enterprise is only more than 100 square meters, but the number of visitors per day is as high as 650, and the unit price is 995 yen. Thanks to the efforts of the "Army of Women" team, the company has achieved an average annual growth rate of more than 125% for many years.

"here's your coffee. Please taste it, you can choose and buy freely in the store. The cheerful and generous salesgirl stood at the door of the shop and poured the steaming coffee into the paper cup. Because of the mellow smell of coffee, passers-by are holding coffee, one after another into the shop. This is a common scene in Caldi Coffee Farm, which has 185 stores in Japan.

Entering the store, the first thing you can see is the steady wood grain utensils that extend from the floor to the ceiling, and the goods are arranged neatly. Customers with coffee in hand wandered leisurely around the store as if looking for treasures. Unlike many grocery stores and convenience stores, the appliances here are not placed upright, but are as intricate as a labyrinth. The moving line of the store is not fixed, and customers can move back and forth at will. Although the passageway of the supermarket is much narrower than that of the general supermarket, on the contrary, it adds some vitality to the shop.

The structure of Caldi Coffee Farm has a sense of "European library", "labyrinth" and "alley treasure hunt". It is difficult to see the location of all kinds of goods at a glance. But on the other hand, customers can seek a lot of new encounters through treasure hunting. Customers are excited, looking forward to unexpected encounters with new products, and this channel becomes a repeater between them.

In addition to mainly dealing in coffee beans, cheese, spaghetti and Asian cuisine, Caldi Coffee Farm also collects a variety of wines from all over the world. Although the interior decoration is luxurious and fashionable, this is by no means a luxury imported food store. The price of the best-selling canned tomatoes is 88 yen, which is cheaper than that of large supermarkets, and the price of ground coffee beans is 88 yen per 200g-399, less than half the price of the average imported food store. It is understood that the number of visitors to a store is about 650 per day, and the unit price of each guest is about 995 yen (about 51.24 yuan).

Caldi's advantage is that it is based on the four "store policies" established by the operating company, Carmel Coffee (Shitaya District, Tokyo). That is, "market feeling", "production of best-selling stores", "excellent service and product descriptions", "creating stores that customers like".

1. Tap her potential. 97% of the employees are women.

Caldi Coffee Farm is not only characterized by exquisite store design and other hard services, the soft service quality of store staff is also very high. What is surprising is that all the store work is done by female employees. Caldi Coffee Farm employs nearly 3370 people (including part-time workers), of whom 2690 are part-time workers, but 97 per cent of them are women. All the male employees are engaged in logistics-related work or logistics system work, and there is not a single male in the store staff.

Although the majority of women are not uncommon in the retail and distribution industry, it is rare in such a large organization that almost all of them are run by women. Why does this bizarre retail company only recruit female shop assistants? Because in Japan, the people in charge of food in the family are often women, President Nobuo Oda believes that the Caldi employees who mainly sell food should also be women. Shops with female consciousness run by women can maintain good communication with people of the same sex.

The average area of the Caldi store is about 130square meters, which is 1/8 of that of the general grocery store, with more than 4500 kinds of goods. The size of the staff in the store is usually about six to seven. Compared with the supermarket, each person has a lot of work. Because of this, good communication is essential.

Good communication among the staff is one of Caldy's advantages. Take the detailed introduction of goods to customers as an example, if customers are interested in certain ingredients, shop assistants will naturally convey cooking methods or menus to customers in order to increase their desire to buy. "there are a lot of customers who come just to buy some basic ingredients, only to find a lot of new things. In order for customers to discover new ingredients, shop assistants must work hard to learn commodity knowledge, "says Shibata Shibata, a regional manager in charge of seven stores in the Yokohama area.

When new products appear in the store, the staff will try their best to provide customers with tasting opportunities. In addition, shops are given about 5000 yen a month for tasting, and staff are free to try their favorite food. There are many employees who are interested in foodstuffs. They will taste and discuss how to cook delicious food through tasting, and the organizational structure can be deepened through staff communication. For example, when tasting wine, employees will discuss which dishes the wine is suitable to eat with, and some staff will try it with side dishes. The tasting results will be shared on the spot, and any staff member can provide advice to customers in the store.

Through their own experiences, female customers have the desire to share their feelings with those around them. "We not only attract customers through word of mouth, but also often teach customers how to cook goods. Through the transmission between customers, so that the goods can be promoted. " Ms. Yoshihiko Mariko, a part-time worker at Putian store, said. Through the exchange of information, customers and staff can spread the influence of goods, thus improving the possibility for customers to buy goods.

The on-site staff will not only share product-related knowledge with customers in the store, but also share it further. They will write a report log and send it to the headquarters every day, or they can distribute it to all stores as meeting materials for the next day. It is not to sell goods unilaterally to customers, but also to integrate them into one to develop more valuable commodity materials.

Caldy is proud of the "four store policies":

1. Employee status

The staff work cheerfully and enthusiastically to create a vibrant store.

two。 Sense of presence

Through the coffee service to gather the crowd, so that customers into the store, so that the store is often full of customers, to create a lively atmosphere.

3. Excellent service

The staff will quickly and patiently pass on the active use of the goods to the customers to stimulate their desire to buy.

4. Create stores that customers like

Often organize activities or make new theme shelves in the store to create stores that customers like.

2. Data is the primary productivity, and part-time employees should also master it.

All staff, including part-time employees, are required to attend the daily meeting. Each store will share the previous day's sales data with the whole staff for reading, so that you can know the ranking of your store at a glance. All the staff need to read the instructions from the headquarters aloud. Let's think about why the headquarters issued such instructions, and how to apply them to their own work and how to act.

Headquarters and management should listen carefully to the views of the staff in the field and give instructions from the top down. On the other hand, on-site staff should learn from everyone's ideas and implement them in their own actions. Because the bottom-up and top-down functions are parallel at the same time, it is conducive to smoother communication, early decision and action.

How did such a mechanism come into being? The history of Carmel coffee dates back to 1977. In the early days of his start-up, the president once carried out the business of distributing coffee beans to business coffee shops. Because he "also wants to provide excellent ingredients for individuals", in 1986, Mr. Shinakai opened his first specialty store in Tokyo. In 1992, a second store was opened in Lower Beizawa. The reason why Caldi was able to build such a store and organization is to take advantage of the "failure" of the second specialty store.

"at that time, because the shop was located in the alley, there were almost no customers. Customers rarely enter an empty store. We tried to design stores that were easy to attract customers, and prosperous stores appeared, "said Naoko Kanahara, a staff member at the first store and the president's right-hand man. As a result, there was a coffee service in front of the store (initially iced tea), people who tried it were gathered, and the store looked as lively as the market. Cheerful and energetic staff will attract customers while working. When the staff yells in front of the store, they will also spread the special products of the day, which can increase customers' desire to buy. Because with the flow of customers will continue to free up space, so there is also a scene of customers attracting customers. Although it sold only 170000 yen (about 8755 yuan) a day, it more than doubled six months later and more than sixfold two years later.

3. Attach great importance to the training of shop assistants

Coffee service, as a symbol of Caldi, is also used for staff training. For new employees who have just entered the store, they should first learn the basics of receiving customers through coffee service in front of the store. "We should not only carefully observe the surrounding conditions, but also learn the skills of natural contact with customers, and do not forget to care about customers. Coffee service brings together all the key skills as the basis of the work, "said Kamihara, the general manager.

The number of customers entering the store can also be changed according to the strength of the voice or facial expression. Because attracting customers is the key to keeping Caldi alive, the company has spontaneously trained smart people.

In the training of talents, Caldi has also formulated a new system, that is, "incentive travel". For shops or staff who sell more products from the headquarters within a certain period of time, the headquarters will reward them for a visit to the commodity producing area or factory. This kind of incentive travel more than a dozen times a year is also an incentive and goal for staff, and it can also promote shop staff to gather wisdom, work together and sell goods. Incentive travel is not only an easy trip, but also a more important purpose for employees to learn more about commodity history and stories and make better use of them in future sales work. Work happily with motivation. Let the enthusiasm of each employee further bring life to the store.

Only the female collective has drawbacks, but Carmel Coffee overcomes the difficulties and makes full use of its unique advantages. Through good communication, it unites the company from high-level to part-time employees, and constructs a store structure based on everyone's common policy, so that the store management can be effectively improved.

I hope you like (coffee). Please enjoy your meal. The door of the shop echoes with a bright voice, let the shop continue to attract customers!