gabe
Senior Member
So is Domino's. Also a MAGA idiot and religious nutjob. He built his own Christian town where residence can follow Christian values, it's located in Florida of course.
|
|
|
Restaurant Comings & Goings
- Thread starter TOareaFan
- Start date
So is Domino's. Also a MAGA idiot and religious nutjob. He built his own Christian town where residence can follow Christian values, it's located in Florida of course.
Ok, that works for me (I have never been there anyway)
That was the founder. He has since sold over 90% of his shares. I have been to Ave Maria. Stepford comes to mind.
khris
Senior Member
Are you referring to John Schnatter? He's long gone.
artyboy123
Senior Member
Name: Sambal
Contact: 463 Danforth Ave., @sambal.to
Neighbourhood: Riverdale
Owners: Maureen Usman, Jasson Powell Wijaya
Chef: Andrea Santawirya
Accessibility: Not fully accessible
The Danforth’s newest addition is a surprising and delightful spot serving up Indonesian food. Although neither Maureen Usman, an immigration lawyer, nor Jasson Powell Wijaya, a graphic designer, has a background in hospitality, their cultural experience and shared passion for their cuisine provide a foundation as strong as any stacked resumé.
Sambal’s story began in 2020, a year that was anything but kind to restaurants. At the time, Usman was running her legal practice from home and longing for connection. She and her husband began cooking Indonesian recipes as a way to feel closer to home. “We were lonely, and the closest thing to home is food,” she says.
artyboy123
Senior Member
artyboy123
Senior Member
How do Torontonians and UrbanToronto folk think of this?
Would this strategy work in the long run?
@AlbertC @Northern Light @GenerationLee @emphurent @Bayer @PinkLucy
RGB_11
Active Member
Lower prices work because more coffee is sold.
The profit margins might be thinner this way, but a lot more coffee is sold.
It's better to make a bit of money per cup, selling lots of coffee than to make
slightly more money (per cup) on a much smaller number of cups sold.
The profit overall is a lot better.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
Depends on the location? You need volume for this to work - and the problem is that high traffic locations that facilitate comparison shopping are naturally taken up by chains. Also if a customer is that sensitive about price they might go for a lower rung.
AoD
RGB_11
Active Member
The missing information is: How many people like to drink coffee (or whatever other beverages she sells) while doing their laundry?
The problem with high volume, is that it often means paying high rent to get the high traffic.
Hopefully she will still manage to do well where she is, all while keeping prices low.
Northern Light
Superstar
Maybe.
Lets talk the general first:
@RGB_11 and @AlvinofDiaspar both correctly note that making up the reduction on volume is one of two core strategies, the other being a hybrid.
I know the industry, and the typical margin on even an elaborate coffee leaves room; but that is, as noted above, dependent on rent, staffing and other costs.
The other core strategy is essentially loss leader (or in this case, low margin leader), which you get someone in your resto/store lured by the lower priced item, and then they pay for a full priced one while they are there.
This is the concept a of discount movie ticket, particularly for children, and then you make it up at the concession stand, its the same as a supermarket selling name brand bacon at $4, but then you buy the bread, the salad pack, the tomatoes, and the mayo for your BLT at full price.
Its also the principle behind $1 pop at McDs in the summer, and $1 coffee in the winter.
Does it work here? Does she sell muffins, and what's the margin on them? (answer below)
****
Specific to her place:
She's only 60ft2, renting space inside a laundromat, on a second-tier road. I would hope her rent were quite low.
She's also the only FT staff as I understand it.
That provides a lot of wiggle room, but also limits her hours.
I just checked, and she's 8-4:30 weekdays with a 9/10 start on the weekends.
On food, she's got a small selection of cookies, 'breakfast loaf (think carrot cake slices) and a few other goodies, along with some merch, and she also pushes sandwiches as well.
I think its viable but not without risk.
Last edited:
evandyk
Senior Member
If you want to compete on price, a 3.50 Americano is not it. An Americano is 2.75 at the Common, which is not far away. If she was charging 4.50 for an Americano before, her prices were out of line with the competition, and she's just bringing it back in line.
RGB_11
Active Member
& then there's the size of the cup for the money charged.
emphurent
Active Member
From a purely capitalistic strategy angle? No its not long term if you're in it for the money, like others have said its partly about cheaper rents, but the coffee itself is to me the most important factor of where I get coffee (more on this below), but i really truly despise the idea of "profitable" third spaces, especially in a city ranked as lonely as Toronto is, spaces to exist around other people should not need to be profit driven in a sane functional society, but that is a much larger topic overall and more indicative of massive shortcomings of Canada as a country.
(the following is rough paraphrasing of stuff ive learned about the trade of coffee from Colombia to Canada, and from the perspective of someone who's grandparents run a farm and a restaurant)
Coffee in itself should have never been able to get to this point, on an increasing list of historically rich crops that have been gentrified for profit (especially as it is an affordable stable that is under threat for the people in the countries its grown) It's also a crop still dealing with exploitation, with organisations like "Fair Trade" continuing the legacy of underpaying farmers. A lot of the coffee inflation people are paying for here is because:
1. Canada makes it hard to import raw coffee, so direct importing from farmers isn't an easy or cheap option.
2. Most coffee supply chains here use the US as a distribution hub to bypass the importing difficulties, which means they are getting tarriffed costs passed down.
3. Importers (middle men) also add additional cost, not insignificantly.
4. Climate change has affected the amount of growing region in different amounts depending on the source.
Personally i have seen cafes that source and roast their coffee themselves have not had to increase prices (especially if they bypass the US) but that just may be where I am at.
In a perfect world, it *is* possible for coffee farmers to be paid way better than they are now, and cafes to keep costs much lower than they are at now, but there is little motivation to fix a system that is working as "intended."
I could get much more specific, as I'm oversimplifying quite a bit, but that is the just.
Last edited:
evandyk
Senior Member
I used to buy a fancy cappuccino from a place like Neo or Third Wave almost every day on my way in to work. I got out of the habit when I was working from home during the pandemic, and I haven't started the habit again, so I almost never buy coffee now unless it's a social occasion. The price just grew way too rapidly from a nice indulgence to something that puts a serious dent into your budget if you do it every day.