Idea 2: Alternative coffee shop model

I can probably look up the value of the market for take away coffee and write some statty-sounding blurb about how much profit is made on a single cup. The fact is selling coffee makes loads of cash - if you can get customers to buy it given the Starbucks and Cafe Nero on each corner.

Facts, themes and sentiments:

• To make a cup of coffee is quick and cheap.
• To wait for a cup of coffee in a queue is annoying.
• To be a member of a club feels cool.
• To support small business is cool.

The idea is as follows:

Create a coffee shop chain where each shop has two counters, catering for two tiers of clientele;

Counter 1

• Customers buy coffee like in any other coffee shop (queue for it, choose it, pay for it, wait for it, leave with it or, sit and drink it)

Counter 2

• The second counter will be for "club" customers only.
• These customers pay a monthly membership fee and can have as much coffee as they like.
• A single, "coffee-of-the-month", selected from artisan roasters, is served in the normal formats of -pressos and -chinos.

How can you afford to give coffee away for free?
To make the coffee is cheap and the membership fee will work on the same principal as a "eat-as-much-as-you can" pricing model in that the average person will drink much less coffee than he initially thought he would, leaving you with a profit.

The following should happen.

• Your members will form an online community of coffee aficionados. They will discuss and star-rate the coffee of the month.
• Your website should become synonymous with great quality coffee, produced by independent producers.
• You then sell the featured coffees online with customer ratings automatically driving the best coffees to the top of the pile.
• The whole concept should grow itself as long as you are actually serving good coffee.
• In effect, you are using your club as a market research collective and as advertisers - both elements that can be expensive and not always accurate in the traditional format.

"Nice-to-haves"

• A fair share of regular. club customers will drink coffee at the same place every day. Not wanting to wait, they can have a mobile app to pre-order coffee so that it is ready just before they arrive. The details of such an app will need to be worked out but I cannot see how this should be too difficult.
• All things coffee related can be booked or bought online e.g., barista courses.

Just a thought on how to get the most socially acceptable drug to operate in a more socially responsible manner.

(Permission to use image was kindly provided by supanovadesign)