I experienced some (momentary) guilt the other day as someone at a coffee shop near work (offering concessions to staff) caught me with another shop’s coffee!! Aargh, gasp. I was with a group so managed to convince them I was ‘along for the ride’ with them. Ridiculous stuff, but it made me think – what makes us go to different coffee shops?
Well, I’m in the ‘coffee capital of Australia’, so people take it a little seriously here (I’m easier to please), and don’t take kindly to the ‘big boys’ from the US. Here’s my list of criteria. A ‘yes’ answer gains a point, and a ‘no’ answer deducts a point: Some questions overlap, but sometimes you just have to peel the onion 🙂
- Company is owned and run by someone in the shop
- Company is owned and run locally (city or country)
- Coffee is sourced from ethical suppliers
- The staff ‘care’, and smile
- There’s a shared tips jar
- Location is convenient (this is thrown in because all other points may be good, but you’re not going to walk forever just to get a coffee!)
- You can be ‘in and out’ in less than 4 minutes (on average) – i.e. queues
- The price is reasonable (based on the scores for the above – a bit subjective)
You might even apply your own weighting for each point – i.e. ethical supply may be something you’re not prepared to compromise on, so give that 5 points (you get the idea).
Let’s just say apart from the coffee tasting like water, It’ll be a long time before I go to Starbucks!