Wow, Mycuppa and Fresh Coffee have answered this on so many levels. Fact is, Bean Green sell their product too cheaply. Hopefully Brendan does enough turnover, as his margins are small. To someone with a background in business the various models on offer are blatantly obvious, and so are the margins. If BG buys a bean for say $10.67kg, landed in his warehouse, then it looks like he puts 50% margin on top. So that means he sells it at $16/kg. If you buy 10kg you get $1/kg discount, if you buy 30kg the discount is $3/kg. So, how much is he making? On the 10kg purchase ($150 total) he gives free postage. Worth at least $20. He has to bag the beans and put them in a box, which is not free. So add $5, just to be safe. Profit on the $150 is $43, minus postage and packaging. Leaves $18 Gross Profit. From this he has to pay rent, insurances, and a whole swag of other costs. Make your own conclusion from this. Coffee has increased in price. So has freight. BG sell good quality beans at a very reasonable price. So does MG. As to CS, I do not care how cheap their product is, but apart from 2 or 3 lines, the rest are mediocre and you get what you pay for. I have bought and roasted most of the beans on offer at CS, and do not rate them as highly as all of the CS fanclub seem to. I am not the only one who shares this view, but others are way more diplomatic and keep their mouths shut. Maybe my palate is different to others, but I am highly critical of my roasting skills, and of professional roasters. My time is valuable, and I do not want to waste it, roasting cheap beans. I have bought high quality beans, roasted them with different profiles, and had great results each time. The same can not be said of mediocre beans. I know many people who have bought CS beans, disliked them and then struggled to use them up in blends. People are free to buy where they choose and everyone has a budget. I did not like the original CS model of selling beans, and was very glad when I discovered BG and MG years ago. Today the choice is even greater. Basically you get what you pay for. Every now and then you may come across a great bean at a "cheap" price, but that is becoming rare. As Alan Frew wisely said in one of his newsletters, the biggest difference in the cup comes from the processing methods at Origin. Wasting thousands of dollars on high end espresso machines and commercial conical grinders is stupid if you are going to roast crap beans. If you have invested in top notch equipment, and roasters, why are people so stingy when it comes to buying quality beans? As to the OP, the cost of doing business in Australia is huge. No doubt you are feeling it too. The coffee market here is over saturated in the same way so many other businesses are. Too many shops, not enough people.
