Coffee stores closed on public holidays

Lwowiak

I have a little rant to make, and if I upset any business owners with my frank statements, then please note this is not my intention. This is my point of view.

My wife and I went to Broadbeach yesterday, and intended to grab a coffee from a small store in the vicinity. It is one of the few places that actually serves good coffee on the Gold Coast. It is an independent. They were closed, due to it being a public holiday. They also have a habit of closing at 4pm.

My issue is that if you are going to open such a store in a holiday location, then you must be prepared to be open. People expect it. It is a holiday area, with people around all the time, from morning to evening. If you want to trade business hours, then open in a business district. In tourist areas, you pay through the nose for rent, and should be open for as many hours as possible. If not, you have no clue as to what you are doing. I had a retail business for many years in a tourist area, I only closed on Xmas day, and was open long hours. Rent was high, but so was the foot traffic on public holidays, and at night. I adjusted my opening hours to suit.

Business owners need to realize that if you are not open, your potential customers will shop elsewhere. It does not matter how good your product is. By shopping elsewhere, the other store can steal your customer with superior service, even if your product is better. If you have not factored in the true cost of doing business in Australia, then do not open a shop. I can understand not opening in the suburbs, but please....
Broadbeach is very busy, and the rent in this area reflects it. Not opening on public holidays is stupid. So is closing early. The Max Brenner store a few metres away does a roaring business at night. The Starbucks at Broadbeach is in a prime position, but always has customers, because they deliver a product and service that caters to the tourists, and locals. A similar store to my intended destination (with a similar footprint) was also open. It had a long queue, even though Starbucks was a few metres away. This hole in the wall (of sorts) is a franchised store and has the nous to open the necessary hours.

I know business is tough, the hours long etc, but people, please do your research before opening. Another classic example is a store that has just opened near the Hilton hotel at Surfers Paradise. It si called Aztec Chocolate. Opening hours are 8am to 6pm. I think the owners are clueless. Their offering is similar to Max Brenners. Why the hell close at 6pm in one of the busiest retail areas in Australia? You sell a product that appeals to people in the afternoon and evening, your core foot traffic is in the evenings, and you close??

Some people just do not get it.

Those that dream of having a shop selling coffee, and wishing to trade normal hours are in for a shock. Retail is a beast. You must move with the times and adapt.

Aiming for a niche market with limited hours is fine, but does not work if your rent is high. If the wages are an issue on public holidays, then add a surcharge. The unions pushed for penalty rates, so be it. We have better working conditions here, but someone has to pay for it, and yes it is the consumer.

Koffee_Kosmo

Are you talking about No Name Lane It sounds familiar as I stayed in Peppers Broadbeach around New Year and they closed then as well  Also I searched for rules to trade on Anzac Day  Anzac Day rules for trading

Queensland Factories and shops in Queensland are required to close on April 25 each year with exceptions for racing venues, offices or licences of TAB, licensed premises, real estate offices and "exempt venues". Exempt venues include printing, publishing and distributing newspapers, manufacturing, distributing or supplying gas, electricity or water, necessary continuous manufacturing or mining, essential services, supplying of milk, manufacturing bread and the preparation of food in restaurants, cafes, pastrycook and hot takeaway food kitchens. Independent retail shops can open after 1pm but shops that sell predominantly food or groceries can open all day while "places of amusement" including cinemas and amusement parks can open after 1.30pm.

KK

Lwowiak

Anzac Day rules is an interesting concept. This venue was the only one closed, many other shops were open. Woolworths was closed in the Oasis centre. Many large retailers (usual big names) around the GC were open. I believe, though may be wrong, that the Gold Coast as a tourist location has open trading hours for food and beverage (excluding liquor) outlets. Many stores like HN, GG, Domayne open 7 days, but do not trade Thursday night.

askthecoffeeguy

Could it have anything to do with the penalty rates payable on a public hollidAy ? Cafes are a long hard slog no matter how you look at it - personally I think that if a little down time helps to prevent burnout then good luck to them! For the record my cafe was open yesterday and I worked 11hrs straight and benefited immensely from other closures in the area! Cheers, ACg

Lwowiak

on 1335427435:

Could it have anything to do with the penalty rates payable on a public hollidAy ?

Yes, hence why I stated what I did. Apart from Xmas Day there are 9 public holidays in QLD, in a given year. These should be viewed as prime trading days to make some money. After all, a lot of shops are shut and people are out and about, the perfect time for coffee shops to make a killing. Penalty rates should be factored into your cost of doing business. If you are in a prime tourist area (and I do mean prime), then you should be open. Downtime to counter burnout needs to be factored into any business, but you need to make hay while the sun shines. Labour costs here are astronomical. Are our excessive penalty rates really justified? If so, then bring on the surcharge, so everyone is well aware of what the small business person has to endure.

Jonty

Burnout I agree.. If you have gun Baristas, then I can understand they need a break and so does the cafe owner\manager - family life is important and more than making coins. Public holidays, surcharge should be applied as I believe we need to support the payment of people who work in the hospitality industry as the coin is shite (sorry unless your the owner). If its $25 - 28 per hour for a Sat arvo or Sunday, that is crap money (maybe I need to go and hide? ).  The best coffee shop in my neighbourhood only do 730-4pm Mon-Fri, Sat 830-2pm and closed Sunday.  Both owners have young families and obviously they make enough coin in those hours........  Since I work out of town, I can only get a coffee there on a Sat morning....... 

mycuppa

Why don't you call them and asked them why they were closed ?

askthecoffeeguy

on 1335438376:

Labour costs here are astronomical. Are our excessive penalty rates really justified? If so, then bring on the surcharge, so everyone is well aware of what the small business person has to endure.

competition everywhere is tight - I can guarantee that if I bought on a surcharge on a public holiday here in melbourne I would loose trade I just factor in that we're going to uber busy on the day and pay all my staff a bonus on the day p

mycuppa

I was thoroughly enjoying my Anzac Day........unable to get time to do some major maintenance on the roaster, I relished the time to get suck into it. Most of my local restaurants and cafes were closed except the 2 Asian places up the road - one being my regular 3 times a week fave. Halfway through an extremely enjoyable bowl of Pho, some irate loudmouth patron decided to disturb the harmony by complaining loudly about a surcharge on his bill. On and on it went, completely ruining the experience for the other patrons. I was very happy to pay the surcharge, but there are those angry tight-wads who have absolutely no idea about hospitality that ruin it for everyone else. Putting up with staff who are reluctant to work even with penalty rates and customers who get upset about surcharge - who wants that ? I applaud the cafe owner who decided to close on Anzac Day - well done.

3rd Crack

I do understand your frustrations Lwowiak, my business partner was commemorating ANZAC day with his wife and son at Broadbeach and discovered said un-named cafe closed  :D - I still have the SMS he sent me. This could be seen as another disappointed customer (being closed on such a high traffic day - yes missed business opportunity, and risking losing patronage) but when you consider the fact that we roast for them and he was going in to do a quality control check, it is quite fitting. One of the reasons we're happy to supply them is the care and attention given to each and every shot. We know that our product will always be served as best as possible. Finding the right combination of baristas / cafe owners who care more about quality rather than quantity is rare indeed. Working with baristas and cafe owners who want to excel in what they do is an honour as a Roaster because ultimately, the biggest factor by far is the person preparing the extraction. There are many cafes sourcing beans from exceptional roasters, but the consistency of the coffees produced is very imprecise. I think it's more frustrating going to a cafe that you know should have good tasting coffee, but end up getting a sinker. And it's not just an occasional sinker, it's like they intenionally go out of their way to make a sinker. ... maybe they just don't like me  :rofl: Back on topic: Said cafe's trading hours are 7am-4pm : 7 days a week which mean staffing from 6:30am to 4:30pm 7days a week. Sure you could extend the business hours, but you need to fill in staff - finding the "right" staff to maintain standards... .... ... So yes, I too understand the business owner and his need to draw a line between quality over quantity. Some people aren't going to like that .. but hey . that's why they offer roasted whole beans for the times they are closed. ... tidbit of information that shouldn't change the above points of view: Said cafe was unable to open on Thursday due to discovering that their main refrigeration system was dead when they arrived in the morning. It is not known when refrigeration failed, it is very possible it was Wednesday and thus they would not have been able to serve coffee regardless. The fridge was fully stocked - both milk and food ..  They were not able to trade on Thursday and ended up throwing out thousands of dollars worth of stock. They were very fortunate that the technician had the required capacitor on hand. The capacitor isn't normally a readily availble spare part, and would have normally taken three weeks to source.

Kelsey

On the surcharge thing: I don't object to holiday surcharges. The business has to pay a higher cost of doing business, one assumes it would also be a harder, more frantic and stressful day at work for all staff and it's also their right to charge what they like. That said - any surcharges should be clearly notified on the menu and the price changes clear. I've been 'that guy' frothing at the mouth and having a go at the restaurant owner. It was a Sunday, there was a 15% surcharge that was listed in fine print on the last page of the menu - a page I hadn't even glanced at. I have no problems paying a surcharge. Having an extra 15% added to my bill without my being able to decide beforehand whether it's worth it just makes my blood boil. In retrospect, I felt embarrassed about having it out with the owner (albiet as quietly and discreetly as I could - I didn't want to disrupt other diners) but just couldn't help myself. This was also during a time when there was a great deal of hullaballoo about hidden surcharges in NSW restaurants and fines were being handed out to restaurants who didn't have menus with altered prices for days with surcharges.

FreshCoffee2

This would be firstly, location based, and secondly, based on prior experience of being open during the same periods / public holidays in previous years. If there is no business expected, or not enough to pay the cost of being there, no point being open and, only the particular business owner knows what that cost is likely to be  What cost staffing on such a public holiday? If a business is open it means they expect to be able to pay ther way, and if they arent, either they dont expect to be able tpo pay their way or as was mentioned above, something may have gone wrong.