Interest rates/petrol prices?

blanyon

Just wondering if cafe's are noticing a downturn in trade with the increase in the cost of living, are people forgoing the morning latte to fill up the car?

floatncoffee

phew im glad im not the only one who thinks this lol yer ive had alot of reg customers acually drop in to tell me they cant do it anymore so yer ive had alot drop off but alot of new ones and we had our biggest week last week! so i cant figure that out this petrol price fiasco is getting ridiculous Ryan

blanyon

I haven't been going long enough to know if petrol prices are biting, I am just having a bit of a slowdown in business that I think is the novelty factor of coffee being delivered wearing off. I was just looking for a bit of a discussion on the topic to see how people were going. I have found however that regular customers are looking to drop a day or two so it might be cost pressures.

floatncoffee

they have bitten ive found...our profits have gone down slightly due to running cost for the gene/car and a slight dip in customers. alot of other mobile coffee shops ive gotten to know in the last 12 months have also noticed a drop even if they dont amit it... you can tell. i found alot of espresso drinkings all have one thing in common... they'll never go back to instant coffee 🙂 so i dont think coffee delivered is a novelty wearing off...if you stopped coming they'l go out of there way to get it somewhere else. i thought building a coffeeshop in a horse float was gunna be a novelty that'll wear off.....i thank my lucky stars it's not. i found people came in to me purely out of curiosity.. but i give them the best i can to keep them coming back... most of them do. but yes i find it is having an impact in more ways than one (also running costs for gene and car) i think all us mobile coffee guys and gals have to come up with something new and novel to kick start the market again..... i know!!!! coffee you can run your car on LOL Ryan

Greg41

Hey Ryan any chance of sending a photo of your float? I have a mobile setup as well from a Pantec trailer. I have found business has dropped a little also, but the clientele i rely on a bit is campers and the cold has keeps them away to some degree. cheers, Greg

floatncoffee

i dont know if this is allowed or its probably in the wrong place but here's a pic so sorry if ive hijacked if this is not allowed please feel free to remove Lets see your guys units 🙂 Ryan

Greg41

Looks good Ryan. I'll organise to send a photo of mine. thanks mate.

admin

Hi guys - absolutely no probs with pics in this sort of situation. -A

flatwhite2

I'll bet when you told friends your idea of running a mobile operation out of a horse float you came across quite a few nay-sayers. 😛

askthecoffeeguy

Hey that's a great looking set up! bet it gets a bit cold in winter but! what do you do to keep warm (apart from drinking coffee that is?) pat

Greg41

Okay ive found my photo now how do i post it on here?

floatncoffee

thanks guys yes i got ALOT of nay-sayers... i got negitive comments from people through the whole 3 months it took me to build it.... first they said "he quit his job to do what?" and "no it wont work".... one year on they're saying "no the second and third float wont work"...morons lol these are types of people who have been in there situation for sooo long that making the slightest change in there live is out of the question....i feel sorry for them acually! sorry bout the rant hehe :🙂 i have alittle vented gas heater in there for winter... it takes 1 min to heat the whole thing up...very cosy and a fan in summer (an aircon would be too much for the generator) if its still too hot, i go home.... im home buy lunch time every day anyway so miss the extreme heat pics? you have to get a site like photobucket.com to host them. then copy the link from there and paste onto here

Greg41

http://www.flickr.com/photos/79444918@N00/2609677695/ Here it is.

floatncoffee

very nice 😉 do you run a gene or just mains power?

GrindOnDemand

I've purposelly maintained a very concentrated territory in my 5yrs of running, to minimise time on the road & consequent runing costs/wear-&-tear etc. But yes, rising fuel prices has eaten at my bottom line, so I've had to make the hard decision of raising my prices across the board, yet at the same time still absorbing surging prices. You can have a looksie at plenty of pics of my set-up ... just click on my website below (the little house at the bottom) 😉 cheers, Tony

Greg41

Mains power Ryan. So far the places i go to have sufficient power. unlike some places i've been to where a gene would have been handy. One christmas when i first started i was invited to an event and was told there was ample power. When i arrived there about 4 other people had to share one 4 socket power board plugged into one 10 amp socket. i had to jump a fence and plug into a neighbours house.

admin

Interesting fact on this - Aust. Bureau of Stats figures for April have just come out [always at least a 3 month lag on this stuff] showing that money spent in cafes and restaurants dropped 3% in April. -A

DoubleRistretto

Hey just wondered if you cafe owners out there were experiencing a big drop in customers because of this financial squeeze?? dR

blanyon

Nothing of note from my perspective, however I have heard anecdotal stories of a real slowdown for many cafes in Wagga.

Koffee_Kosmo

Annalists say that the Reserve Bank will lower the cash rate another 2% by mid 2009 Currently as of 5 Nov 2008 it stands @ 5.25 % http://www.rba.gov.au/statistics/cashrate_target.html Latest news reports say petrol prices will drop to under $1.00 before Christmas Just to kick along the economy KK