Coffee gaining attention

Coffee is emerging as the new category to try among rural, regional and even high street newsagents. I know of several who are now selling coffee – from automatic machines through to the full on barista model. Since newsagents are open early, coffee makes sense. The keys, from the people I have spoken with and who are having success with coffee, appear to be: provide a good product, fast service and a fair price.

The biggest challenge appears to be around managing labour resources given that coffee is more labour intensive at the counter than selling newspapers and magazines and given that newsagency customers tend to be impatient.. The excellent margin on coffee makes funding additional resources easier.

I have heard of one misstep where the newsagent went with lower quality coffee and equipment. It was not until quality was improved that business picked up.

Coffee fits with the early morning strategy I blogged about recently. This strategy was shared with me by a follow newsagent who has made some very smart moves in his business by embracing change.

Coffee is not easy to try in a shopping centre – mainly because of the permitted use clause. It is something I would seek to have permitted if I had the necessary space and the newsagency was in the right location in the centre. If I had a newsagency in a high traffic location and already did good business in the morning I’d be trying coffee right away. That and some pre-packaged good quality muffins and the like. This would be an easy move. Machines can be rented and good baristas employed casually (if you go for the full-on personally made model) for a trial period if you are unsure.