My pet peeve for today is how people think that it is completely acceptable to bring outside food and/or drink into coffee shops. Not only do they think it is OK, but they seem to think it is some sort of right they are entitled to. Some people have to nerve to review a coffee shop poorly or defame it on-line as a result of not being able to bring in outside food and/or drink. Give me a break!
People rarely think it is OK to bring outside food into a restaurant. Who walks into a restaurant with their own food and expects to take up a seat in said restaurant and be allowed to eat it without purchasing anything or perhaps only purchasing a drink? Not very many damn people!
One might naturally ask, how is a coffee shop different than a restaurant then? I'll tell you how they are similar first. They both sell ONLY food and drink. These are the ONLY products they sell. Now, on to how they are different.... 1.) Many coffee shops do not have their own kitchens so they bring pre-packaged foods in from other vendors. This means that the profit margin on said foods is much smaller than the profit margin of restaurants who make their own on site. 2.) Most coffee shops sell only inexpensive items. You will rarely find items that cost over $5.00 and many items cost $2.00 or less. I'd say the average ticket at a coffee shop is around $5.00 where the average ticket at a restaurant is easily four or five times that. 3.) People often spend more time in a coffee shop than a restaurant. It is not unusual for an individual to make a small purchase at a coffee shop but stay for hours and hours on end. In a restaurant, it is unusual for people to stay longer than an hour or two. Because of this, restaurants can turn tables more quickly. 4.) Most coffee shops offer more, let's call them "fringe benefits" than restaurants. It is very rare today to find a coffee shop that doesn't have free wi-fi. In fact, keeping wi-fi reliable and convenient while protecting the business from illegal activities taking place over the coffee shop's network can be a major investment in both time and dollars for the coffee shop. Reliable, convenient, free, wi-fi is the exception for restaurants rather than the norm. It is certainly not a requirement for a restaurant. As mentioned before, coffee shops also offer the benefit of providing a place for someone to read, study, or socialize much longer than restaurants do; in some cases, as long as the customer wishes. 5.) Lastly, I will admit that coffee shops have one advantage on restaurants when it comes to making profits. This advantage is that a percentage of the customers take their orders to go. To-go orders are a way to make profit without the customer "consuming" a table or wi-fi. This benefit is offset by the cost of "to go" products (cups, lids, carrying cases, sleeves, etc.) which cost considerably more than the cost that the restaurant has of washing dishes. The cost is increased even more when the coffee shop caters to it's environmentally conscience customers by buying eco friendly "to go" products. Also, this point is somewhat irrelevant to this rant as customers taking their purchase to go could not by definition consume outside food and drink rather than or in addition to making a purchase while at a coffee shop.
So, in summary, in coffee shops, people are spending less than in restaurants on products that have a slimmer profit margin than restaurants therefore making the shops less money than in restaurants, while staying longer than in restaurants, and often consuming more fringe benefits than in restaurants. But still.... people are offended when they can't bring outside food and/or drink into a coffee shop but would most likely never dream of engaging in the same behavior in a restaurant. WTF?!?
Why are people so spoiled and entitled when it comes to coffee shops but not when it comes to restaurants?!? Where are places you can take your own food? You can take it on a picnic or to your house or to a friend's house..... maybe to work or in your car. None of these places depend on your money to stay open. I'll be straight up. It costs roughly $40,000 A MONTH to run a busy, successful, high quality coffee shop. Do people have any idea how many $1.50 or $2.00 cups of coffee a coffee shop has to sell just to pay the bills? Maybe people don't think about it or maybe people do and they just don't care. Either way, people do not offer coffee shops the same respect they afford to restaurants when it comes to bringing in outside food and/or drink and that annoys me.
