The State of the Barista Coffee Business

There are single origins and blends. Is the Australian retail coffee sector waiting for a shake up, more innovation and a less fragmented industry framework?

It is reported there are at least 650 micro coffee roasters for a nation with a population less than that for the greater Tokyo region.

The retail coffee business is said to be only growing at 5 per cent per annum. More players are entering an already crowded field that is crying out from a possible bubble. Some apply social media to enhance marketing and presence in a competitive field.

If you are a barista cafe owner, do you still depend on early morning turnover and the brunch margins? Labour costs make you think twice of offering cuppas at midnight, like they do in Asia. The multi business model of having a licensed bar on your rented premises is attracting customers, but it depends on which market you are operating in.

Coffee beans are a commodity in world trade and are subject to the vagaries and volatility of supply and prices. The question of minimum pay for workers in cafes, especially those working part time and on a casual basis, can raise its ugly head. For the business operator, there is a constant and hawkish need to monitor margins and costs.

It can be said that if you do well in three important things at your cafe, your regular customers can be relied upon. Your coffee has to stand out in bean taste, espresso texture, coffee varietal, body, serving temperature, crema consistency and roast freshness. You need to have an addictive food item, savoury or sweet, on your cafe display shelf or menu. And you need one engaging personality based in your cafe to close the deal.

Running workshops on creating coffees, holding community catch ups and offering different styles for cold and warm weather are useful options, but require resources with which sole proprietors can ill afford.

The strength of the barista business can be its weakness. 

We love the fact that many in the coffee business at street level can shape their own parameters - unique, focused, hipster or down to earth.

Having coffee can be like in the perfume business - reflect on the aroma, the elegance, the reliability, the special moment. Once a particular offering captivates you, you as a customer will return for more.

At the same time, how a barista prepares
from the same blend (say Campos or White Horse) can result in different nuances on the tongue. This also echoes the different skills in making the cuppa.

It has been beneficial for serious coffee lovers in Australia for the market to break away from straitlaced processed coffee from the supermarkets, commercial fast food like chains and bland ground bean blends. The significant influence and inspiration from Italian espresso making is much appreciated. 

Are consumers tending towards consuming more bold coffee on a daily basis? Will there be more negative health pronouncements
for your customers having their fourth cup for a single day? Is there an opportunity for more cooperation by the disparate spectrum of players?

#yongkevthoughts

#baristacoffee

Social Media Addiction and Downside

It is scary. The three apps I most often use are Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook.

They are all owned by the same business entity, which has more customers than many corporates, more users than populations of many nations and more followers than some religions.

I ask myself, what happened to the pleasure of speaking on the phone? Increasingly we can use our fingers more than our vocal chords. 

Our life routines and special moments are punctuated by electronic images and words that can be disposed as fast as they are created, or so we think. The huge number of records of every human being having access to wi-fi grows exponentially and are not just kept by the person who created them. Data is over analysed but not necesarily for benign and progressive purposes.

Data is not just kept on an aggregate basis, but details can be sliced and detailed. 

The addiction to using apps can be experienced akin to the pleasure of drug induced states, gambling thrills and rewards of repeatitive behaviour. Is communicating through social media really the same as meeting up face to face with social friends?

Have you observed how often software updates are required of you? Are such updates of more benefit to your provider than to you as a user?

It is easier to access electronic records than physical ones. And not just by you.
Each of us resents being manipulated by others in the face, but can willingly increase our risks of further manipulation by forces unseen, unheard and unrealised.

We have been induced to look for information the easier way by Googling, but have we truly stopped to query about the validity of such purported facts? 

It is easier to search for news on screens than to read them on paper. This simple situation illustrates the two edged sword nature of electronic information - easier does not mean true, harder does not mean fake, faster does not mean sincerity, slower does not mean not meaningful.

The sanctity of ethics is not protected, because it can be subserviant to other demands and priorities of your provider of the data and information you digest. Your personal data, life moments and images which you happily contribute to cyberspace are not yours for privacy anymore, but swallowed up to in turn sell you not just consumer goods, but ideas, politics and cultural beliefs. 

The Big Brother is smiling - even more as it is so easy for individual human beings to tell Him everything. 

You, as a speck on this Earth of human beings, can be naive to want to share and connect, but you have compromised yourself in this process. You are also possibly connecting unwittingly to forces darker than what you thought exist.

Such forces can be too big to fail and each of us are too small to resist. Despite regulation, protests and hearings, the relentless push of the giants carries on.

#yongkevthoughts

Using Facebook

In view of the greater risks to privacy, security and integrity when posting on Facebook, I emphasise my policy when using this facility.

1. Not everything that happens in my life are posted on Facebook - when scanning my FB postings, you do not know all my friends, relatives and positive people in my life - many choose not to be seen, photographed or mentioned in Facebook. Several of my friends have asked me not to post them or their activities with me in real life on Facebook. You do not see all events I am involved in, and most of the time if a photograph appears, thay are not on line real time.

2. I shall use Facebook to share positive, significant, inspiring matters - and topics which need thoughtfulness, decision making and action to follow up with. I shall try my best not to post speculative, rabble rousing and false news from external websites. Facebook users must think more for themselves and not accept that news feed on Facebook is necesarily true, just like we do not fully trust the traditional press, Tv news channels and other social media outlets.

3. Unless stated, the images and videos that appear on my Facebook postings are copyright to me and protected under Creative Commons. Do ask permission from me if you wish to use them for commercial profit.

4. I encourage you to let me know if any of my statements or third party reports that appear on my Facebook postings are not accurate or correct - and I shall follow up to acknowledge your concerns.

5. If I have emerging trends in my Facebook postings, it does not necessarily mean I want to buy them, or are interested forever in such things, or have a mindset that reflects such implied views. I retain the right to change my views or mindset on products, people, politics, social matters and more. 

6. My Facebook postings are subject to my own actions on deletions, changes and retention.

7. I utilise Facebook for moderate fun, positive diversion and sharing on an intelligent basis. I do not believe in applying to a wide extent that everybody is interested in me, wants to connect with me or wants to share with me. I do not want to connect with every one , only individuals who give me positive vibes.

8. I do use other means of communication apart from Facebook. So my Facebook is not totally me, and I am not just living a Facebook life.

#yongkevthoughts