How to Better Operate a Coffee Shop? How to Price Café Products?

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The High Price Myth in Specialty Coffee

In the specialty coffee circle, there's an unwritten rule: only high pricing can prove the quality of the beans and the coffee. For a long time, the label placed on coffee, especially specialty coffee, has always been "expensive." Whether coffee wasn't yet popular in the country or now that coffee has become part of people's daily lives, expensive coffee remains a taken-for-granted reality.

Based on my personal experience as a writer, I've tried a pour-over coffee from Ethiopia Sidamo's "Huang Kui" at three price points: 30, 48, and 62. Every time I recall the 62-yuan experience, I feel like I was ripped off... Perhaps you might think this is pricing from a big city coffee shop, but this is actually pricing from a small county town coffee shop, and the final coffee was as diluted as water.

Why did I pay for it? Because I had promised a friend to treat her to pour-over coffee and let her choose, and this 62-yuan Huang Kui was already the cheapest option on the pour-over menu. The most expensive was once the Hacienda La Esmeralda Blue Label Geisha, priced at 158 per cup! (At that market price, you could buy 100g)

The pricing of other coffees was also very expensive—an Americano at 40 per cup... made from Brazil-Colombia blend beans. From these prices, it's clear that this shop was clearly pricing arbitrarily.

Because many consumers still don't understand specialty coffee, and many products marked "specialty" are tied to "light luxury/limited quantity." So when consumers can't distinguish the quality of a product, they always use price level as differentiation, which has also created the phenomenon of arbitrary pricing in specialty coffee.

Perhaps some friends might say that different shops have different costs, and price fluctuations are normal. But sometimes, product pricing needs to know when to stop.

When consumers go to independent coffee shops, they hope to get a service experience that chain coffee shops can't provide. When such pricing fails to deliver more sincere and professional service, it cannot gain customers' trust or their decision to return.

Defining Specialty Coffee

Some coffee professionals/enthusiasts define whether a coffee bean is specialty based on whether it's from a single origin, the SCA scoring system, the richness and sophistication of flavor expression, and fresh in-house/small-batch roasting. Some people determine it by the variety and quality of green beans, the degree of coffee roasting, and the final flavor expression. Others say price determines everything—expensive doesn't necessarily mean good, but cheap definitely isn't specialty.

But for general consumers, talking about coffee flavor and coffee bean quality is like entering a blind spot of knowledge, so these things are intangible to the public. What can make general consumers truly feel whether something is specialty is the service. When there's high pricing, there should be meticulous and professional service.

Unfortunately, many coffee shops fail to meet these basic requirements. When discussing coffee pricing in independent coffee shops, people always say we can't sell at prices as low as Luckin's—we simply can't compete.

But independent coffee shops are still needed, which proves that everyone has things that Luckin can't do: more professional and attentive service. When there's a better consumer experience, spending a bit more money is worth it.

This service doesn't mean constantly "interrogating" customers about their needs, but rather being able to produce every product with a professional attitude, and observing customers' small actions when possible to see if problems can be solved in advance, enhancing customers' goodwill toward the coffee shop.

The True Value of Specialty Coffee

Specialty coffee is reflected in quality and service, which affect product pricing, but that doesn't mean it must be expensive. Each coffee shop has different operating costs and different positioning. There are many high-quality coffee beans, and many specialty-grade coffees that can achieve SCA 80+ points, and most coffee bean prices are not high.

If we want the specialty coffee industry to grow larger and more people to have demand for specialty coffee, we need to start with places where the general public can easily and clearly feel the difference between specialty coffee and regular/chain coffee, and service is the key.

Affordable prices don't mean poor coffee bean quality and service, and high prices don't necessarily mean good coffee bean quality and service. When high prices are set but only chain takeout coffee shop service is provided—or even worse—how can consumers' views on specialty coffee be positive?

Images unrelated to content, source: Internet

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