Specialty Coffee Retailer is a publication for owners, managers and employees of retail outlets that sell specialty coffee. Its scope includes best sales practices, supplies, business trends and anything else to assist the small coffee retailer.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/103518
INSIGHT The elephant in the coffeehouse T EDITORIAL OFFICE 1030 W. Higgins Road, Suite 230 Visit us online: www.specialty-coffee.com E-mail: specialtycoffee@m2media360.com EDITORIAL STAFF Editor pan demetrakakes, editor here's an episode of "The Simpsons" where the family gets stuck taking care of an elephant. (Never mind how.) Desperate to feed the creature, Homer takes it to Moe's Tavern. As Moe is refilling the peanut bowl for the umpteenth time, he grumbles, "I think you're taking advantage of my generous nature, Homer." Turn the peanuts into bandwidth and the elephant into a lot of smartphones, and you've got a metaphor for the situation in many coffeehouses. Wi-Fi service is a common perk at coffeehouses (as well as restaurants, hotels— basically, any place that's trying to get people to congregate). But like everything else in modern electronics, Wi-Fi has evolved, in terms of both what's available and how easily it can be accessed. A few years ago, the Wi-Fi might be used by a couple of customers who lugged their laptops into the café. Now, anyone can whip out a smartphone and save a little on their data plan by tapping into the wireless connection. And with entire movies and TV programs out there ready for streaming, it's all a recipe for overload. A download speed of 1 megabit per second (mbps) used to be sufficient; now, peak times could easily demand 5 mbps or more. Connection technology is making a difference in another important function: point of sale (POS) systems. The big question here is how much of your shop's credit transactions to put "on the cloud," i.e., with software and data stored on the servers of your POS system provider. Fortunately, as demand has increased, the resources to handle it have improved. High-speed Wi-Fi cable connections are more available than ever. They often come bundled with voice phone and/or TV service, through providers like Verizon, to make the whole proposition more affordable. And hardware is available that can set up secure channels for things like credit-card transactions without incurring the expense of two separate connections. Furthermore, Verizon and others are rolling out fiber-optic service (FiOS) that promises to increase download capacity many times. Verizon's new Quantum service offers speeds of 50 and 75 mbps to small business. I'm not going to go into the question of even having Wi-Fi in the first place, limiting access to customers, requiring a purchase every few hours, etc. This is simply because that topic has been done to death, here and in many other places, to the point where there's a backlash against even discussing it. More to the point, everyone who is potentially affected has either made up their mind on this topic or can find more than enough material, on every side of the issue, to do so. But for those who do offer Wi-Fi, under whatever restrictions, it's important to recognize what the increase in demand might mean: more dropped connections and more frustrated/annoyed customers. (It's amazing how quickly a luxury becomes a necessity.) One of the many balancing acts that a successful business has to make is finding the sweet spot between what Wi-Fi speed is affordable and what will keep Wi-Fi users happy. And happy customers, like elephants, tend to have long memories. 4 Pan Demetrakakes pan@m2media360.com PRODUCTION STAFF Art Director Production Manager Kathleen Sage Mary Jo Tomei CIRCULATION STAFF Vice President of Circulation & Collateral Services Joanne Juda-Prainito SALES STAFF Sales Manager List Rental & Reprint Services EXECUTIVE STAFF Group Publisher Brian Grau Cheryl Naughton Charlie Forman cforman@m2media360.com CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Ed Avis, Jack Groot, Maura Keller, Caroline Rath, Brenda Russell EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Jason Burton, lab Desiree Farden, Cappuccine Jack Groot, JP's Coffee And Espresso Bar Wes Herman, The Woods Coffee Meghan Hubbs, Equal Exchange Rob Jeffries, North Atlantic Specialty Bag Craig Min, LAMIL Coffee Lon LaFlamme, Dillanos Coffee Roasters Kate LaPoint, Sound Provisions, Inc. Joe Monaghan, La Marzocco Tom Palm, Design & Layout Services Steve Schnitzler, Port City Java® Andi C. Trindle, Atlantic Specialty Coffee Bill Waddington, TeaSource Corporate Office: 1030 W. Higgins Road, Suite 230 Park Ridge, IL 60068 PRESIDENT/CEO Marion Minor VP FINANCE & OPERATIONS Gerald Winkel VP OF CIRCULATION & COLLATERAL SERVICES Joanne Juda-Prainito PRODUCTION & Mary Jo Tomei OPERATIONS DIRECTOR SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION AND REQUESTS Subscriptions: $39 for one year, $61 for two years, U.S.; $48 for one year, $72 for two years, Canada; $110 for one year, all other countries (includes airmail postage). Single copies $10 each; Press releases on supplies, services and new products are welcomed and encouraged. Direct them to Specialty Coffee Retailer. Color print photography is preferred, slides and transparencies are accepted. Specialty Coffee Retailer reserves the right to edit all submissions. PRESS RELEASES: Specialty Coffee Retailer (ISSN 1077-3460) is published monthly by Bev-Al Communications, 1030 W. Higgins Road, Suite 230, Park Ridge, IL 60068. Copyright© 2012 by Bev-Al Communications Inc. Postmaster please send address corrections to: Specialty Coffee Retailer, P.O. Box 4290, Port Jervis, NY 12771. Periodicals postage paid at Port Jervis, NY and additional mailing offices.