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/35520
Racy coff eehouses face crackdown In California and Holland, ‘extras’ are under attack Coffeehouses, both here and abroad, that offer more than the sedate fare associated with traditional coffee shops are facing the prospect of having to clean up their acts. In Garden Grove, Calif., coffee wasn’t the only hot item available at a string of coffeehouses that cater to a mostly Vietnamese clientele. The southern California city, about 29 miles southeast of Los Angeles, is cracking down on coffee shops that offer scantily clad (or unclad) waitresses and gambling. The City Council voted unanimously in early May to ban the coffeehouses from maintaining arcade machines, which, police claimed, were being altered to serve as gambling devices. The action comes in the wake of police raids on 20 Garden Grove coffeehouses, most of them with Vietnamese owners. Police said they confiscated 200 gambling machines during the raids. For years, the Vietnamese coffeehouses had used waitresses dressed in lingerie or other revealing outfits. But police said that in recent years, the outfits had become racier, and on some occasions, waitresses would serve customers in the nude. There are about 30 such establishments in Garden City, with others in the surrounding area. Police had been making arrests for robberies and assaults along Mark Your Calendar August with citations for gambling and smoking. “If (the coffeehouses) want to become adult entertainment establishments, they need to apply for the appropriate permits,” Garden City Police Chief Kevin Raney told the Orange County Register. “They have morphed into gambling houses and gentleman’s clubs.” Meanwhile, Holland seems to be backing away from its longstanding policy on allowing coffee shops in certain cities to sell cannabis-related products. Buying marijuana and hashish in coffeehouses in Amsterdam and regions near Holland’s borders has been a Dutch tourist attraction for decades. However, according to the London Daily Mail, legislation backed by conservative politicians would bar such shops from selling cannabis to foreigners and would restrict them to 1,500 Dutch residents, who would each have to obtain a one-year “dope pass.” Opponents of the measure call it “tourism suicide” that would cost millions of euros a year in lost revenue. Debit-card swipe fee cap on track Senate rejects attempt to delay 12-cent limit An attempt to delay a cap on “swipe fees” for debit cards failed in the U.S. Senate in early June, paving the way for the cap to take place on July 21. The Senate voted whether to impose a one-year delay on the 12-cent cap, which was instituted by the Federal Reserve late last year. The Senate measure came up six votes short of the 60 needed for passage. Both retailers and financial institutions furiously lobbied Congress over the debit- card fees, which currently have no limit and cost retailers an average of 44 cents per swipe. Retailers maintain the issue is critical because of the growing popularity of debit cards. They surpassed credit cards in retail purchases for the first time in 2009 and are expected to have remained on top in 2010, once all the data are in. The increased use of debit cards is presumed to be part of consumers’ desire to live within their means during the recession. “Today, retailers struggle to balance swipe fees, which are the second-highest operation cost after labor,” Leslie Sarasin, president of the Food Marketing Institute, said in a statement. “Due to this, consumers are shouldering the burden, as portions of these fees must be incorporated into the price of goods.” Bankers, on the other hand, argue that capping debit card fees will force some banks to start charging customers for checking accounts, ATM transactions, and other services that have been free up to this point. Pair to cycle across U.S. for Coff ee Kids Money raised will benefit coffee farmers’ families globally A couple of Englishmen are bicycling across America this summer to raise money for the families of coffee farmers 11-15 Hong Kong International Tea Fair, Hong Kong, China, www.hktdc.com 18-21 Roaster’s Guild Retreat, Stonewall Resort, Roanoke, W.Va., http://roastersguild.org 28-30 Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo, San Diego, www.westernfoodexpo.com (featuring Ultimate Barista Challenge) 7-9 World Coffee Trade Outlook, Antwerp, Belgium, www.ibc-asia.com 8-10 Coffeena, Cologne, Germany, www.coffeena.biz 8-10 Florida Restaurant and Lodging Show, Orlando, Fla., www.flrestaurantandlodgingshow.com 23-25 Coffee Fest Seattle, Washington State Convention Center, Seattle, Wash., www.coffeefest.com 8 | July 2011 • www.specialty-coffee.com Dale Walker (left) and Stephen Prime plan to bike across America to raise money for coffee farm families. September