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/73257
coff eehouses stack up well against those other venues. "Th ey're cool, I love them, because people are usually " there to hear the music," Loy says. "Sometimes in some other places, they don't know about live music, but usually in the coff eehouses, they're pretty hip and tuned into the music and are expecting it, so that's good. Ellisllis Delaney, a singer-songwriter who oſt en plays at Ginkgo Coff eehouse in St. Paul, Minn., relishes the informality of coff eehouses. etim INFORMAL VENUE eeho "Sometimes the coff eehouse actually shuts down a little bitit during the show and it really turns into a concert venue," Delaney says. "Th en during the break, everything starts up aga again and people go to refresh their beverages. It really feels a l little more informal in a really great way." wever, es elane sometimes pay him a share, like 15 percent, of their sales during his performance, and sometimes pay a fl at fee. He prefers the l latter; in any case, during most coff eehouse performances he will put out a tip jar and off er CDs for sale. However, Loy admits, "Sometimes they don't pay that great. Sometimes they do, i his a in metimes etimes sometimes they don't." Coff eehouses er orma Th is variable approach to payment is common to coff eehouses across the board. On the income end, options include charging a cover, selllling tickets or neither. On the other end, the options are pay the performer a fl at fee, a percentage of sales, or have them just play for tips. Many coff eehouses take more than one approach, depending on the nature of the performance—and the performer. It makes for unpredictable results. "In my experience, it can vary a lot," Loy says. "I might walk out with 30 bucks; I might walk out with 300." ar across are pa th lot, co er ust o the perf rm de eschews a cover charge in favor of letting the musician put out a tip jar. "If people are going to pay that door [charge], they're not going to put money in the tip jar, " Spilotros says. FIRST CHANCE Playing for tips may not sound like an appealing prospect— except for a performer who is just starting out and may not have any other prospects. Ginkgo owner Kathy Sundberg says playing for tips can give an aspiring musician his or her fi rst chance. When she started Ginkgo 20 years ago, "Part of my objective was to provide a place that musicians could have a listening they might come up with fi ve or ten dollars, and it's just not worth their while. So we're not able to pay a lot, but we do better than that, and they know what they're getting before they come. At Olivia's Coff eehouse in Eustis, Fla., owner Olivia Spilotros her Saturday night performers. But she pays them a fl at fee, not a percentage. "A lot of coff ee shops will say, 'Oh, we'll give you a percentage of sales during that hour,'" she says. "It might sound good, but Scott rarely charges a cover at Expressions, and only pays " audience and also make a little money, and it became very clear that there was a big demand for places to play for donations as well, from people were at diff erent stages of their musical careers," Sundberg says. From the owner's standpoint, keeping expenses down say S������ S����� �������� �� C���� C����� �� R���, N��., �� 2006. also maintains one of the advantages of coff eehouses as an entertainment venue: the low cost. Compared with clubs and concert halls, coff eehouses are a great entertainment bargain. Th ese days, that's more important than ever. "Th e economy has really been a boost, recession hit, "they talked about, 'If you want to save money, cut out your expensive coff ee. night or Saturday night and go to the coff ee shop and have dinner and live entertainment for $10. You can't do that at a movie theater. ' [But] you can go out on a Friday Espresso in Tempe, Ariz., says the low cost gives more people access to the jazz his shop features. "Where else can you sit and listen to really good jazz [for] a Dennis Miller, co-owner with wife Karen of Gold Bar " mug of coff ee that costs you a dollar and twenty-seven cents?" Miller says. "We have little kids that come, and it's the fi rst time they've ever heard live music and they're mesmerized. And then we have a lot of students who are taking music appreciation jazz classes, and they have to go listen to live jazz, they come here. " AUDIENCE VARIETY Th e audience may have a lot of bargain hunters, but they'll probably vary in most other ways, especially for coff eehouses that feature a variety of acts. "We have some core customers who, if there's live music, they come to everything," Joplin says. "But my philosophy is, Comma Coff ee panders to the human race. teenagers, older people, politicians from the state capitol July 2012 • www.specialty-coffee.com | 13 " Comma draws " Scott says. When the