Local coffee shop complains that despite being full 24/7 it is losing money
November 15, 2011
Local coffee shop struggles to make money even though it is always packed.
Last friday The Hip-Stir coffee shop a which has become a Seppuwa Falls mainstay for those seeking an alternative to Starbucks was packed. People were actually standing waiting for a table.
Despite the look of a prospering business,night manager Kianni Brewer says “We’ve yet to have a day where we meet our sales targets. We just aren’t selling enough coffee because the patrons will buy a cup of coffee and stay at their table for an entire afternoon and the owner is losing money.”
We asked one of the Hip-Stir regulars what they thought of the coffee shop’s predicament his response was, “I pay for my coffee and I shouldn’t be forced to buy more coffee to stay at my table. This is a public space, right?”
This problem has only gotten worse as the closing of the local Borders and the Everything and More Cafe earlier this year has given the Hip-Stir more patrons but that hasn’t translated into more business.
Sherry Weintraub head of the ownership group of the Hip Stir has a couple more observations regarding the current profit deficit, “We are in a real predicament because we had some push back from patrons when we tried to enforce a buy coffee in order to be in the cafe policy.”
The coffee shop has become the equivalent to a bus station it has become a place to go, to just be. When you go their in the middle of the night you find people wearing sandals who are missing toes. Another night you will see several individuals who in between reading on their kindle or Ipad they are brushing their mustaches. All of these people have two things in common, they have only one cup of coffee and they are their for at least five hours.
When we brought up the clientele’s tendency Miranda Macdonald, another Batista was quick to confirm this, “Oh yeah the new Borders exiles are horrible, they just leave their reading material on the table even though it’s theirs.” She added, “Plus the lovable tramps that have been Hip-Stir regulars for a while never buy more than a cup of coffee.”
Short URL: http://www.seppuwafallsgazette.com/local/tension-rises-between-hip-stir-customers-and-former-borders-customers/
