Farm shop & Tea Room

Hedgehog99

Even if you'll be on a Summer tourist route, still make it good for locals to give you year-round trade and a good reputation. They'll bring their friends and family when they come for the holidays and they'll put your leaflet in their holiday home info packs. You want repeat trade.

Fresh, local seasonal produce, supplemented by good quality imports where necessary.

An informative, up-to-date website. If you do a blog, keep it seasonal and relevant - we don't want to see that your last post was two Autumns ago.

Children: they're marmite, so you'll alienate one group or the other depending on whether you decide to make it a family venue or aimed at adults. Personally, having uncontrolled screaming kids running between the tables when I'm trying to enjoy afternoon tea is a complete turn-off and I won't be back. The farm shop near here is a large enough site to have a play barn, so all the nervous energy is contained in there and the rest of us get some peace and quiet - one way of pleasing both types of customers?

Method of payment? These days, you must take cards, although it's OK to have a £5 minimum spend to pay by card.

Food hygiene score of 5.

Clean toilets - always loo roll and soap. If you'll attract the walking boot trade for lunch, consider having an equally clean block outside too so they needn't traipse their mud through the restaurant, and have a serving hatch in the wall so they can order there and eat on benches outside.

If you will have foods for veggie/vegan/free-from customers, say so on your website, and describe accurately what you offer - planning a day trip & looking for suitable lunch stops, it's always disappointing to not be able to get accurate info from a website. Quite often these days, a group will have a mix of requirements, so if you can cater for more people, you'll get more custom. Doesn't always mean you have to offer "normal" and "free-from" - one venue near here does a gorgeous lemon cake that is GF, but plenty of "non-GF" people love it too.

Get some nice jute bags printed with your logo and have paper bags for customers to put loose produce in for weighing.

Parking that avoids getting muddy.

Decor? Fresh, clean and interesting. Local heritage items? Lobster pots or old farming tools? Or work for sale by local artists? Good natural light. Variety of seating/tables. Space to move between furniture.

How will people order? Queue and get a tray, then take their food to a table? Find a table first? Waiter/waitress service? If you go for the tray system, people on their own can't send the rest of their group to get the table while they queue, so can you have a bar stool type bench for them with a lovely view from the windows on one side of the room? Then they'll only take up one seat instead of using a table that could have seated 2+. Have some newspapers or local mags.

Free wifi.

paddyrg

TeaRoomVenture wrote: »

Excellent point, we need to put a sink next to it! Or a double fence so children don't actually touch the animals...but it may defeat the object!!! Thanks a lot!

A petting zoo may be different from keeping farm animals in the next field - one is something you're specifically responsible for, the other isn't. And that may mean some real complications.

Either way, as well as a sink/loos I'd get yourself a decent bulk supply of sanitising gel and even sell small £1 bottles at the counter (you can buy 2 for a quid at poundland, other suppliers available) so parents can pick one up to use on kids.

FabFifty

Essentials for me - up-to-date website, clean toilets with good toilet paper and plenty of soap, homemade cakes, comfortable seating.

FatVonD

A small petting farm I used to visit with my son sold tubs of animal feed, they got people to pay to feed their animals for them plus it stops people feeding them the wrong things.

martindow

FatVonD wrote: »

A small petting farm I used to visit with my son sold tubs of animal feed, they got people to pay to feed their animals for them plus it stops people feeding them the wrong things.

You need to be a bit cautious with this as animals can become a bit aggressive and start biting pockets or hands that may contain food.

I once went to a zoo in Australia that had paddocks you could walk through and sold food as you suggest. Even though it was years ago I can clearly remember large kangaroos and a hungry looking emu galloping towards me.

TeaRoomVenture

Mojisola wrote: »

There's also the possibility that changes to the local area are being suggested that would adversely affect the business.

Plans may not have reached official levels yet but the owners could be deciding to get out while they have a viable business to sell.

So - investigate the current figures very carefully and try to pick up local information from regional papers, people in shops and pubs.

The sale could be totally what it seems - people wanting to move on and do something different with their lives but you need to be sure before handing over your money.

It has all been checked and all is genuine, no hidden plans so far!

TeaRoomVenture

martindow wrote: »

You need to be a bit cautious with this as animals can become a bit aggressive and start biting pockets or hands that may contain food.

I once went to a zoo in Australia that had paddocks you could walk through and sold food as you suggest. Even though it was years ago I can clearly remember large kangaroos and a hungry looking emu galloping towards me.

:rotfl: we won't get kangaroos then!!!! Thanks

TeaRoomVenture

FabFifty wrote: »

Essentials for me - up-to-date website, clean toilets with good toilet paper and plenty of soap, homemade cakes, comfortable seating.

Sounds reasonable to me!!! Thanks a lot

TeaRoomVenture

Hedgehog99 wrote: »

Even if you'll be on a Summer tourist route, still make it good for locals to give you year-round trade and a good reputation. They'll bring their friends and family when they come for the holidays and they'll put your leaflet in their holiday home info packs. You want repeat trade.

Fresh, local seasonal produce, supplemented by good quality imports where necessary.

An informative, up-to-date website. If you do a blog, keep it seasonal and relevant - we don't want to see that your last post was two Autumns ago.

Children: they're marmite, so you'll alienate one group or the other depending on whether you decide to make it a family venue or aimed at adults. Personally, having uncontrolled screaming kids running between the tables when I'm trying to enjoy afternoon tea is a complete turn-off and I won't be back. The farm shop near here is a large enough site to have a play barn, so all the nervous energy is contained in there and the rest of us get some peace and quiet - one way of pleasing both types of customers?

Method of payment? These days, you must take cards, although it's OK to have a £5 minimum spend to pay by card.

Food hygiene score of 5.

Clean toilets - always loo roll and soap. If you'll attract the walking boot trade for lunch, consider having an equally clean block outside too so they needn't traipse their mud through the restaurant, and have a serving hatch in the wall so they can order there and eat on benches outside.

If you will have foods for veggie/vegan/free-from customers, say so on your website, and describe accurately what you offer - planning a day trip & looking for suitable lunch stops, it's always disappointing to not be able to get accurate info from a website. Quite often these days, a group will have a mix of requirements, so if you can cater for more people, you'll get more custom. Doesn't always mean you have to offer "normal" and "free-from" - one venue near here does a gorgeous lemon cake that is GF, but plenty of "non-GF" people love it too.

Get some nice jute bags printed with your logo and have paper bags for customers to put loose produce in for weighing.

Parking that avoids getting muddy.

Decor? Fresh, clean and interesting. Local heritage items? Lobster pots or old farming tools? Or work for sale by local artists? Good natural light. Variety of seating/tables. Space to move between furniture.

How will people order? Queue and get a tray, then take their food to a table? Find a table first? Waiter/waitress service? If you go for the tray system, people on their own can't send the rest of their group to get the table while they queue, so can you have a bar stool type bench for them with a lovely view from the windows on one side of the room? Then they'll only take up one seat instead of using a table that could have seated 2+. Have some newspapers or local mags.

Free wifi.

Thank you very much for your thoughts and ideas, all very fair and taken into account! There isn't any website at the moment but a Facebook page, so this is something we'll have to address rapidly.

TeaRoomVenture

paddyrg wrote: »

A petting zoo may be different from keeping farm animals in the next field - one is something you're specifically responsible for, the other isn't. And that may mean some real complications.

Either way, as well as a sink/loos I'd get yourself a decent bulk supply of sanitising gel and even sell small £1 bottles at the counter (you can buy 2 for a quid at poundland, other suppliers available) so parents can pick one up to use on kids.

We don't know yet how will deal with the petting zoo situation, maybe an full enclosure so kids can't touch but watch seems a safer idea sometimes, more hygienic but washing facilities and gel could be supply if we have like a feeding the animals time? Not decided yet!!!