Farm shop & Tea Room

Carmk2008

We regularly go to farm shops, and I would say your main focus should be on the food, good selection of wholesome food at fair prices. The farm shops we go to have good selection of stuff but I never buy any or see many others buying as to be honest it can be bought cheaper elsewhere. Also outside area for kids is a must too .

username

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

Card payment is essential, but really with a minimum spend? It's distinctly visitor unfriendly to have such minimum spends on and certainly not OK.

Perhaps that was fine in the days of 2003 when it took an age for the machines to dial out and hardware was slow to respond, and somewhat frowned upon but these days people are used to making small payments on contactless.

People will choose to pay with an array of devices - phones on Apple/Android pay, cards, watches so be prepared for that - and ensure staff are aware and well trained.

Also, consider the fact that contactless can drive impulse purchases. If I'm in a coffee shop and wanting another slice of cake or another coffee, I am likely to walk out and not bother with another if there is a minimum spend with the card and I have little shrapnel in my wallet, versus the fact that I could rock up to the counter and buy another coffee/cake and touch and go.

Considering the margin is pretty good on coffee and tea, to turn away extra trade for the sake of enforcing some arbitrary spend limit would be poor business sense.

The idea of the board having ingredient provenance is a good one, an indie cafe I go to in Brighton has this by the door.

00ec25

username wrote: »

Considering the margin is pretty good on coffee and tea, to turn away extra trade for the sake of enforcing some arbitrary spend limit would be poor business sense.

it is not an arbitrary limit, it can be worked out to the penny. Depending on the type of card used the bank charges can be at worst near 5% of the transaction value or have a flat fee + %

For low value transactions with a small margin those extra charges can be killers, hence why so many small businesses are "forced" to apply minimum spends. Obviously the big corporates get much better bank charges and can therefore absorb the costs as part of the margins they use.

thorsoak

Another important thing to remember about operating a tea room is the hygiene requirements - people now look at the "scores on the doors" and anything less than a 5 (top score) can be looked on unfavourably by the customers!.

Working in the kitchen of a well-known chain of corner shops, I sometimes think that I'm not only a cook - but also a cleaner and clerk! Record keeping is considered most important by the Environmental Health people who call regularly on us (and yes, we do have 5***** stars on our doors).

Here's the website I was referring to - http://ratings.food.gov.uk/