A different type of business

[equus007]

Ok I'm lazy and haven't done any independant searching on this yet but this is always a good place to start.

To your(y'all's? all y'all's)knowledge are there any chain high-end coffee equipment stores the likes of crate & barrel? Somebody in upscale malls that sells expensive home equipment and high end green coffee. Everyone I've ever dealt with was more or less out of a warehouse or direct from manufacturer. If they exist who are they and how well do they do? Thanks

 

[ElPugDiablo]

Ok I'm lazy and haven't done any independant searching on this yet but this is always a good place to start.

To your(y'all's? all y'all's)knowledge are there any chain high-end coffee equipment stores the likes of crate & barrel? Somebody in upscale malls that sells expensive home equipment and high end green coffee. Everyone I've ever dealt with was more or less out of a warehouse or direct from manufacturer. If they exist who are they and how well do they do? Thanks

Williams-Sonoma in the local mall sells pricey home espresso machines. During the X'mas season, they moved a few of those E-61 $1,500 home machines. Base on their salesperson's knowledge, I think they will end up as show pieces for million dollar homes.

 

[klanmckay]

If you does the business then you have to decide that what kind of investment is you can produces to the business.You have to start a small business because in it you have no need to invest a lots of money and the profit is also a very good in it.

 

[australainfranchises]

This is true that you have to start from small business which will increase day by day. Investing on this business will give you great returns also.

 

[topher]

Problem with this type of business is the internet. I started working in a coffee shop in the late 80's and they carried all the high end coffee machines. The problem was the chain I worked for had over a hundred units. Each store had to have the same stock items. That is a whole mess of "dead stock" Plus when they would display a coffee maker it couldn't be sold for full price. Long story short they changed their model to be mainly take out and pounds of coffee. 10 years later the original owner bought the company back and planned on bringing back his original vision...they didn't make it. I wish you luck....

 

[australainfranchises]

If you start a business then you have to keep in mind how much investment your business needs .starting a business needs to invest a lots of money and the profit is also a very good in it.

 

[kanyevil]

Snowball effect.......

 

[hannah2012]

First post! Thought I'd chime in with my experience. I thought it would be clever to sell a few high end pieces of equipment in my shop; but what wound up happening was that I couldn't get a good price in order to get a good margin unless I purchased a ton of equipment - so the cost of the investment would have been extremely high. It's hard to start small with these things because, as mentioned, the internet; and the leverage with the big boys.

Most roasters I know don't make money on machines they sell either - it's more getting the machine in, then selling them beans at profit; maybe do some service work.

It's not a business I would want to be in. We wound up finding some nice double walled s/s french pressed and sold those as the 'top of the line' home machine, and we have sold a ton of them.

Hope that helps.