Hello Gabriel, and welcome to the group - Steve

Hey, I just opened on December 18th. It has been sloooow until yesterday. Hopefully things will get better. How's your business going?

Same problems here. Slower than I thought, but college kids are just now starting to try us out. They are not back in school until the 14th so got to be patient till then. What are you planning to do to drum up business? Any flyers, ads etc? I have started posting up flyers with a couple of coupons. I started a thread on that subject.

Hey Gabriel, Happy new year of course. What are you up to there in OK?

It is starting to pick up, but we are the opposite. We sell mostly espresso drinks and hardly any drip. We are using a French Press now to keep from wasting coffee. I have become their Starbucks replacement.

Gabriel, good luck with your new shop! I just recently started working for an indy shop using a manual machine after four years working at Starbucks (don't hate me, the benefits were great). I can tell you that a barista who knows what he is doing will always get better espresso from a manual machine, but there is a lot more that you can do wrong. If you are working alone, the full auto is a must. It will also allow you to do a much higher volume of customers with only two people working. The most important thing to consider is what your customers expect. If they are used to big chain cafes, they should have no problem with your drinks. If they do, it is likely your beans.
As for the full automatic machines, at the bux we used a pair of Verissimo 801s. They were very tough machines. I was in charge of maintenance in my store and kept them pretty clean, but I saw some bad stuff in other locations. We had equipment techs, so I didn't get to do as much tinkering as I would have liked. I guess the only advice I can give is the obvious: follow the manufacturer cleaning and maintenance schedule and if you hire any help impress upon them just how much you spent on that machine and what you expect of them.
Good luck!
Chris

Gabiel,
We'd be happy to send you some samples e-mail me at jason@consciouscup.com with your address and I'll get some stuff out to you along with a current offering list.

Glad you got the samples, I think you will be impressed. Don't wait too long to try them, all of the coffees that I sent should be peaking right now

Great to meet you. Hopefully we can get that direction sometime for some coffee!

..be bold

Hey Gabriel just checking how business is going with you. We have increased a little since summer started and I added outdoor seating.