Shoutout to the coffee shop owner who explained his pricing to me

I was at this little spot in Denver last month, waiting for my latte, and I saw the owner looking stressed. I asked if everything was okay, and he just sighed and said, 'I have to raise my prices by 50 cents next week.' He then sat down and walked me through it all. He showed me his invoice for oat milk, which went up 30% this year, and his new lease add-on for patio seating. He said his profit on a drink was about 75 cents before, and now it's basically nothing unless he changes something. It wasn't just about charging more. He talked about maybe dropping a slow-selling sandwich to cut food costs. I run a small online store, and I'd been scared to raise my prices for two years, thinking I'd lose customers. Hearing his real numbers and his plan to talk to regulars about it first changed my whole view. How do you guys decide when it's time to bump your prices up?

3 comments

3 Comments

johnp9826d ago

Yeah when the_linda said "we all just guess until the numbers get too scary to ignore" that hit home lol. I put off raising prices for my prints for a year because I was so worried. Then I actually looked at my shipping costs and the new price for my paper stock and my stomach dropped. I was basically paying people to take my stuff. It's a horrible feeling when you see the math doesn't work anymore.

the_linda26d ago

My cousin runs a food truck in Austin and she held her taco price at $3 for way too long. She finally broke down the cost of brisket and tortillas for me last summer, and her math was just not adding up at all. She was scared regulars would get mad, but most people just nodded and kept ordering. Honestly, seeing her spreadsheets made me realize we all just guess until the numbers get too scary to ignore.

andrew_rodriguez17d ago

The_linda's cousin basically ran a taco charity for a while. The math always wins in the end.