As the new National Minimum Wage requirements are released and the price of coffee remains volatile, we turn to a man not afraid to speak his mind, on how we can better take care of our baristas, both as consumers and cafe owners.
Words by David Donde
The increase in your monthly coffee budget may be more intense than the hit from the caffeine these days. It’s not for me to dig into the reasons for coffee prices soaring, the rest of this venerable publication covers that. Safe to say, reality bites and it bites hard.
No one feels the effects more than those on the front line, and that isn’t management insulated in the executive ivory tower. The Suits don't have to worry too much, the volumes return to the status quo as people get used to any new normal. Do not adjust your set. When we're talking about the front line, we're talking about the heart and soul of our industry: our beloved, often beleaguered Barista.
The moment a customer realises they are paying a new price point for their cup, isn't when they fail to notice your clearly worded signage, it's when they pay a new and momentarily shocking amount. The rictus of their jaw and the pained confused look in their eyes is about to turn into a flurry of voiced venom, spat at your barista.
For some reason our patrons expect to pay less for their luxury purchases here in Africa than their peers do in the rest of the world. This is less and less possible with the spectacular volatility of all of our costs of serving a cup of coffee, speciality or otherwise.
The only ways to moderate this exchange are going to be through training and effective communication.
Baristas need to be armed with these things: the knowledge of why prices are going up (perhaps distribute a summary of the knowledge in this mag!) and a coaching session on how to communicate the same. Otherwise all hell will break loose, both in store and in the coffee-coloured storm your social media is about to look like.
Regarding communication, we all need to understand that saying sorry while being stared down like a rabbit in the headlights won’t cut it. The skills needed for baristas to cope will be the ability to effectively listen to the complaint, so that they can offer an adequate answer. I need to constantly remind myself of this: great communication requires good listening.
Should we be expecting this of our baristas? Those who are trained to make our favourite beverage? Well, necessity dictates that at this point of the hospitality journey, understanding the price challenge is part of the job description. It’s you, the consumer who demands it, despite the mass media warning you that the price of coffee ain’t coming down.
Considering that all sides of the equation have no choice on the numbers involved, maybe they will point out specials that can be taken advantage of, or loyalty programmes engaged. Team training for our new menu at Truth Cape Town started a week out from New Menu Day, with the expectation that there will be a lot of questions.
If they have not received any of this training from their management, then consider this your training, dear consumer.
Never mind the frankly quite insulting fact that most consumers feel ok buying bottled water for over R30 in cafes, but are baulking at the idea of paying more for something that is far more complicated, with far more effort and expensive ingredients, that took hundreds of hands to grow and morph into a delicious cup of coffee. All that is lost in the idea of painful pricing that we all have to inevitably endure and get used to. And the price of green coffee is VOLATILE right now, which means no easy solutions for pricing whether it rises all falls. Snapshot of the C-market fluctuation in the last year (©Trading Economics)
We, as humans, anchor fair pricing to a period in our young adult lives when we start to pay for things ourselves independent of our parents, and little will sway us from that. The price of petrol, the price of a car, and of course, the price of a cup of coffee. Think about your own anchor points in terms of pricing for a second. We learn to accept inflation, and we normalise on new anchors, even if we deeply resent them.
Get to grips with this new anchor then, dear reader: Before too long, R60 for a cup of coffee won’t seem so extreme. This is reality.
Baristas are the gatekeepers to our world in the cafe, whether as a customer or a cafe owner. They cannot just be expected to absorb abuse. As cafe owners, they are our representatives, we need to care for and protect them. As customers, this person ‘saves your life’ often enough, maybe it’s ok to save the dismay at another price increase for your breathing mantra?
Lastly, you as our favourite customer, you have a choice, you can always go somewhere cheaper, there is a cafe out there with a cup that costs less than the cup in the cafe you are in, but they of course, just put their prices up too, or very soon will. As the Alien once said to the Leader, resistance is futile. Acceptance is the first step.
Now for The How To Guide, if you will:
For the Cafe Owner
For the Coffee Consumer
If you are still reading this in panic mode, let me give you some of my ancient anchor points for reference. I am enough of a coffee industry relic to remember the aghast reactions when coffee prices were breaking R10 per cup in the 90’s. Back in the day, we at Origin had to face the psychology of breaking R20 per cup and how customers were saying they would stop drinking coffee when that happened. That was around 2006. The angst of breaking R30/cup, I saved for my journey with Truth. As I write this, the selling price of a double shot with milk at Truth Coffee now exceeds R60 and I suspect that isn't the last price increase this year. And the worst of it, is that even at this price, our margins are under more pressure than ever.
Don't let a bad taste tarnish our world of speciality coffee. We are here to bring joy to every cup and get joy from every cup. I know you care, as you are here reading a magazine on the subject, and caring does involve the discomfort of leaving behind your current price anchors. You're an adult, you’ll get over it. So just be nice and stop for a moment and savour that cup regardless of the cost, otherwise the price is too high.
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