Cafe Split Shifts

A local roadside cafe now opens for evening pasta and pizza with an afternoon gap.  How many cafes maximise the opportunity?

Bring Your Own wine will appeal - the £1.75 'Nescafe' is honest but may not quite match the Italian idyll of espresso coffee.

Free Toast

The morning coffee promotions vary from price to free (low cost) items such as toast.

Have Your Cake and Eat It

Leon's £3.50 any coffee and cake offer.

Ring that Sale

The bell makes the point that Itsu sells items at half price half an hour before closing.

White Smoke & Red Noses

Guest Spot

Heather Borderie, Manager of the Glendoick Garden Centre cafe near Perth keeps it topical with Pope and Red Nose Muffins

Hotting Up

The coffee price war continues with Giraffe restaurants offering take-out lattes and cappuccinos at 50p until 10.30am Monday to Friday.

Happy Hours

POD's £1 latte, cappuccino and flat white promotion from 10-12 and after 3pm is different from the usual filter coffee promotions.

Well Behaved Owners

Guest Spot

 How to get more off-season business - Beach Cafe, Wells-next-the-Sea - with credit to switched-on Manager Alan Miller.

Free Cuppa

The Real Food Cafe, Tyndrum is a hugely successful roadside diner (formerly an unloved Little Chef) and they sell their personalised travel mug for £8.50.  Clever idea to include free coffee or tea on every visit.

Plates of Cake

Plates of cake were selling at the rate of five a minute at Hobsons Patisserie in Stratford upon Avon.  Sure Henley Street has an excellent footfall and the pricing was keen - £1 a plate - but the volume of trade was astonishing. 

Moral: invest in Hobsons or try the same idea if you have a similar footfall.  Their sandwich presentation also looked good.

Video on the Shelf

Caffe Nero have gone high tech on their multideck chiller shelf with video selling the virtues of panini

Plus the old-fashioned back up - poster on easel

Back to the 80s

Don't you feel old when CDs are seen as a retro item!  Konditor & Cook's fun take on 'Back to the 80s' good value cakes.  Their outlet in the Soho Curzon cinema on Shaftesbury Avenue is so much better than the usual popcorn emporium.

In Your Face Drinks

PAUL don't have multideck chiller units where customers can serve themselves - it presumably allows more counter display space for their great patisserie. How do you keep cold drink sales up? 'Buy with your eyes' rack of their main cold drink selection at eye level.

Tea Deals on the Motorway

The cynical might say it indicates the profit margin on flavoured water and flour but at least the motorway operators are reflecting customers love for a deal - even at teatime. Plus we note that the scones are baked fresh every day. Quality plus a deal?!

That Extra Sale - Crisps

Check out how ever-innovative Pret are displaying/selling their crisps - rustic looking bins in front of every multi-deck chiller. Look for your sandwich and see the crisps immediately in your line of sight. Simple, clever and will add to take up and that all important average spend.