Harvest Roasting
July, 2009 Newsletter
By Don Eckles, President
It doesn’t’ look like we’re going to miss summer, after all. I’m not sure how it’s been where you are, but, here in the Midwest, we’ve had a fairly cool spring and early summer. That all changed in the past couple of weeks. Summer is finally here. Sometimes, that means a general slow-down in the specialty coffee business. Rather than just accept that, we have worked hard this year to switch our customers to “iced” or “blended” drinks, or, smoothies.
Over the years, I’ve noticed a slow-down in June, July, and early August. I’ve attributed it to a few things…mostly, school being out of session, and the weather. With school out, you don’t get the teachers, or the moms taking their kids to school, and, you have families taking vacations. With the weather, sometimes it’s just too darned hot for a cup of coffee (not for me, but for normal people).
This is a great time to piggy-back on to McDonald’s advertising campaigns for iced drinks. They’re spending millions to promote drinks that (frankly) aren’t particularly good. I believe that this advertising will create lots of “new” specialty coffee drinkers. All we have to do is let the customer know where they can get a “good” one.
The problem seems to be the reluctance, on some people’s part, to try “iced” coffee. To them, it doesn’t sound good, at all. But, a good iced mocha or iced vanilla latte is incredibly good. If we can get customers to try one, as often as not, they’ll be year round coffee drinkers.
Maybe a “TRY IT ICED FOR HALF THE PRICE” campaign would get some folks to make the switch. We have used this in our stores, and it has worked really well. A week long campaign is plenty of time to let customers try something new. A banner promoting such an offer, may bring in some “potential” customers who have not tried you before.
An even bigger opportunity, during the summer, is smoothies. Smoothie sales can actually help you increase sales during the summer. And, as a segment, smoothie sales are growing rapidly.
Along those lines, let me announce that we have proudly switched to Maui fruit smoothie mixes. These incredibly high quality fruit smoothie mixes are all natural. Maui uses real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.
Currently, we carry Wild Berry (Raspberry, Blackberry, Strawberry, Blueberry), Strawberry/Banana, Strawberry, Passion Fruit, Mango, Peach, Banana, Lemon Ice, and Pina’ Colada.
These 100% all natural fruit smoothie mixes are not only great tasting…they are VERY reasonably priced. Those of you who have been Harvest customers for years, know that we don’t switch brands easily. We have been a Dr. Smoothie distributor for over 10 years. However, with the high quality product that Maui offers, the price difference can no longer be ignored. Maui is 20% - 25% less expensive. That’s huge! Call Barb Miller for a free sample. Barb’s number is 402-670-9755.
Maui joins our line of some of the highest quality products on the market. They Include:
· Monin Gourmet Flavoring Syrups
· Mont Blanc Gourmet Sauces
· Harvest Roasting Fresh Roasted Specialty Grade Coffee Beans
· Pixie Mate’
· Pacific Soy Blenders
· Dart Containers and Lids
· Chinet Cups and Lids
· Astoria Espresso Equipment
· Fetco and Bunn-O-Matic Coffee Brewing Equipment
· Vita-Mix Blenders
· Whip-It Whipped Cream Dispensers and Chargers
Don’t’ Forget….
The federal minimum wage is increasing to $7.25 per hour on July 24th. In some states, the rate is even higher…check with your local Department of Labor for your local rate.
This will make things very difficult for some small businesses, who find themselves forced to pay higher wages, but, because of the current economic situation, unable to raise prices. Thank you members of congress…most of whom who have never had to make a payroll, with their own money, in their lives (oops! There I go again).
I suggest that you take a hard look at where you can save a little money. Saving an hour or an hour and a half of payroll a day would make a big difference.
Or, how about saving the shipping expense on your product purchases? Don’t forget, we’ll ship any order freight free with an order of 75 lbs. of our “fresh roasted” specialty grade coffee beansJ. For some stores, that’s over $100.00 per order.
We’re all in this wonderful business together. The more we can share with, and help one another, the better it is for us all. If you have any ideas or experiences that you would like to share with our readers, please e-mail them to barb@harvestroasting.com.
Also, we would like to transition as many of you as we can to e-mail newsletters, for cost control purposes. If you are willing to receive these via e-mail, please let Barb know. If you would rather not receive these letters, please let us know that, as well. It’s our hope that we can help you in some way. It is not our desire to burden you with “junk” mail.
Finally…it’s been 2 months since our last newsletter. Last month, we held an open house, which kept us more than busy. Thanks to all of you who attended. And thanks to our supplier partners for their time and investment. We had a great open house, with gratifying comments from those who attended. Thanks again.
Don Eckles
Harvest Roasting