Bulletin Board Information Posts:

Organic Fair Trade Latte There will probably be people reading this while slurping a latte in one of the hundreds of coffee shops that are firmly rooted into the community. They can have the confidence that our products are certified up & ready to go on day one.

MapQuest Find our store location.

Share The Knowledge 1. Video related to this page. 2. They stole our money and our minds. 3. Government behind the cafe business conspiracy again.

Starbucks To Eradicate Your Ma & Pa Could you be next on the list ? Here's what the pompous jackass had to say, "While the current state of affairs for the most part is self induced, that has lead to competitors of all kinds, small and large coffee companies, fast food operators, and mom and pops, to position themselves in a way that creates awareness, trial and loyalty of people who previously have been Starbucks customers. This must be eradicated." Hide the dog Dorothy the wicked witch is coming.

Yesteryear Means To carry on an American history of fine craftsmanship.

Large Industrial Coffee Business  needs work on its image & the community has the beans to reject developer plans. We know locally Bradley Beach, NJ and Belmar, NJ would rather have industrial coffee businesses in their towns, but what will it do to improve the neighborhood ?

Free Poster Offer Now  Just for your cafe, church, library, or trump style board room you can advertise the Black Gold movie & talk over a cup of our Ethiopia coffee.

Underground Web Alive and Well  While most internet surfers are on the web many find the underground web a rich source to meet others. Such as black gold viewers.

Locate Your Great Cafe In A Great Town That Has This  As towns are forced to give up pork will they merge, institute Fed revenue sharing, attract profitable small business, or be owned by special interests. You decide. Read a new article in our local paper.

Politics, Social Issues, and Coffee This section discusses the relationship between coffee and society. It considers the various international and environmental issues concerning coffee policy and it mentions the social policy changes that affect the coffee industry. By the way it will always affect the way you do business and with whom.

Family Business Magazine   A number of family business written works describe the unique spirit of strength and independence throughout the world. 1.Family Business 2. Coffee Family 3. India Home Grown

We Accept New Students Customers share their views instead of open mike and entertainment.

Dreams Are Worth Some Money Now that is worth some money!

Cafe Business

Popular small business towns in our area.

How far should big business go to run your community, and how much are your local politicians willing to accept from big business. These are the key questions of the day as big business wants you to pay for their success. An historical event is about to happen in the Specialty Coffee Association. The SCAA will hold a forum about this issue.

What happens when big business and small business collide ? Accept a chain store in your community and chances are the taxes it generates will be returned to it as profits, for use to put local stores out of business and leave important civil services to be funded by the coin toss at the roadside gutters. But you hold the key. Hence the term Starbucks encroachment, but that's an unfair label. All major corporations want to make company stores in the community. Taking away the intimacy of the small town. Customers are not onlookers. Customers make it happen or not.

One of our major sales areas is the supply of small business start ups with beginners coffee and tea. As the owners grow in knowledge so will their customers. We feel strange sometimes when we begin with a new customer on these terms, because its exactly the opposite of where we began. Our start was as a hobby, at least roasting coffee. We had already worked in the food industry, went to cook school, and filled positions as executive chef. Then had worked in Virginia and California. Later to leave for professional educations in another field. But this is traditional all the way throughout the specialty coffee industry from bankers, lawyers, chiefs, politicians to the cafe business.

Michael Shulman points out our community gives away its freedom turning over billions to major corporate entities. Land of the free home of the brave. No where in the civilized world has been ruled by corporate enterprise such as the US. No where in the corporate world have citizens given that power to corporate America by their purchasing power. In 2008 there will be more independent coffee roasters in America and more independent tea importers and entrepreneurs than any other time. Making this possible in part is an unbelievable contradiction...the man and policies of President Bush. More sophisticated marketing and planning experience on your part can only help your business. To take advantage of this climate you need to know how to acquire and perhaps import bean & leaf.

If you want to try it we have some tips taken from our experience. Read the other human contradiction of our time Ms. Martha Stewart in which she will say much of what's in this paragraph. She turns out not to be not so rigid, prim, proper, you know uptight. Find other people to help you do it. Don't buy anything new until you've mastered the mechanics of used equipment taking it apart repairing it and making your espresso machine off the junk pile. So that's it. We took a burned out roaster and rebuilt it turning it into a wonderful machine just for an exercise. Our antiques were reconstructed and replenished and sold only to regret it later. Simpler is better. Older is always simpler and more powerful. Just like car mechanics you can learn the machines and how they work. Currently we are amazed some of our machines work at all. Do not buy new equipment initially. Do not enter into leases with coffee or tea businesses that will cut into your profits. Design your own brand, stand on your own feet, develop your own taste profiles. Be different. Don't be afraid.

Listen to this story, "When I interviewed a local business woman a chef by trade she said a coffee salesman visited before she opened. She then realized either the town or the health department had tipped him off. His sole pitch was a free Bunn coffee maker, if only she would use their company coffee. No roast dates were on his products. When she asked what his credentials were and what custom roasts he'd marketed and tried he just said. "Do you know everyone in town uses my coffee?" She kicked him out.

In the location of our town Avon By The Sea, New Jersey almost every business on Main Street is under contract from T.M. Ward Coffee Company. They have a true monopoly. In New Jersey, Lacas Coffee Company is just beginning to challenge these type of corporate situations. Though a corporate giant too they may be successful in opening and integrating new markets. This has the slight possibility of creating flavor & business diversity which ultimately rewards citizens and restaurants.

No surprises here, the company store returns from the miners town to your community. Tax increment finance agreements take your money and instead of returning it to the town goes instead to the company.  It's no secret that one of the lessons from Seattle was that good competition led to unpredicted wealth for Seattle. Let the battle begin! Our suggestion is stay away from the fray and choose a small artisan coffee company. Stay away from equipment leases. Watch the development of these markets and diversity when considering a location for a gourmet store. A gap in food services may be created. Which you might develop into a theme for your store. But be careful, these large corporate entities aren't just interested in supplying the local restaurants on main street USA; they want to put your cafe out of business, especially if you sell beans & leaf.

A start up small business should never buy new equipment. For less than $10,000 you can invest in used equipment rebuild it and sell it. Then start all over making and adding new components. Some of the best cafe's have made their own brewers and devised or morphed their own roasters. One owner roasted coffee by the 1/4 lb and sold it by the 1/4 lb then made drinks from it. As demand picks up you can enlarge, but to buy large at $80,000 + before demand is too risky. Maybe people will hate your offerings, maybe even hate you, or hate everyone and can't support your business. Spare yourself. These are the business essentials. For further information contact us or order from us.

Cafe Business

That being said the political nature of what you do should be examined and the social forces in your community. Try finding this information on the internet. All search engines have practically eliminated one of the cafe's most important function. To be a rally point for questions and new ides. Beware of the lack of information on search engines between cafe's and political conversation. Cafe politics can be found during a search on the Library of Congress search engines, but have been eliminated when the internet expanded.

Case study where the small town revolted. Politics. The real story goes something like this. A large business moved themselves to a town of four thousand people. The business made a deal with local political figures so that the company would move in but only if they could obtain a tax increment finance agreement. The deal was set and the rest is history. You should know that tax increment finance agreements in this case led the 4,000 people of the town to pay the company more than 30 million dollars. TIFA or TINA is an agreement between the business and the local politicians that collects state sales tax from customers and returns it to the company. They mined 30 million dollars from the community. During this time the police, fire, schools have to raise more taxes because they're not receiving the sales tax. What was the cost to individuals in that community? Each person could have received 8,000 each and free gas for a year at today's prices. They could have had world class education upgrades for their children, better police services, and the best fire department and first aid. Don't believe that the cafe business success is about location, location, location. Its about politics, politics, politics.

Reviews about Coffees and Teas of Yesteryear, Other cafes,

Big business Small Business. When the big giant corporations like TM Ward and Lacas Coffee take over and monopolize a town's coffee offerings there can be several psychological reactions. As bean and equipment suppliers what they sell is coffee by the pound usually around $4.50 lb. Minimums can be as low as 12 lbs. It doesn't take an accountant to realize adding the equipment lease locks you in. Then they want to outfit you and lease a steam table etc. Now here's the potential problem. All of that money leaves the town.

Cost of doing business.  What's your loss. So the business that carries their coffee soon learns they pay sales tax and that goes to the town. What of the community group donations, free giveaways to the local civic groups, etc. That money goes out. Are you calculating? Then you're going to allow them to put a sign in your window? TM Ward supplies me. We suggest this sign. "What. "Look at me I fell for it."

When you take everything into consideration. Calculate the lease, calculate the sales tax, calculate cost of cups, lids, napkins, sugar, and donations. Exactly how much is going out? More than a $1.90 for a cup of coffee. Make sure if you're going to play this high stakes game you know how to play it, and play it well. Tip; when you sign a lease at least have the guts to tell the company you want the town to benefit in some way.  They should donate to that school program, to the fireman's ball or PAL. Heck, they should buy the first aide an ambulance! For each town they monopolize is the basis for the next town's sales pitch throughout your state. And there's poor you. Some contrast.

You can buy your own percolator and vacuum pot and your coffee or tea locally and no one's going to tell you what to brew in it. Calculate the amount that directly returns to you and your community.

Political support.  Let's say, you just built a world class cafe and a major chain moves in. The chain may use its TFA or TINA option with the intent of closing you down ! As a result there's no even playing field. You'll work harder but the lead the chain has over you is astronomical. In most cases local businesses and individuals don't know its happening. Take this to the internet and you'll see clearly that Google and other search engines are taking money from TINA businesses who want to advertise while the small businesses can't find an even playing field. The even playing field would be not to accept the degree of advertising dollars from TINA stores. Research this further in two important books. First, Free Lunch, by David Cay Johnson and The Small Mart Revolution by Michael H. Shuman. Mr. Michael H. Shuman on local communities will be the main speaker to the Specialty Coffee Association conference in 2008.

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store like ours and begin to order. You might find you need a few moments to orient yourself. After all this is not a cafe you see everywhere. That's it exactly, you can't find the staff that won't talk, making drinks from origins they don't know about, and have hardly traveled walking the streets of an unknown to tourists side of town. With this knowledge we make a different kind of product and we were to some degree made into different kinds of people. People associated with our store will probably never darken the halls of a chain store. Except for the use of their bathrooms. Or taking up space to get to the business next door. Arrogance can be appropriate when you have a history of positive performance, and we have that history of romancing the bean and tea leaf.