[slindsey]

Just an anecdote; I spoke to a manager at a small coffee shop and he said that they make all their money on coffee alone by 9am (and surprisingly, they licensed Starbucks coffee). Everything else was a pain and barely covered costs because of time, equipment, and effort. But coffee was cheap and easy.

[urbanhole]

Yep. For all cafe-like spaces I’ve been involved with, drip coffee == free money.

[soneil]

From the places I've worked, drip coffee is essentially free, but the cup it's served in .. less so.

Even for "speciality coffee" it went lid, cup, sleeve, milk, (syrup,) coffee.

[hinkley]

How much are they charging for coffee?

[slindsey]

Around 2 dollars US for a medium coffee that cost them pennies. According to him, the other things they sold were there just to bring people in. Money was in the coffee because it was cheap and easy.

[hinkley]

Medium is what, 12 ounces? Yeah I could see that. You're mostly paying for cup.

But I think you/he should look around. If you're not a fast food restaurant coffee costs a bit more than that these days, and charging 'a bit less' craters your profit margins.