Business idea WITH POLL

[pstylesss]

A friend and I have always talked about partnering and starting up a business. Both of us have interest in starting a coffee bar/internet cafe and I have always wanted to have a computer parts/repair store. What would you think of a coffee bar/internet cafe that is connected with a computer parts/repair store?

Someone comes in to get their computers repaired or buys parts and they grab a coffee... We would kind of share customers. We only have one good computer store in a 30 mile area. If we had similar prices and similar items to that store in a location with high density so those people don't have to travel would they come to our store?


Or better question, would you come to our store? If you had two computer shops of equal distance apart would you choose the one with the coffee bar/internet cafe over the one without?

 

[Vehemence]

ty for idea

BRB, opening Starbucks/Fry's

 

[dainthomas]

Hook up a LAN gaming setup and I'm in.

 

[Capt Caveman]

I would need more info. Are there any other coffee/internet places around?

Location? Busy street?

I think you really need to decide which one is going to be the main business.

 

[PepePeru]

TOM
? I had an idea like that once.

PETER
Really? What was it, Tom?

TOM
Well, all right. It was a Jump? to Conclusions-mat. You see, it would
be this mat that you would put on the floor and it would have different
conclusions written on it that you could?jump to.

 

[axelfox]

Originally posted by: G Wizard
TOM
? I had an idea like that once.

PETER
Really? What was it, Tom?

TOM
Well, all right. It was a Jump? to Conclusions-mat. You see, it would
be this mat that you would put on the floor and it would have different
conclusions written on it that you could?jump to.

Great, all he needs now is to get suicidal, change his mind, and then get almost killed by a drunk driver to collect the money he is going to use to fund the business.

 

[pstylesss]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
I would need more info. Are there any other coffee/internet places around?

Location? Busy street?

I think you really need to decide which one is going to be the main business.

The internet cafe would be the main business. We don't have a location decided yet but it would be around a high school or college campus. I guess the PC store would be mainly repairs, at least to start and we'd feel our way into the parts market (not much money to be made there & it's not exactly a good time to get into merchandise).

Most people here won't know cities, but the only quality computer parts store is in Federal Way, there is nothing for anyone in (20 - 20 miles away) Puyallup or Tacoma except for a Best Buy (PC Club and CompUSA are closing). Puyallup wouldn't be a good place for an internet cafe because it's saturated with them, at least downtown. North Tacoma in the Ruston Way area/UPS area do not have any internet cafes.

 

[JS80]

Have you been to Koreatown?

 

[paulxcook]

There was a place almost exactly like this not far from where I grew up. My friends and I would go there sometimes, but I think they had to eventually close due to lack of business. It was cool and all, but it doesn't seem like a viable way to make money long-term.

 

[pstylesss]

Originally posted by: paulxcook
There was a place almost exactly like this not far from where I grew up. My friends and I would go there sometimes, but I think they had to eventually close due to lack of business. It was cool and all, but it doesn't seem like a viable way to make money long-term.

What was their main business? How important is coffee in your area? How many others were around it?

I would love to own an internet cafe, but I want to bring something more to the table than just free wifi and coffee.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Originally posted by: dainthomas
Hook up a LAN gaming setup and I'm in.

I had allways wanted to do this one, a buddy of mine would come and start it up with me, lan center + coffee type shop.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
I would love to own an internet cafe, but I want to bring something more to the table than just free wifi and coffee.

Seems to work for Starbucks. :laugh:

 

[ViviTheMage]

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ

Originally posted by: paulxcook
There was a place almost exactly like this not far from where I grew up. My friends and I would go there sometimes, but I think they had to eventually close due to lack of business. It was cool and all, but it doesn't seem like a viable way to make money long-term.

What was their main business? How important is coffee in your area? How many others were around it?

I would love to own an internet cafe, but I want to bring something more to the table than just free wifi and coffee.

There are coffee shops in MPLS that do this all of the time, free wifi + drinks, they just dont have the repair shop with em.

 

[E equals MC2]

It's a very very small niche market. The demand would be minimal (Asking this to a tech forum will be skewed and biased).

People like to surf at their privacy at home or they go to library for free. This only leaves with hardcore gamers who may spring up to your cafe for few bucks an hour.

This only works in a super densely populated cities (if it does). There is one opened up in Boston. It's barely doing well. Only Korean gaming nerds who are culturally familiar with such cafes only visit there.

The cafe's profit mostly come from smoothie / coffee bars anyway.

Is Seattle bigger than Boston? I say it's a bad idea.

 

[pstylesss]

Originally posted by: Pabster

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
I would love to own an internet cafe, but I want to bring something more to the table than just free wifi and coffee.

Seems to work for Starbucks. :laugh:

Unfortunately Starbucks is losing out to a bunch of small coffee shops that offer free wifi and just a better experience. A friend brought me to a place called "Coffee Bar" and it's just so much better than Starbucks.

Starbucks has done away with the coffee experience that people want... at least a lost of the ones in my area.

 

[sdifox]

This is about what, 20 years LATE? Maybe if you go to some remote impoverished nation you might have a chance.

 

[paulxcook]

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ

Originally posted by: paulxcook
There was a place almost exactly like this not far from where I grew up. My friends and I would go there sometimes, but I think they had to eventually close due to lack of business. It was cool and all, but it doesn't seem like a viable way to make money long-term.

What was their main business? How important is coffee in your area? How many others were around it?

I would love to own an internet cafe, but I want to bring something more to the table than just free wifi and coffee.

Here's their site: http://www.netheads.com/

It looks like I was wrong. They didn't close, they're moving to a new location. They were in a kind of hippie-liberal area with lots of cyclists and pedestrians and yuppies with Volkswagens and Priuses, and some college students. They're moving to a place with lots of business people with Bimmers and Hummers and trophy wives and spoiled children with riced out tuner cars.

Their main draw was their high-quality gaming PCs. They had gaming tournaments, participated in lan parties in the area, etc. Very much a gamer's place, though some people did come in just to surf or burn CDs or whatever. The owners were always really nice, I'm sure if you gave them a call they'd talk to you about it, since you won't really be their competition.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

I've always wondered why you couldn't have an internet cafe with booze.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
I've always wondered why you couldn't have an internet cafe with booze.

good question...internet cafe / BAR!

 

[pstylesss]

Originally posted by: E equals MC2
It's a very very small niche market. The demand would be minimal (Asking this to a tech forum will be skewed and biased).

People like to surf at their privacy at home or they go to library for free. This only leaves with hardcore gamers who may spring up to your cafe for few bucks an hour.

This only works in a super densely populated cities (if it does). There is one opened up in Boston. It's barely doing well. Only Korean gaming nerds who are culturally familiar with such cafes only visit there.

The cafe's profit mostly come from smoothie / coffee bars anyway.

Is Seattle bigger than Boston? I say it's a bad idea.

I wouldn't open it in Seattle... the cost of doing business in Seattle is way to high, not to mention you have a bucks or seattles best at every corner.

This would be in a North Tacoma (a higher class area by the water), close to a high school and a private college.

We wouldn't charge for wifi. And I was asking the geeks here for mainly the parts store idea. Would you choose the parts store with the coffee shop and free internet over the one without? Assuming similar price and distance.

I think you'd be surprised at the amount of people at the coffee bar just sitting on their laptop on the couch sipping a caramel machiato or whatever they choose.

Coffee is a way of life in Washington... so not exactly a niche market, at least I dont think.

 

[Peelback79]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
I've always wondered why you couldn't have an internet cafe with booze.

In Columbus Ohio there's an enourmous arcade/bar. I went there some years ago and at like 10pm, anyone under 21 had to leave and you could grab your drink and walk around and play arcade games smashed. My fondest memory was watching a couple of tanked guys play a motorcycle racing game (the one with plastic cycle you have to mount and lean to tun and such). Hilarious. Best, idea, ever. I don't drink anymore (almost $3 per longneck around here), but the thought of LAN/Bar/Snacks/repairs is a winner. But the key would be population size. Regardless of demographic, you have to have a large amount of people present to ensure success.

 

[virtuamike]

I helped run one. No.

There's more money in coffee.