My coffee machine cost about £1100 ex-VAT (it's the same as the one at the Carlton). We sell coffee at 50p to staff, and about £1.20 to customers. Each day we take about £5 inc VAT on coffee (i.e. we don't sell very many to customers).
Annual ex-VAT income is therefore £1553. We spend £240/year on coffee beans. This means that the cost of the expensive machine has been paid inside a year.
Depending on the number of people sharing the machine, these figures may not work out for you: after all, £3/month isn't very much at all. Would it be worth people paying rather more for coffee in order to have much better coffee?
(I know that in at least one research group at the CL the answer is "yes" and they have a similar machine. It's probably shared between at least 20 people, though.)
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Coffee economics
Date: 2004-09-08 04:41 am (UTC)Annual ex-VAT income is therefore £1553. We spend £240/year on coffee beans. This means that the cost of the expensive machine has been paid inside a year.
Depending on the number of people sharing the machine, these figures may not work out for you: after all, £3/month isn't very much at all. Would it be worth people paying rather more for coffee in order to have much better coffee?
(I know that in at least one research group at the CL the answer is "yes" and they have a similar machine. It's probably shared between at least 20 people, though.)