Hello CC community. Bit of a serious blog post today which feels scary to put out there but equally important, so here we go! Our prices will be increasing from tomorrow (1st April) and I’m going to explain why in order to shed some light on how the continuing rise of staffing costs posed by the Government is contributing to the cost of living crisis.
To begin with, I want to be clear that I wholeheartedly support minimum wage increases. So many working people don’t have enough money to get by, let alone enjoy themselves and I think that is criminally unfair. However, without targeted support for small businesses, minimum wage increases will not necessarily have the desired effect of increasing the amount of disposable income people have to spend within the local economy.
From a hospitality POV, due to the sheer amount of overheads involved the margins are already too tight to absorb the staffing increases that will come into effect tomorrow. Hence the price increases you will likely notice happening at many of your local cafes, restaurants and bars. So whilst people have more money in their pockets from the pay rise, the cost of things they might spend that money on within the local economy has simultaneously increased. Therefore the goalposts have moved and no one is any better off.
At Coffee Club, we will be increasing our prices to enable us to pay our team the new ‘real living wage’ and also introduce sick / wellbeing pay. Whilst I am happy that we will be able to provide these things, it comes with a worry that we will be pricing some of our customers out. It’s a constant balancing act of ensuring we are able to look after our team, whilst remaining inclusive with our pricing and also have enough left over to pay ourselves fairly (by fairly, I mean the average for a cafe manager in Bristol).
I will end this with a friendly reminder that despite the battles they are facing, almost all indie coffee shops will continue to have lower prices than Costa, Starbucks and Cafe Nero - all of which massively underpay (if at all) when it comes to tax in the UK. On top of this the level of effort your local indie will put into sourcing quality ingredients and making products with care for their customers is without doubt a league above. So please, if you are able to and have the choice, support your locals / indies wherever possible.