Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Beans & Barley Update
Dear Beans & Barley Shop Customers,
We have been opened for almost a year and a half now and have had some ups and downs throughout our journey and without a doubt enjoyed the whole process of building up a business from scratch, especially if it's a speciality shop selling some unusual products from around the world. We’ve had some difficult times with management & finding the products that are likely to sell etc. and it has proven to be very difficult with such speciality products. As you may already know, a lot of the products that we sell have very short best before dates due to not containing preservatives or other useless ingredients that you would usually get in supermarket food. This has resulted in large amounts of wastage since we’ve opened and coming up to a year and a half we have had to re-consider the whole idea/concept of the business and look closely into our finances.
We are stuck for ideas to find a solution as to what can be done to prevent losses within the business. We have tried increasing sales, as some of you may have realised we’ve added fruit & veg, ice creams, additional range, but it hasn’t helped, we have had to raise our prices to compensate for the wastage, which again hasn’t helped, the only option left for us was to reduce the range to a bare minimum which will result in less customers and in turn less sales which won’t help either. Therefore, we have decided that having a retail premises is not financially viable no matter what we try to do and have had to make a very difficult decision to discontinue the retail side of the business.
We believe that by discontinuing the retail section of the business we will give the cafe more of a chance to progress by focusing solely on the cafe and being more creative with what we do. We will make Beans & Barley a much more mum/baby friendly environment, we will use some of the current retail space to create a play area for the kids, our walls will be used for art exhibitions and we will have comfortable sofas scattered around. We will be opening later than usual (especially on weekends) with nibbles and some great wines & draught beers and we will be running weekly classes such as salsa. During the day we will have workshops that will include some of Paul’s speciality subjects, coffee cupping sessions as well as some kids activities such as drawing classes etc. We apologise in advance if we are causing any body inconvenience with this decision but it's not something we have chosen to do, it's something we have had to do.
We will not be buying in any new stock as we need to clear out what we have in stock, also our scaffold shelving will be up for grabs once they are empty along with some of our equipment.
Again, we apologise for any inconvenience caused but it gives us a chance to be more creative with the large space we have.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jem on
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Totally agree a place that sells 'superfoods' dishes and healthy juices/smoothies would be a lovely change!
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Permalink Reply by Alexander on
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that's shame... I think a decent pizza place along the lines of Zia Lucia (Holloway) would be incredibly successful and be a great addition to the green lanes particularly as we have such a large Italian community.
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I will have to give it a go... my current fave is sacre coure in crouch end via deliveroo
what I meant is that we need to diversify grand parade and some pizza places would be very welcome :)
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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There are two Pizza places and the Kurdish places sell Pide which is nicer.
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Permalink Reply by andy h on
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Careful what you wish for!!
You might get a Starbucks diversifying yer ass.
Although my daughter would love a starsucks , something to do with the frappywappydoodaas they sell (I think) and would save her loooong trips to Crousshonde.
I keep telling her to ask in the gender neutral cafes on the lanes but I think they put something highly addictive (haven't worked out what yet) in a Starrywarrythingamebobs
Still, I'm so sick of grilled meat I don't use the restaurants on the lanes anymore. I might even be persuaded to vote for a Cranks or such like (and I really hated the sanctimonious over priced compost munchers) just for a break (and to sort out my colon).But, the lanes is the lanes and (although requests for variety are always interesting) I think it should be left to develop on its own.
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Permalink Reply by Sarah on
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I think they put something highly addictive (haven't worked out what yet) in a Starrywarrythingamebobs
Sugar.
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Permalink Reply by Beans & Barley on
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Guys we thank you all for your suggestions. We haven't made an exact decision as to what food we will have but its very likely that our evening menu will be freshly made mezze plates, salads to share, breads and dips etc that will go well with wines & beers. During the day we will have a small menu that will contain vegan & gluten free options as well as some normal food, we are also considering savoury pastries made on site as well as some of our cakes. We are very excited about what we can hopefully achieve with the space we have and we hope to implement all these great ideas by focusing solely on the coffee shop side of the business.
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Hi guys,
The new plans sound good. Blend is great, but like all the Crouch End cafes its often full. And new baby groups are springing up on the ladder so there is definitely a market waiting.
Agree with the comment about the smoking, and can I recommend making it a little cosier, private, with tables for different groups/individuals (so the space isn't monopolised by one group), and space for prams would be a huge help.
ps. your ramps at the front door are fantastic - its a wonder more places don't have them, I think they'd get a lot more customers if they did.
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Hi Sophia, thanks for the recommendations. We will be having loads of seating so there will be a variety of seating for groups and individuals. The ramps have been so good with deliverys, wheel chairs & prams so it has been a clever move. With the pram space we will have a dedicated pram parking for sure ;) also, we are working on making it more cosier/more colours, plants etc. Any recommendations for a cosier B& B are very welcome....
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If you're looking to become more family focussed you'll have to figure out how to accommodate the smokers in the outdoor terrace. All the smoke just wafts indoors.
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Hi Nick, aircon is on our list of to do's so doors will be kept shut which should help with the smokers. Also, the kids section will be right at the back of the shop along with some seating for the parents to keep an eye on the kids, being further away from the doors should also help a lot. Sorry if the current layout has caused an issue but we promiss we will work on it. Thanks for your input...
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