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 Sandi on
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Good luck guys! You have an amazing space which opens you up to a host of creative opportunities! Looking forward to seeing what you do next! See you for tea and cakes soon!
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Permalink Reply by Beans & Barley on
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Thanks Sandi ;) See you soon..
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Permalink Reply by Anna P on
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Good luck, guys! Your coffee is delicious - so glad you will continue. I look forward to comfier seats :-)
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See you soon Anna, thanks for the comments...
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Permalink Reply by ThaiDi on
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I like the sound of all this - exhibitions, salsa, comfy sofas... Good luck!
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Thanks ThaDi..
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Permalink Reply by Rob B on
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I dunno, the craft beer selection is pretty good. I often pop in for a few cans of Beavertown on my way home :D
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Hey Rob, We will still have the best selling beers to drink on site, these will include Beavertowns, Kernel, East London Brewery etc. these have always been peoples favourites so we will continue to serve them.
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Thanks Niel, you're right about the shop but it has been so difficult to keep a consistant stock with the products we sell as there is so much changing in terms of products/packaging/products being discontonued/out of stock for months. This was one of our main problems where we had to substitute a lot of things which then resulted in wastage, anyhow we will be focusing on what we do best now so lets bring on the coffee!
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Would be nice to have another non Turkish food option. Such as a healthy salads/protein bar type venue with fresh juice. Ottolenghi ish /ginger mint - crouch end type.
I visited Beans once or twice only due to lack of food option. Coeliac so couldn't eat the sandwiches.
Yoga would be good if there is sufficient soace. Or art class/ reading games club for over 60s given the aging population and lack of activities for them locally.
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Yes, something along those food lines would be great, if you fancy experimenting a little guys.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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I thought this was a response to my suggestion and was thinking "Go Hugh!". Ho hum.
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