The Way It's Supposed to Work

A couple of women come in late Friday afternoon.  Never been here before.  One of them looks at the list of coffees we have and asks about them, looking for a "general" profile of something light and crisp.  Frank makes a suggestion.  She orders that coffee, not knowing she'd have to wait for it while we brewed to order. 

She orders it anyway and keeps busy for a couple of minutes while the beans are ground and put through the Abid.

Upon receiving her cup she asks where the sugar and milk are.  Rich points to them but adds, "That coffee should be sweet enough as is.  You might not want to add anything to it."

This catches her a bit by surprise as she's already got the half n' half carafe in her hand.  She puts it down and takes a sip, black.  Then turns to the counter and says, "Oh my God, that's wonderful!!!"

Then she gives the cup to her friend, who not only agrees, but immediately wants to buy a bag.

As it turns out, she'd been buying Folgers Colombian because it was affordable (but she noted that it tasted much better to her than the Folgers Classic).

For them it was well worth spending three times as much for something they truly enjoyed instead of spending less on something they now realized was simply a compromise.  Within minutes Frank and Rich had them committing to coming in for a free tasting class.

Some professionals have said that we can't/shouldn't expect people who regularly drink supermarket coffee to appreciate what we serve.  That there's a progression from canned coffee that must pass through Starbucks/Caribou/Peets in order to arrive where these ladies did.

Apparently, the experts are not always right. You can make the jump and skip that middle step.

Comments

[Tom Moertel]

This anecdote reminds me of something Edward Tufte said about the common advice to "know your audience" when preparing content for a presentation. He said it was bad advice. Instead, he said, you should *respect* your audience (and know your content). He argued that "knowing" in most cases amounts to dumbing down, which is not only damaging to the truth but wasteful because your audience usually contains people smarter and more discerning that you would assume.