Even if you serve the most fair trade ultra organic coffee there is, it doesn't cost you more than 30 cent per cup (Most cafés spend 10 cents. You sell that cup for $ 2, or more, since this is 2015 in San Francisco, and the world is mad.

The guy i mentioned above (http://mrcotton.com/) charges €2.20 which at current rates is over $2.40 for a black coffee, more for cappucio etc. He's usually outside my office for approx 90 mins and some back of the envelope points to him making over $200 in that time. Ant that's not SF, that's Cork Ireland

You might want to edit this comment, not good for a CEO to essentially say his customers are mad to pay what they do for his product. Bring's to mind this guy who destroyed a much larger business with a similar comment: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1573380/Doing-a-Ratne...

That's not the same. Everyone knows that coffee beans are cheap. It's the labour (and rent) that gets you. (And the milk.)

His customers are essentially baristas. I think he secretly hopes this will bring down coffee costs.

I am quite interested in how the standardization will work. Maybe it is just like the "Chinese"-food places, where every menu is almost the same.

Coffee margins for cafe's are about 20-25x, keep in mind without daily grinding you'll be losing most of your pre-ground product within a 48 hours of unsealing.

Casual food is usually marked up at 4-5x.

(Managed supply/sourcing/pricing for a chain)

From the article: "Mazetti estimates that in a decently trafficked location in a dense city, a Wheelys coffee shop might do $400 in revenue per day and keep about $200 after the cost of goods."

Yes I came here looking for discussion on that. A good store does $200 a day after COGS?

Say 8 hours/day and you're looking at $25/hour, which I guess is pretty far above minimum wage, but is someone for whom $25/hour is an upgrade in a place to spend the $3k to buy in?

And if you're operating in a slower area you're not that far from making minimum wage. If I wanted to operate a fleet of them I don't see how I come out ahead after salary, overhead (increased loss from the minimum wage employee) and taxes. Even at $175/day your looking at $21/hour income after COGS, pay someone $12/hour plus taxes and overhead and you're profiting maybe $3/hour/bike.

I guess once you get to 30 or so you're starting to make real money. But at that point you have to wonder about saturation of the good spots.

How much is $25/hr when you adjust for having to pay your own taxes and health insurance?

Probably need to factor weather in to any projections of annual income.