Coffee Anyone?

I need some help with my Soon to be cafe...I want stuff that will attract Customers....Any Ideas Please help???

I honestly do not think cafe's in SL attract many people just by their existing.

You should probably take some sort of angle, like...a discussion theme. Use the cafe to host discussion groups on current affairs or other things. That generally brings people to the discussion event and then some of them may come back on non-discussion days with the hope of meeting some other like minded people to just hang out and chat.

A Youtube t.v. and a nice stream also help. So does having some nice furniture that makes people feel comfortable when they sit and not as if they just became a statue of David Thinking.

Maybe you can get discussions going 2-3 days out of the week. Perhaps you can find people who are looking for venue's from which to host topical discussions.

Or, you can add a bathroom, throw slop on the walls, set up some sex pose balls and toss some dirty keywords into the description field like: CUM FOR COFFEE

The choice is YOURS!

Thank you Briana Dawson That is a very very good idea to have discussion theme i might do that...I dont however wanna have a sex themed Coffee shop lmao...But yes im looking into the other!

I'll second a discussion-themed place as something I'd like. That really takes having someone commit to moderating discussion who can get it started, announce that it's over, steer it back on track if needed, and kick and ban those who are disrupting it. I'd also suggest hosting displays of original artwork (not tacky copies of RL works, not stuff with so much floating text that the place looks like a mall), and putting pose balls on the furniture that don't make the sitter look like he/she desperately needs to find a bathroom. Also, no dancing (though that's just a personal peeve).

You might take a look at this recent thread about nice conversation places, and visit a few that are mentioned. See what YOU like!
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(and no, there are not nearly enough of them on the grid, so go for it!)
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I go with the discussion idea as well. And I applaud you for not going with the sex theme.

Hi Lara,

I have a little coffee shop that gets around 20-25 visitors a day, many are regulars now.

A year ago I noticed the lack of quiet places I could go with friends to chat so I created it as a space for myself; the kind of place I liked to hangout in RL before Starbucks took over. Cozy seating that doesn't really match, books, etc.

I noticed my visitor count started to increase after I put in a Jukebox that the customers could control to play whatever kind of music they wanted, and an Intan couples dance ball filled with some nice slow dances and a few fun fast ones.

For me the place isn't about trying to attract people per se, it's just kind of there. It's on a very quiet sim and couples can go to cuddle or dance, friends can hangout and chat away from the noisy club scene.

Here's the slurl if you want to check it out and good luck to you.

It's called, High Chai Coffee Bar and Tea Room.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Rue%20dAlliez/151/244/22

Mix it with some form(s) of art, to get an atmosphere that feels like home to the visitors you'd like to attract: music, paintings or photography, literature, dance. Don't turn it into a home, just into a place that feels like home. Go to your favorite cafe in RL, around the block, where you almost always go after shopping, and look around, listen, and feel. It's probably temed one way or another, but even if the theme is obvious, it's not screaming at you. It might be as simple as the little autographed BB King photograph on the wall, from which you once got into a great conversation with the owner about types of music he/she liked.

Just small things that may get conversations started during silences.

A recommendation: Half and half!

First half: You need regulars who sit around (at the bar, on sofas etc) and chat publicly to encourage others to turn up and join in. Have a "topic du jour" during the week so that every Monday might be sport, Tuesdays politics, Wednesdays fashion and so on, so that people can choose to become daily regulars rather than having to attend every day in the hope that the conversation was of interest. You wouldn't want, for example, a bloke to turn up and find out that the clientele were entirely female and talking about shoe shops. You could have a Saturday Special topic that changed every week, based on suggestions (have a suggestions board with voting perhaps?) and Sunday could be a "Pot Luck" day. Of course, even with "fixed" topics conversations would get beneficially derailed - just check these forums for proof!

Second half: You need to attract a flow of noobs (or just temporarily lonely people) some of whom might then become regulars. You have more of a chance of doing this if you can offer an incentive they might associate with - so have half the place set up with two chair tables *facing each other* (rl habits regarding proximity and body language surprisingly still apply in sl!) and advertise them as "singles" tables. Occupants can always join in the general chat from there, but they are promoting their willingness to meet others one on one. A dance ball or two would help the process as well, as would a good wine list.

There aren't many civilised pickup joints in sl, and those that are successful (eg Sweethearts, Frank's, Phat's etc) are superlaggy and are not really even set up well to encourage the tentative or inexperienced. A coffee shop like this (reflecting real life!) might help rectify the balance.

Also you might want to recognise the need for a "shift" system to accommodate the three main time zones - and even have a Spanish night, or a Japanese evening which would create their own regular clientele, even if they weren't there every day.

Pep (There's more, of course, and you might hate my suggestions, but you *did* ask. )

Thank you to everyone who Helped and wrote back on this Thread!!! It helped alot...I opened a Cafe here once but i went into it too fast,there was no Planing or Advertising at all and in the end it was just a big big waste of 1000ks of L's....Im going to consider doing everything that everyone has told me too....

Keep the Anwsers coming though...

Thank you soooooo Much!
Lara

I'm glad Solanghe mentioned her High Chai Coffee Bar and Tea Room. When I read the OP, I immediately thought of Open Latte (legendary, but now closed) and High Chai as places that were created with the ambiance that attracts repeat customers.

I posted that slurl in a thread yesterday titled: RIGHT NOW, Where are you in SL?

I would love to find a cool little coffee shop to hang out in!!!

I had accidentally found one a while back.....um.....it was a play on 'Starbucks' but it was called something else...dam it, can't remember. Anyway......it was on the edge of a little shopping plaza....very beautifully done New England'ish sim.....and they had occasionally live shows out in the square. But....what made the coffee shop so cool.....was she had games.....like Simon.....Hangman and a trivia that would just ask questions and you could sit there and play by saying the answer......so it was interactive and it was just really really neat. The shop had kind of a deco feel to it, and was very well designed. Then she had to sell the sim, and of course the new owner turned it into some sort of hellish mall.

So....if you're brewing up a cyber coffee shop....I will definitely check it out! Atmosphere is everything in a cafe! If you don't have the land space to make the outside as inviting as possible.....then inside has really got to have a strong cozy ambiance that makes people want to curl up and chill out for a bit.

Speed dating

Slow dating!

Pep (types fast enough)

If you have a blog or subscribo-matic so we know what's happening, it might help.

Also, asking people you know to spend time there helps. People attract people.

If I knew the slurl, I would stop by.

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So am I ... I'm relaxing there right now and have put it in my Picks.

Here is the Slurl to my Place...It is not done yet but there is Seating and music!!!!

Please Enjoy

I think Sweethearts was a good idea in theory, but in addition to the major lag factor, the main thing I've observed in my visits there are about 6 couples dancing and some profile reading usually shows these are already partnered or at least "taken" couples.

The other 50 or so stand around. Some seem like regulars and there is a bit of chit-chat. But I rarely see any of these people pairing up to go on the dance floor. I have several rather wry and/or amusing anecdotes observed from my times there but I'll just stop here....for now.

Ohhhh....I was there looking for your shop awhile back...probably *quite* awhile back...and saw it was a coffee shop. I LOVED the atmosphere and sat and relaxed awhile.

I'm glad you posted this so it jogged my memory and I can return!!!

Forgot to put in the slurl wow lmao...

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Candyland/198/62/27

Hey Miles! *waves*

Yay! \o/

And Yay again! \o/

Oh come on! Put some hot sexy poseballs behind the counter and people will be busting at Your door to
get in.