Here comes the sun….

As a coffee shop owner, I have come to dread the summer. I have come to dread hot sunny days, the same way many people dread the cold, dark days of January. In the summer months, I can look at the forecast and know when I am in for a stressful week. Last Monday, we had our worst recorded sales day since opening Number Thirteen, and that is saying something. We have made it through our fledgling years as a new business, a global pandemic, a cost-of-living crisis; and the thing that caused our lowest ever sales day? The sun.

It is easy to assume that a sunny day means a busy day for a coffee shop. More people out and about, feeling the sun on their skin, soaking up the vitamin D. More people equal more customers, ergo a busier day, surely? But that isn’t always the case.

I realise the idea of drinking a hot drink on a hot day is not the go-to for most people, although my old scout leader would swear that drinking hot tea when you are warm and sweaty, will cool you down faster than any iced beverage. I also realise that, yes, coffee shops do usually also sell cold drinks (not everyone likes coffee) – we have an extensive range of iced coffee and iced tea drinks, as well as cans of pop, milkshakes, and smoothies. So why should the weather affect whether customers come into your shop or not?

I think that sometimes, when it is too hot, you don’t even want to drink cold drinks. You definitely don’t feel like eating cake, or pasties, or anything really. Sometimes, you don’t even want to leave the comfort of your own house. Dog owners will go out early doors with their pets on sunny days, in an effort to save their sensitive paws from burning. Tourists come for ice cream on Castle Top, or to boat along the river. Once the pubs open at noon, a chilled beer or G&T in a sunny courtyard garden is the only way to go, and I totally get it, but it does make for a quiet and daunting day from a coffee shop owner’s perspective.

The weather plays such a vital role in how a day in a coffee shop (or at least in our coffee shop) is going to go, and its so frustrating because it isn’t something you can really predict. Yes, there are weather forecasts, and a general idea of how the day is going to go depending on the time of year – summer days are drier than winter days for instance, but the Great British weather doesn’t always play by the rules.

When we first opened, I was also under the impression held by many that our busiest time was going to be over the summer holidays. We had opened in January, cold and wet, and were instantly busy, but I put that down to new-café curiosity, more than anything else. However, as we moved into the summer months, we didn’t get busier, we got slightly quieter. I wondered if it was just a strange year, first year slump, perhaps. We had now been open six months so maybe the novelty of us had worn off a bit.

As we moved into the autumn and winter months, we picked up again, and this pattern has continued over the subsequent 7 years. Whether it’s because we look more inviting in the colder months, our warm lights glowing in comparison to the dreary outdoors, or simply because you crave a warm drink to wrap your hands around when its chilly outside, our summer months are just quieter.

We have come to expect this, and plan accordingly, but this last Monday was another level. The mini heatwave had been forecast, so we cut down on staff as much as we could without service being severely disrupted and put out a message on our social media platforms to say that if we were too quiet, we would close early. It’s not generally something I like to do, and I avoid it wherever possible. I know from experience that as a business, you need to stick to the opening hours you advertise. It builds a level of trust with customers that they come to expect, and to close willy nilly just makes customers not want to even try to visit you, if there is the possibility that they will end up disappointed.

Unfortunately, staying open wasn’t something that seemed a possibility on this particular day. As well as being ridiculously quiet, it was also ridiculously hot behind the counter, what with the fridges on overdrive, and the oven, coffee machine and sandwich grill all needing to be on, pumping out heat for pretty much nothing. Even though we have the front and back doors open, as well as the kitchen window, and a fan over counter, it can sometimes be 10 degrees hotter behind the counter than outside. Customers don’t feel it so much, they are sat still, enjoying the shade while having a refreshing drink. My staff are faced with steaming dishwashers, boiling water, hot milk, a sandwich grill working at 220 degrees, all while moving around, serving customers (when they are there), cleaning and generally keeping busy.

One of my primary concerns on these kinds of days, is the wellbeing of my staff. It is a tough balance, but I would rather close the shop, than have my staff working in inhospitable conditions. I need my staff to feel comfortable, to work to the best of their ability, and it is in my best interests to keep my staff happy – without them, I wouldn’t be able to operate in the first place.

There is also the undeniable cost of running the shop. It’s basic maths, if there isn’t any money coming into the shop, and only money going out, you end up somewhere you don’t want to be. No customers mean no money. My staff need to be paid for their hours worked, regardless of whether there have been any customers, there are costs associated with the running of the coffee machine, grills, ovens, dishwasher, even the lights. Without these things on, we can’t operate, but they aren’t something that can be turned on at the appearance of a customer, and then off again to save money until the next one appears. They need to warm up, and stay hot, and aren’t the cheapest of things to run.

As a business owner you have to make a judgement call, knowing when to call it a day. On this particular day, we stayed open until 1.15pm – just over 4 hours. The temperature was still rising, and we were just getting less and less people coming through the door. There were two members of staff working, which worked out at over £100 in wage costs alone.

As I say, it's not something I like to do, but closing for the afternoon seemed like the most reasonable solution, considering the circumstances. It was hard, as I stuck the sign to the door explaining that we would be closing early due to being so quiet and it being so hot, to hear someone say, “well you won’t get customers if you close, will you?”, as if I was closing to go home and chill in the garden, like I was choosing this for an easy life.  

As with most British ‘heatwaves’, within 24 hours we were back to a much more palatable 20 degrees and cloudy skies. Much more conducive to coffee drinking and cake eating. However, that one day now affects the whole week, meaning we are playing catch up and adjusting orders. Thankfully, the cloudy skies and slight drizzle have brought people into the shop in the following days, and we can breathe easy until the next hot day.

I do feel bad for hoping the summer stays on the cooler side, and I know many dream of hot summers with cloudless skies, BBQ’s in the back garden, the chinking of ice cubes on glass. But personally, I cannot wait for the changing of the leaves, the airing out of scarves and chunky knits, and the joy of wrapping your hands around a comforting cup of coffee, our shop as warm and inviting as ever.