5 guys come into yer shop and buy 5 grams of ice which takes 5 mins....140 odd bucks.
...or...
5 guys come into yer shop and buy 5 Remi Martins...5 times...which takes 5 hours...140 odd bucks.
hmmm...tough choice.
Ok, busy bars make money...but you certainly have to earn it. whereas, coffeeshops don't need to be busy to still make money. Mind u, unlike a bar, a coffeeshop's restock and supply system can completely collapse overnight.
Ok, busy bars make money...but you certainly have to earn it. whereas, coffeeshops don't need to be busy to still make money. Mind u, unlike a bar, a coffeeshop's restock and supply system can completely collapse overnight.
Precisely, which is why this is so interesting.
It's hard slinging drinks for profit (got the T-shirt, many times over) but at least the revenue stream will be there.
The smart owners will be moving the alcohol serving, smoking friendly operation elsewhere and hanging onto the cannabis license as long as possible :-)
God only knows what happens when the smoking ban begins to loom large.
Going back to the earlier point about smoking bans and members clubs.
If it goes the way Scotland has just now (and England to follow soon) then private members clubs are out if they sell booze... it's any licensed prems that is affected... so if booze is to be sold, forget the smoking 'cause you're a member idea... I am a member and attend a club here, it's a music venue, but members only - they get a regular 5am license and 6 times a year they get a 6am license(norm is 3-4am here), but that's it... no relaxation of the smoking ban.
Also on the beer contracts, it's highly likely that if a law is introduced there it will not be an open and shut case with regards to existing contracts, bearing in mind it isn't prudent for the country to put it's smaller business' out of business by imposing a law that will no doubt kill a bank balance or two... I would have thought, if there was to be such a ban put in place on selling booze in coffee shops, that it would be a gradual introduction, ie no more breweries allowed to sign contracts with coffee shops from a certain date, then phase it out that way...
Maybe I'm wrong, I certainly don't claim to be any kind of expert on such issues but that's what I would have thought would happen... or at least how it should happen (if it must happen at all that is).
it's not just the profit/cost of the single transaction that's important as outlined in the 5 grams vs. 5 drinks example above. Shops consider profit/cost x volume over time. McDonalds doesn't sell $25.00 prime rib even though it could make more profit per sale than a $1.00 cheeseburger -- they sell cheeseburgers because of the higher volume of sales over time, which offsets a loss in profit in each sale.
While the profit rate on beer vs. buds may be lower or higher (although i have to believe the markup is higher on alcohol), the shops that have bars appear to be shifting much more volume in alcohol sales than weed on a given night. I would estimate on a typical night in a bar/shop 1/3 buy smoke and may drink, 1/3 smoke other product and drink, and 1/3 or less just drink. To give up the booze, the shop would be eliminating over 2/3 of its paying customers in favor of one third -- and, even that one third may go elsewhere to buy if it wasn't a bar/shop. In December, I talked to staff at a few bar/shops about the upcoming change. Most indicated that the bar would stay (this is far from scientific) and that a smoke shop would be set up elsewhere, if at all.
My guess is that most shops with bars are moving more $$ on alcohol transactions (in terms of sales volume) than mj transactions. Of course, this doesn't figure in that a lot of the people drinking there would not be drinking there if the place did not have a coffeeshop license. Obviously, they would prefer to sell both. However, many (but obviously not all) will choose beer over buds.
Also, you have to consider other variables: dealing with dealers; the questionable legal nature of the mj sales; greater police inspections; more difficulty in finding trustworthy staff to handle the product, etc. All of these variables favor selling beer over mj.
Of course, I favor allowing both, and favor coffeshops over bars, of which there are already many.
I have to disagree Jim, due to the nature of coffeeshop licences they're rare as rocking horse shit, whereas (I'm presuming) licencing for a bar is much easier to obtain, meaning that there are a lot more competing bars.
Also, I personally think that your figures for the smoker/drinker ration are a bit off, I would say far more than 30% will buy weed (DC, tell me to shut up if I'm talking bollocks, this is all vaguely educated guesswork)
Daytime the weed sales are higher, at night it's the alcohol. The main reason a Bar\shop would stay a bar is the cost of changing the fixtures taps, pipes, compressor, brewery etc....Whereas a coffeeshop to certain extent just needs a coffee machine a counter and a set of scales. Plus, I think most coffeeshop licenses are location fixed anyway.
