Coffee shops that open at 10am?

[LoveHearts69]

I always want to go out to a cafe somewhere that’s not a big chain but all the nice cafes or coffee shops near me and the surrounding towns open at 10am. Maybe because I’ve got young children I’ve already had 2 coffees by 8am but surely also for all those people working a standard 9-5 shift it would make much more sense for them to open at 8am to catch those customers before they start work? I’m just so confused at the reasoning. Is it just me that thinks this is strange?

My local High St has a Costa, 4 independent cafes plus two sleepy sort of micro brewery pubs that sell nice coffee. The Independents open at 9.

My friend runs one of the independents and I have lunch once a week there and often a coffee. She has a lot of regulars. It’s a very friendly place and the same people come in a few times a week. She does get a lot of retired people plus lots of guys from a local warehouse finishing their early shift for lunch.

She gives me a bit of a discount plus she has done off menu stuff for me, my Father is from the same country as her and her DH.

A really good local chain in my area is open from 7.30-5.30 Mon-Fri, 8-5.30 Saturday and 8.30-5 on Sundays.

It's the same here in Ireland, big chains here like Insomnia and Costa open early from 7/8am and close at 5/7pm and local independent ones open mainly from 10am until 2/3pm.

It was crap when doing the school run a few years ago because we always had to go to the big ones afterwards as local ones weren't open, then they closed early so you couldn't even pop in for a bit of lunch after the school pick up because they were closed or getting ready to close. Then they moaned about everyone not supporting local businesses, bit hard when they're closed more than open.

Expat in Australia - our cafes open between 5 am and 6 am at the latest. It is against the law to serve coffee after midday. Anyone caught doing this will be imprisoned without a Biden pardon.

Perhaps the owners are parents and have to get their DCs to school before work. It may not be financially worthwhile to pay staff for 2 or 3 hours for the amount of business they may do. This will obviously vary by location, but the increase in minimum wage, national insurance and pension contributions will make this worse next year.

Same with sandwich shops, open Monday to Friday but closed Saturday Sunday! Makes no sense for me

I used to drive past a place on a morning, looking fairly new, advertising breakfasts.

Always closed. I would have stopped and bought from them, to take to the office for everyone, if it was open at 8 AM, or from 7.30AM

It is in business, but obviously not for working people.

Really missed a trick in my opinion, I figured they might have children and a school run to contend with, but so much business lost.

Nice and easy to park outside of too.

All our local cafes close at 3pm. So if you’ve met a friend at 11 say, been for a decnt walk and are looking for late lunch, you’re into “sorry the kitchen’s closed but you can have a drink” territory.

Suggest it to them! Then it could be like the cafe in Motherland!

Their decision, the explanation of one owner makes sense to me.

I agree. Every morning after I drop the kids off at school I have to walk the dog in the local park where there is a cafe. It always busy in the park from 8.30am onwards but the cafe is always closed.

So do you really think they haven't thought of this before, they are going to go 'open at 8am? now why didn't we think of that'

Yep this. All my colleagues get drive thru chain coffee on the way to work as nothing is open. All my mum friends are off on a Monday when no cafés are open bar the big chains.

Contrast to Spain where after my friend does the school run she and many other parents pop to a café for a quick breakfast before they start work!

Two of my favourite independent coffee shops open at 8 and 9 respectively, which I very much appreciate. The manageress of the one that opens at 8 lives a 50 minute drive away too.

If the shop is near a school or a station, it make sense to try to catch the commuting and school running footfall.

But I'm not sure that it would make sense elsewhere, as so many people have their coffee at home first thing, and won't be stopping again until elevenses

What a bizarre comment "even earlier" as if getting to work for say 8am to open at 8.30/9 is even early 😂 totally normal work day for most and they even carry on til 5pm or 6pm sometimes dontcha know.

To add my opinion, yes they should open early and get the school run/commuters coffee runs but obviously they don't need to and are making enough money off the pensioners and bohemian day time coffee drinkers.

Because they're run by people who basically see them as a hobby.

Or it could just be left to the cafe's to work out what is best for them?

My favourite coffee shop in our town opens at 7.30. There are 5 other independent coffee shops within 5-6 minutes walk of that one, but none of them open before 8.30. Costa, Nero and Coffee #1 open at 8.

I go for a coffee twice a week at around 8am. It's always busy with a steady stream of pre-work/on school run/post run customers, mainly getting takeaways, and very many of them regulars.

There is clearly a market for coffee and breakfast items at that time of day, but none of the others open early enough to capture it. It's up to each business owner, of course, but I do think they're probably missing out on something.

We have a little coffee shop next to our village train station which doesn't open until 9.30am despite the fact the train station is absolutely packed with commuters (to a big city) from 7am and then dead from 9am?! We are the only train station for miles so we have lots of people getting on the train here who don't even live locally. Not sure why they decided to open next to a commuter train station but then not open when people are actually commuting 😂

My local independent opens at 7am but that's because it's right by a main station for commuters into London. It closes at 5 though. I guess once they've had the rush of grammar kids going home (lots come in and out by train) it's probably quiet.

Yep, I didn't say my opinion was mandatory.

The cafe in my parents village didn’t open until 10.30. An enterprising pub landlord decided to start opening at 8 a couple of days a week, serving coffee and pastries. The school run mums flocked in on their way past and he made a killing (it’s an affluent commuter area and many of them were SAHP). Of course the cafe then kicked off at the pub for “stealing their trade”, but still didn’t change their hours.

I suspect the money is in the cakes / snack / food as much as the coffee, not the 10/15 commuters who only buy coffee, for these sole trader type cafes in smaller towns / suburbs etc. If you cover mid morning to mid afternoon you sweep up all that business. In cities where you have loads of people just buying a coffee opening early works, because you have the volume, but in smaller towns etc probably not. Even with just one staff member (the owner) you must need £30 an hour or so to cover staff costs, NI and tax. In these smaller places will there be 20 people an hour between 7 and 10 to make it worth opening? We have to assume that the people running these places know their customer base better than a random bunch of people on the internet ;)

this comes up a lot. If they know what they are doing, they know that opening before 10 isn't worth it for them.

If you want coffee before then you need to be close to an office complex or a station, ime