Rip off coffee prices in Dublin service stations.

Run_to_da_hills

Applegreen on the Naas road past the Parkwest turn off charge 2.60 for aa bean to cup Latte.
Other places around the city charge similar. The exact same coffee can be found in the main service stations in Limerick and Ennis for 1.60. The law of diminishing returns must work here as I couldn't be ar*sed buying coffee at this price in these rip off service stations. Hopefully the downturn might get them to drop their prices.

Berty

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Applegreen on the Naas road past the Parkwest turn off charge 2.60 for aa bean to cup Latte.
Other places around the city charge similar. The exact same coffee can be found in the main service stations in Limerick and Ennis for 1.60. The law of diminishing returns must work here as I couldn't be ar*sed buying coffee at this price in these rip off service stations. Hopefully the downturn might get them to drop their prices.

Applegreen market their prices against the east coast and the station in Corbally Limerick for example has the east coast prices and the certainly do not work for the Franchisee.

Total cost per cup of Fresh bean to cup Coffee = 30 cent per cup

Current RRP of 300ml/12Oz cup Fresh Coffee to go = €1.50

These calculations are based on the approximate cost of coffee beans per serving, disposable cup, lid, stirrer, milk & sugar.

Work out the profit derived yourself when a busy station could do 150 cups a day. Around €65,000k excluding staff and electricity/water

With the thin margins on fuel this is how fuel stations actually make money.

Thankfully there is no one forcing you to pay this.

mikemac

Think I read somewhere the only thing with a higher profit margin than coffee was cocaine

I agree, many service stations make more money from their shops then the fuel sales.
Tbh, most of what petrol stations sell is overpriced so if OP is relying on them for buying tea/coffee or sandwiches be prepared to pay over the odds. And this will always be the way

micmclo

micmclo wrote: »

Think I read somewhere the only thing with a higher profit margin than coffee was cocaine

I agree, many service stations make more money from their shops then the fuel sales.
Tbh, most of what petrol stations sell is overpriced so if OP is relying on them for buying tea/coffee or sandwiches be prepared to pay over the odds. And this will always be the way

Funny enough it mightn't. As the recession looms people tend to cut down on discretionary spending. Stuff like coffee and sandwiches. So if garages don't get the income from the shop they will have to increase their margin on fuel..

Berty

micmclo wrote: »

Think I read somewhere the only thing with a higher profit margin than coffee was cocaine

I agree, many service stations make more money from their shops then the fuel sales.
Tbh, most of what petrol stations sell is overpriced so if OP is relying on them for buying tea/coffee or sandwiches be prepared to pay over the odds. And this will always be the way

Ice cream is a 2% better margin than Coffee. There are a lot of things in the shops that are loss leaders so to get a customer in to buy coffee and something from the deli then they are clawing back on the loss leaders.

A retailer would be happy with 25% margin on the deli but I know retailers who are making 45%-50% with intelligent process.

You are getting a better cup of coffee out of a bean to cup machine that you would in a coffee shop or even the worst starbucks. Starbucks is actually mostly coffee flavoured hot water. A Barista coffee machine in a coffee shop has the staff grind the beans separetly and put through the machine. You get less coffee using this process than you do with a bean to cup grinder machine in a service station.

Consequently the worst machines in the industry are cartridge machines where you get your tea, capucinno, latte, hot chocolate and stick it into the machine. The reason they are bad is the quality of the ingredients, the ratio of coffee/chocolate and above all its only a 8oz cup and retailers charge the same price more often that not.

cormie

Applegreen usually have the best prices on fuel. As a fuel guzzler and a coffee avoider, I'm happy they make their big profits off others and can keep fuel prices down for me

Berty

cormie wrote: »

Applegreen usually have the best prices on fuel. As a fuel guzzler and a coffee avoider, I'm happy they make their big profits off others and can keep fuel prices down for me

Apple green idealogy is to offer cheaper fuel prices but even cheaper fuel if you buy a car wash which has a massive margin also.

They may be 1 or 2c cheaper but for up to 8c saving you can buy a car wash or do what I did yesterday.

Two Maxol Stations in Limerick about 3 mins drive(same road) from each other and one had Diesel at 115.9 and the other was 121.9.

cormie

Unfortunately the car wash deal only applies up to a maximum of 40 litres, with a saving of 5c per litre (did you say the one you were at was 8c saving? I thought it was always 5c? - http://www.applegreen.ie/promos.html -), meaning 40x5c= €2, as far as I know, you can't get a carwash this cheap. My van takes about 80litres meaning a saving of €4 if they didn't have the 40l limit.

What's their cheapest carwash?

Mr. Presentable

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Applegreen on the Naas road past the Parkwest turn off charge 2.60 for aa bean to cup Latte.
Other places around the city charge similar. The exact same coffee can be found in the main service stations in Limerick and Ennis for 1.60. The law of diminishing returns must work here as I couldn't be ar*sed buying coffee at this price in these rip off service stations. Hopefully the downturn might get them to drop their prices.

It's only a rip-off when you agree one price and the vendor decides a higher when you can do nothing about it. The prices are clearly displayed so you, the purchaser, make the choice as to whether you pay it or not.

Yes, the price is over the top, but is is not a rip-off. So long as people are prepared to pay, and this applies to anything, the vendor will take as much as he can get.

Berty

cormie wrote: »

Unfortunately the car wash deal only applies up to a maximum of 40 litres, with a saving of 5c per litre (did you say the one you were at was 8c saving? I thought it was always 5c? -

Its been a while since I visited Apple Green in Corbally(Limerick) and only whizz by the one on the Naas road.

When it first opened in Limerick I had a long conversation with the Franchisee about the way the offers worked and it was defo 8c. Opening offer, who knows?

He was concerened about the internal prices in the shop. Deli pricing, coffee pricing etc and I helped him realise the margins better so maybe since then there was a shake up with petrol pricing. I know they have taken on a new business development manager since August, maybe all is changing.

Mr. Presentable

quirke_folder wrote: »

Work out the profit derived yourself when a busy station could do 150 cups a day. Around €65,000k excluding staff and electricity/water

OK, but profit has to take into account staff, power, water, insurance, VAT, etc.

Work it out again taking everything into account.

cormie

I was curious about the business practice so I made this thread here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055358832

The results would indicate, that out of 100 drivers who commute daily past the same 5 stations, that 73 will always fill up at the cheapest station, and 27 will fill up between the other 4 stations. That's a LOT of extra business the cheapest station is getting. Now if all 5 stations were the same, they'd each get about 20 customers, drop your price to be the cheapest and your customer attraction more than triples. Their still making profit on the fuel and they have an extra 50 or so customers who can then potentially give them even more profit by buying something in the shop too.

Mr. Presentable

cormie wrote: »

I was curious about the business practice so I made this thread here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055358832

The results would indicate, that out of 100 drivers who commute daily past the same 5 stations, that 73 will always fill up at the cheapest station, and 27 will fill up between the other 4 stations. That's a LOT of extra business the cheapest station is getting. Now if all 5 stations were the same, they'd each get about 20 customers, drop your price to be the cheapest and your customer attraction more than triples. Their still making profit on the fuel and they have an extra 50 or so customers who can then potentially give them even more profit by buying something in the shop too.

It's called good business sense. As a business man yourself you will know five €1.00 profits is better than one €3.00 profit.

Savman

Buying coffee is compulsory now? Musta missed that in the budget.

Run_to_da_hills

quirke_folder wrote: »

You are getting a better cup of coffee out of a bean to cup machine that you would in a coffee shop or even the worst starbucks. Starbucks is actually mostly coffee flavoured hot water. A Barista coffee machine in a coffee shop has the staff grind the beans separetly and put through the machine. You get less coffee using this process than you do with a bean to cup grinder machine in a service station.

Consequently the worst machines in the industry are cartridge machines where you get your tea, cappuccino, latte, hot chocolate and stick it into the machine. The reason they are bad is the quality of the ingredients, the ratio of coffee/chocolate and above all its only a 8oz cup and retailers charge the same price more often that not.

Most Irish coffee drinkers including myself have now become coffee snobs. It was not long ago when we would settle for a glass jug full of filtered coffee that spent the whole day stewing on a hob, then came the the flask, then the Kenco capsules and now the bean to cup. Even Micky D's have move on. You get to know the places that do the proper stuff.

The Kenco Singles machines require less work and maintenance than any coffee machine including a an electric kettle and jar (Virtually unheard of now, even in pubs) . They can hold up to 36 cups in stand alone mode or can be plumed to water. The cartages are quite expensive and Kraft Ireland seem to have the monopoly over them. The Greenys are not too happy with them but who cares about these guys:D

I would agree with you that Starbrucks is just p**ss, even their Latte's are watered down.

Berty

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

I would agree with you that Starbrucks is just p**ss, even their Latte's are watered down.

And a lot of water they have with keeping their taps running permanently. Crazy.

http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/852600/Starbucks-turns-off-water-taps-Sun-investigation/

Our man in Havana

I have never in almost 20 years of driving once buy coffee in a garage.

Seth Brundle

I'd often do it on a long journey as a way of taking a break. Unfortunately, it usually tastes like crap