The Santa Coloma bar that serves coffee for 50 cents: “I’d rather win customers than not sell”

The escalation of prices forces the restoration to reinvent itself. If a cafeteria in Barcelona offers dishes for 4 euros with food discarded as ugly, the Hinojosa bar in Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Barcelona) sells coffees for 50 cents. The offer applies to black coffee, cut coffee and also coffee with milk. The rest of the menu does not escape the substantial discount: the mini sandwiches are one euro and the normal ones are 2. The fifths and orange juice are two euros. “It is an anti-crisis measure to help the people of the neighborhood” , explains its owner, Juan, who has run the business for 37 years. Prices blew up in July: “Things had dropped a lot and you have to offer prices that people can pay. Everyone has 50 cents in their pocket,” he explains. The initiative has borne fruit: “In September much more is coming people. In one day I have served more than 300 coffees”, says the owner. The Hinojosa bar is located on a residential street in Santa Coloma, with few offices and businesses that attract few people passing through: “I announced it on Facebook and it is already beginning to be known,” says Juan, who also gets the numbers at the end of the month. Same product at a better price”What I want is to have more customers. I serve the same product, I haven’t changed it but since I sell more it pays off. Instead of buying 6 kilos of coffee at 18 euros a kilo, now the representative leaves it to me at 10 euros per kilo because I buy 50″, he acknowledges. “I’d rather win customers than sell coffees at 1.30 euros and not sell”, he adds. Santa Coloma bar with coffees at 50 centsniusdiario.esThis bar in the Barcelona metropolitan area is not exempt from price escalation: “In August I paid 690 euros for the electricity bill for the air conditioning. It has been rising little by little,” he recalls. So the increase in customers compensates him: “In the end I keep the same profits but what am I going to do? I have nothing else!” explains the hotelier who works alone in the bar. It opens from 5 am to 9 pm Monday to Friday and from 6 am on Saturdays. “Some mothers come after dropping off the children at school, some teachers at noon. “says the owner, whose mornings are now hectic between preparing the coffees, serving, making the sandwiches and charging the customers. Cubatas at two and a half euros little to fill up the afternoons, which are quieter. I mentioned it to some clients and they told me they would come,” he says cheerfully, and points out that his clientele are “good people”: “I don’t like drunks who spend the day in the bar and they make a ruckus. So I throw them out. I prefer a couple to come in and chat quietly,” he admits. He doesn’t care what the rest of the establishments think. He says that some time ago he agreed with a neighboring bar on an identical price list to share the market: “I discovered that I sold cheaper to keep my customers. So now I am free to set the prices I want,” he concludes.