SMALL BATCH COFFEE SHOP

1.The environment in a coffee shop is also a big benefit—usually.

Ambient sound can be great to help you concentrate, and some studies have even shown that environments like this can help boost your creativity! Many people go to coffee shops to work and study, and the atmosphere is most likely to encourage you to stay focused on your tasks since everyone else is doing precisely that. 

2.Coffee shops are also an excellent place for a study group to meet. 

You’re not going to get shushed as you would in a library, but you can all get your liquid focus and charge forward in conquering the topic at hand. There is also the power of the group collective. A study group can improve memorization, and the united brainpower allows students to see the answer from a different perspective.

3.Lighting in a Study Space.

Nowadays, it is practically impossible to avoid computer screens, phone screens, or any harmful light that can strain your eyes. This reality is more prevalent for students and people who work at home. Along with this developing technology that helps us stay connected and get work done, there is enough research out there that proves the best ways to study and avoid harming our eyes. The four kinds of light that will be discussed are natural light, white light, blue light and yellow light. Natural light is known to have many benefits to the human body that no other artificial light can replace. Sunlight helps your body produce the Vitamin D needed to strengthen your bones, produce serotonin and improve vision. Yellow light would be the most ideal in a study space and when natural light can’t be obtained. Yellow light can link to a feeling of warmth and coziness and is relaxing for our eyes, which in terms of health and longevity, yellow light is a great option for reading and finishing tasks.  There is also white light, which is more common in commercial areas and this light can be considered intense. Even though it can help improve learning performances. As Lumen Now suggests, you would need to choose a yellowish- white LED that has an adjustable CCT (Correlated Color Temperature). Since LEDs emit short wavelengths, they can also make you feel tired at the end of the day. Lastly, there is blue light, where it is used the most in our daily lives, on TV screens and cellphones, it is also one of the most harmful to our eyes. As the Assil Eye Institute of Los Angeles notes, “ A recent study from the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety confirms that short-term exposure to high-intensity blue light has “phototoxic effects” and that long term exposure to lower-intensity blue light is linked to an increased risk of age-related macular degeneration (ARMD). ARMD is the leading cause of vision loss in adults over 50.” Having considered these options in lighting we will be avoiding blue light and the two sources of light we will be using for the cafe will be natural light and yellow light where the customers will benefit the most from.

4. Implementing Sustainable Practices

By acquiring our ingredients locally as well as obtaining them from natural and organic sources, our coffee shop will implement sustainable practices which will not only help the environment, but also improve business. Food waste generation could be reduced by using fresh, quality, and local food. Utilizing sustainable practices considerably enhances consumer perceived values. Although the application of sustainability and waste reduction practices in the hospitality industry is a growing area of research, these standards are a factor in determining a consumer’s overall attitude. “In Food service, hospitality, and tourism, scholars have broadly given attention to the relationship between environmental concern and consumer behavior.” (Kim, & Hall, C. M. , 2020). Being sustainable and using clean practices will increase consumers' perceived value of our business as well as foster customer trust, loyalty, and retention. Practicing sustainability is important to us, that is why we will partner up with TerraCycle. TerraCycle is a non profit organization whose mission is to eliminate waste. With our partnership we will become a drop off point that will allow people walking by or coming out of our store, to throw away their trash. We will also partner with TerraCycle to implement a recycling program inside our store where our customers can recycle makeup containers, toothbrushes, toothpaste, razors, etc.

5. Encouraging Community Vitality

Based on The Family and Consumer Sciences Body of Knowledge and the Cultural Kaleidoscope: Research Opportunities and Challenges, a kind of community can be a group of people that share a common interest no matter the  difference in backgrounds of those within said community. (pp.274) Given that they live in the same region, our coffee shop would act as a catalyst for furthering connections outside our cafe. Coffee shops  have become increasingly present throughout the years and more so in urban spaces. As Ferreira discusses, “the growing presence of coffee shops in the urban landscape has meant that they increasingly take on a wider range of roles, becoming spaces of both leisure and work but also providing spaces of sociality in which people can develop connections, and potentially communities.”  That would be the role our cafe would be taking on for the people of San Francisco.

6. A Space for Study and Community Building

The space is also designed in a way that would most benefit the public. Many coffee shops are small and are practically impossible to study especially for larger groups of six and up. The loft style provides a space below that looks like a typical coffee shop, but keeping comfortability and productivity in mind. The way the space is layed out, makes it easy to understand the four areas to approach. There will be cushioned seating on the left as you enter the building for those waiting on a drink or waiting for friends. The seating on the right has a row of seating facing a window for those who are the most comfortable with the traditional arrangement of not needing to face anyone, but still being able to have a view and access to natural lighting. The other two points in view are the coffee station in front and the stairs to enter the loft. The coffee station would be the first thing you would notice as you come in and the perfect place to be greeted and meet the staff. For the second level, it was very important to incorporate the large tables that would serve the larger group of customers. Groups that are larger than six will hardly find a coffee shop that will accommodate them and only places such as a library would sometimes have the space, but without the coffee. The larger group would also have the liberty to talk without someone monitoring the noise as a library would. They would also have access to natural light as well as the opportunity to go outside into a patio area to enjoy the sun.