Loading…
23
Espresso machine at the shop was 8 years old, I swapped it last month and now I'm getting flack
I run a small coffee cart near the farmers market in Portland. The old La Marzocco finally died last week after 8 years of daily use, so I dropped $4,200 on a new dual boiler setup. Half my regulars say the shots taste cleaner and smoother, but one guy who comes every Saturday insists the old machine had more character and body. He told me I ruined his ritual and he might start going to the place on 12th. Is sticking with outdated gear for the sake of nostalgia actually better for a small operation, or is that just fear of change? Anyone else dealt with customers getting attached to aging equipment?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
mark_chen621mo ago
Takes me back to when I managed a shop and we swapped out an old grinder that everyone swore by. The regulars threw a fit for like two weeks, then nobody mentioned it again. Here's the thing though, that one guy isn't really tasting character, he's tasting the memory of every Saturday he's had at your cart for years. The old machine was part of his routine, and changing it feels like you changed the deal on him without asking. Give it a month and either he comes around or he was never really there for the coffee in the first place. You can't run a business around one guy's feelings when the machine literally died on you.
2