#13 The Business of Lying

Lie

Noun: an intentionally false statement.

An inaccurate or false statement, a falsehood.

Post script: This blog was actually written in 2020 after a visit to a competitors cafe, funnily enough this cafe actually changed coffee supplier after this was written from a Melbourne Group to another coffee roaster of equally far away pedigree. At the time I didnt post it because it is quite a negative piece of writing. However as the cafe game goes to lower and lower levels of indecancy across the board and as I witness a plethora of poorly communicated and outright fraudulent value propositions pedaled by cafes around Brisbane I have decided to resurrect it.

I want to make this clear, this article bears no aggression whatsoever to any business specifically and is in no way an attack on other coffee suppliers. I bring this up from a place of compassion and of review of a situation I have ignored for while but which I cannot continue to avoid.

Frankly I’ve had this conversation with many people informally and find a culture of wide acceptance has taken hold, as I’ve always said my blog is opinion based, it always has been. I will try and keep to the facts as much as possible. But understand this, I dont engage in rumour mongering; anything I add that is taken from another business is a direct quote from that workplace.

That being said, these are some muddy waters we are diving into, so bring a towel.

A few days ago I visited a café, it was a relatively respectable affair and the coffee was made well, to a good standard. Overall my experience was pleasant and I was satisfied with the product served to me.

However in various items from menus to table holders there was various statements emphasising the proprietors strong desire to support and use local business. A direct quote read:

“The prices we pay are a reflection of the passion we have to support local suppliers and business.”

The business was a small affair, it had no kitchen and apart from hot coffees it served only a small offering of cakes, its principal sales were through coffee. The name of the business, branding and identity were very much centred around its core offering: takeaway specialty coffee.

The problem is that the coffee supplier is based in Melbourne, a locality according to a summary google search of 1686 kilometres away from our current location, Brisbane.

This large distance away from the suppliers principal place of manufacture indicates that while I cannot presume to speak for the intentions of the business owner, or indeed their thought process in acquiring this supplier it almost certainly is at odds with a mission statement displayed predominantly on various promotional material around the café itself. This simply under absolutely no interpretation of the word is a ‘local supplier’, that quite simply a falsehood- a lie.

This buisness therfore is by defination using a values statement they themselves cannot align with to promote their product.

They are building sales based on a lie.

It is up to every café owner to select a coffee supplier that they feel relates to their values and goals as a business, that aligns with them. This business relationship when established needs to form the foundation of a relationship that can provide the cafe with the tools its staff need to succeed as a small business. If the values and promotional material said:

Proudly using an interstate roastery recognised as one of the best in Australia.

Using an Australia wide coffee icon, bringing Melbourne coffee to Brisbane.

These statements would have been true, and in keeping with the real values of the business. They are an open acknowledgment of the brands identity.

My principal reason for writing this blog is coming from a place of hypocrisy I see growing within the industry, it deeply concerns me. One of the Specialty coffee movements cornerstone phrases is ‘education’. We are routinely touting our willingness to inform and educate the customer to empower the consumer on the street to understand what goes into their everyday cuppa and to be able to identify just what it is that sets a specialty coffee apart. This, it is implied will allow them to accept why their morning brew is of a higher price, because education will allow them to value the higher quality. No barista, waiter or coffee lover can go anywhere without seeing a spiel similar to the above on a coffee bag, on a menu or on an apron within the specialty coffee community. We are saturated with statements of a likeness to the above about the need for education. Often they lack sincerity, but more of that later.

Now another word that is much lauded: transparency. Transparent buying practices, the need for transparency on coffee procurement. Food sourcing and customer satisfaction. Again many among you will be nodding, this is commonplace, transparency and education are synonymous with specialty coffee culture right?

Would true transparency or education help this business attract more customers? How could this particular cafe expect customers to respect its values, or find validity in the branding. When our primary marketing is so blatantly at odds with the reality of products avalable.

More troubling, how can we expect the greater coffee buying community to take our word for it and believe the roaster adds value to the farmers at origin when they can not even be straight up about whats going on at the front counter literally under the customer's nose!

When a business sells something as local and it is based 1650kilomatres away it is a falsehood, it’s a lie. By definaition the businesses primary product is based on a lie. It speaks volumes for the businesses true values: we don’t really expect the principal end customer to check there facts. Indeed, if they were to venture as far as the retail coffee section they would find out upon cursory examination of the back of any of the bags of coffee for purchase that the company was indeed based in Melbourne.

So what is it?

You don’t want the customer to read your mission statement?

Then why have them on every table, proudly displayed.

Or perhaps, You don’t want the customer to consider purchasing a bag of coffee?

Then why sell them in the first place.

Or you think they can buy both of these things hook line and sinker, and be too lazy, stupid or gullible to do their homework? That a great buisness ethos: these customers are disinterested in our pitch, so they will be apathetic to any untruths we display.

A great many years ago famous Chef Gordon Ramsey did a show were he went into failing restraughts and brought them back to solvency. I remember in one business he was confronted with a chef/owner who had been serving vegetarian tomato soup for years even though it had pork stock as an ingredient. Ramsey said very clearly to the owner/chef that to serve a product under a certain assumption and then add ingredients that under good faith the customer had assumed were not used he was disrespecting the very customers that kept him in business.

The owner, Ramsey concurred, was saying via his actions that he really didn’t care about the customers, they were easy to deceive so save some cash and deceive away. Ramsey said that while he did indeed get away with it time and time again, and while yes it was true, technically it didn’t hurt anybody the underlying energy of the restraugt was uneasy. This unease and lack of integrity was like a bad smell across the entire enterprise and it was likely the business would fail where its true intentions were based on saving money and its products were built on a deception.

Whether you are a spiritualist or not, we humans go through life with a mantra, its our intentions and our actions that determine this, Alongside our words. If your words, or advertising, your branding and your ‘on paper values’ are so completely at odds with your actual offerings to you clients your business will be seen sooner or later for what it is, a deception. Like the wiseman said: the truth will out. If you have isolated a facet of the local communities values you feel they ‘buy into’ such as local business matters that great! You have identified with a target market, and if its worth advertising chances are its important to the local community enough to make money on. But you cannot expect to succeed in a marketplace that values local business while selling interstate business as your principal product.

Make sure your values and your intentions are the same, make sure your products align with your values and don’t risrespect your customers intelligence by placing feel good statements pride of place while contradictory products are also being offered. Your customers will find out and nothing will have a more negative kickback on you morning coffee trade like a customer who feels like they have been fooled.

Keep brewing Cal.