Why Coffee Six Hours Before Bed Is Becoming a Night Habit
A night-time coffee culture is taking hold among younger drinkers, even though caffeine close to bedtime can disrupt sleep. A commercial street in Guangdong holds 14 coffee shops within less than a hundred meters, and after 9 p.m. every seat is taken. Some shops stay open until the early hours or run around the clock, with revenue from 8 p.m. onward reaching over 70 percent of daily sales.
The small-shop-plus-outdoor format serves daytime demand and the evening social scene at the same time, giving specialty coffee shops a new source of growth in a crowded market. The trend is not a rejection of sleep advice so much as a shift in when people gather. Caffeine still stimulates the central nervous system, so timing and personal tolerance remain the practical limits.
In the past, people were used to drinking coffee during the day and avoiding caffeine at night to prevent it from affecting their sleep. However, as the coffee-drinking crowd continues to grow, a night-time coffee culture of drinking later and later is quietly emerging among young people. On a commercial street in Guangdong, 14 coffee shops of different styles are packed within less than a hundred meters, and after 9 p.m. every seat is taken, with a lively atmosphere no less bustling than a food night market. Some stores stay open until the early hours of the morning or even operate 24 hours without closing, and revenue during the period from 8 p.m. to the early morning can account for more than 70% of the whole day's sales. This "small shop + outdoor" business format satisfies both the rigid demand of the daytime and the social scenario of the night, and also offers new incremental ideas for specialty coffee shops in fierce competition.
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In most people's understanding, coffee seems naturally to belong to the daytime, while before bed one should not drink alcohol or touch strong tea and coffee, because the caffeine contained in these drinks stimulates the central nervous system, making it hard to fall asleep, and even if one does fall asleep, sleep quality is compromised.
However, as the coffee-consuming population continues to expand, the lifestyle of drinking coffee at night is gradually evolving into a new form, and this "small trend" of drinking coffee later and later has slowly taken root among today's young people.
According to a recent report by CCTV Finance, a commercial street in Guangdong has transformed into a "coffee night market," with 14 coffee shops of different styles distributed along a block of less than a hundred meters. Every night after 9 p.m., the entrances of the shops are filled with young people enjoying coffee, a scene no less lively than a food night market. There is now a popular saying: "Coffee is the daytime alcohol of adults—refreshing in the morning, sustaining in the afternoon," which shows just how important coffee is in contemporary life.
From observation, the customers of the coffee night market are mostly young people. They order a cup of coffee, sit outdoors, chat and play games while drinking, relax, and feel quite at ease. Most of the coffee shops in the night market stay open until after midnight, and a few even follow the example of convenience stores by operating 24 hours a day without interruption.
A manager of one coffee shop introduced that the store opened around July this year and switched to 24-hour operation by about the second month, with the busiest period concentrated from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. Another person in charge of a coffee shop revealed, "The revenue from after 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. can account for 70% of our total daily revenue, and the share of customer traffic can also reach 70%, sometimes even up to 80%."
Coffee shops in the night market generally adopt a "small shop + outdoor" format, which takes care of both the rigid demand of the daytime and the social scenario of the night. Compared with indoors, young consumers prefer to drink coffee outdoors, with a few friends sitting around a table, and if they want some quiet, they can also move a chair to a quiet corner themselves. Extending business hours is in fact providing customers with one more place for night-time socializing, and in many cities, the popularity of the "coffee night market" continues to rise.
In recent years, the coffee market has maintained rapid expansion, and the growth rate in the number of stores has also continued to accelerate. In addition to large chain brands, consumers' recognition of specialty coffee shops has also gradually increased. In order to avoid "homogenized" competition, specialty coffee shops have been showing their own tricks one after another, striving for novelty and creativity from space design to product development, competing for a place in the coffee market through various methods of attracting traffic.
As dietary concepts change, the "survival model" of coffee shops is also adjusting accordingly. In the past, coffee shops mostly did not start business until 1 p.m. Later, driven by the "dailyization of coffee," consumers gradually developed the habit of drinking coffee in the morning, and coffee shops also opened earlier. Now, more and more people "drink coffee like water," and nighttime operation may bring new growth space for a number of coffee shops.
The new generation of coffee youth has given rise to an endless stream of consumption scenarios, keeping more coffee operation models in continuous exploration, while also driving the iteration and upgrading of the entire industry chain. The future of the coffee market is worth looking forward to, and as for how to stand out from it, every coffee company needs to think carefully.
Image source: Internet
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
