How Do Independent Coffee Shops Cope With Cold and Snow?

Sharp temperature drops and rain or snow hit independent coffee shops that depend on dine-in sales hardest. When the cold thins out foot traffic, some shops sell no more than the single cup the owner drinks, so many shift to delivery platforms to keep revenue coming in while customers stay home and order their caffeine instead of going out.

Delivery is not a full fix, because snow shuts down courier capacity and can drop daily revenue to zero; one Beijing owner said he passed the workday livestreaming. Owners describe the balance between takeout and dine-in as the core problem, since weather decides how many people sit down and how many orders can actually be delivered.

Frequent shifts between extreme weather conditions are making life miserable for independent coffee shops that rely mainly on dine-in service. When temperatures plummet, they can barely keep going with takeout, but once rain or snow hits, delivery breaks down, customers stay home, and shop owners even have to deliver orders themselves. This article examines the real operating conditions of coffee shops under different weather conditions, explores the balance between takeout and dine-in, and gives voice to the helplessness and hopes of industry practitioners who depend on the whims of the weather.

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The day before, people were still wearing short sleeves with the air conditioning on; overnight, the view outside the window changed completely, and pedestrians on the street bundled back up in the down jackets they had only worn during Chinese New Year. Those rushing to work muttered about "it's frozen dumpling season again" while tucking their necks in and quickly ducking into warm office buildings.

It was precisely this sudden cold snap that thinned out the crowds on the streets, and coffee shops that relied mainly on dine-in revenue naturally saw their business plummet. Some shops' entire day of dine-in output might amount to nothing more than the one cup the owner drank themselves. Faced with such dismal dine-in sales, many independent shops shifted to delivery platforms, trying to use delivery income to keep their doors open.

For consumers who can't be bothered to go out once the weather turns cold, delivery satisfies their caffeine needs while saving them the hassle of braving the chilly wind to get to a coffee shop — it's practically the optimal solution. So after temperatures dropped sharply, many coffee shop owners found that although foot traffic had decreased, delivery orders had actually increased.

However, some owners say they can tolerate cold weather, but please, not cold enough to snow. The reason is simple — coffee shop business on snowy days only gets worse. A coffee shop owner in Beijing complained that on snowy days his shop's revenue dropped to zero, and with nothing to do after opening, he could only livestream and chat with netizens to pass the workday.

The snow on the ground might attract photo-loving netizens to snap a romantic check-in shot of enjoying coffee in the snow, but the slippery roads deter them from heading to coffee shops. If customers order through delivery platforms, there may be no riders willing to accept the order due to the harsh weather. To prevent hard-won delivery orders from being canceled by customers, coffee shop owners with no dine-in business have no choice but to step out themselves and deliver to their paying customers.

Besides the troublesome snow, rainy days also give many owners a headache. Generally, when it rains, factors like increased delivery difficulty, higher delivery fees, and longer delivery times can all discourage consumers from placing orders, making revenue for many coffee shops less than optimistic. On rainy days, they can only stay in the shop, drinking coffee alone to the sound of rain.

But some owners believe that as long as it's not a torrential downpour that seriously affects travel, even though dine-in customers decrease, delivery demand from consumers who don't want to go out actually increases — coffee shops sometimes perform much better on delivery during rainy days than usual.

Facing various weather conditions, coffee shop owners have figured out different coping strategies to boost revenue, but what they hope for most is that their hard-earned shops won't be helplessly at the mercy of unpredictable weather, and that they can maintain stable income in any weather, no longer having to depend on the heavens for their livelihood.

Of course, this is just a beautiful wish, and coffee shop owners know it's very difficult to achieve. So they turn around, hang a teru teru bozu in their shop, praying for good weather every day, and praying that the coffee industry's winter will pass soon, so they no longer have to worry about their shops' operational difficulties.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.