Sunday World Trade Center jaunt…
We were suppossed to go last saturday… but we didn’t wake up on time… ok, ok… I didn’t wake up on time, so we decided on sunday instead… we went there upon a tip from one of the ads in the newspaper… we wanted to see their equipment and they said that they were in the Fil-Chinese Baking expo at world trade this weekend… heck, beats having to go to mandaluyong… and it would be nice for once to have all the eggs in one basket.
Saw some of the equipment there… especially the coffee makers… the cheapest we found was something in the range of 36k… even ice crushers… was at a cost of 70k… and to think that it looked very old…
Coffee grinders were also very expensive… I guess if you get the professional equipment they really cost a lot…
I don’t know what the benefit of getting professional equipment is?… is it to placate the customers into thinking that you’re a professional coffee shop and not just some fly by night operator? hehehe… like I said… just feed the illusion that they are in a coffee shop by giving them the ambiance and the good coffee… coffee is coffee… can people actually tell the difference between one espresso and another? isn’t it all in the beans?… I mean spend for the beans but don’t invest too much on the equipment…
I was looking at the refrigerated food display, the one for cakes and pastries… didn’t know that that would cost something in the range of a 150k… whoa!… is it worth it? considering that refrigerated equipment will breakdown after 2 years?… oh well… how do you make a killing here? I wish they had something like tipidPC when it came to entrepreneurs stuff…
I was also able to get in touch with some professional stall makers… they were the ones who made some Zagu stalls as well as designed some LBC stalls… it costs about 5k to have a stall designed as well somewhere between 20-80k to have a good enough stall built… the best thing was that they taught me how to make a portable sink, used by the stalls in the mall, since the mall provides no plumbing for the individual kiosks… it’s nothing but a submersible pump with a switch… then you have to supply your own water…
Some ice cream vending equipment was what we were looking for… actually, it was the vendor selling the powdered ice cream we saw instead… P100.00 per bag… the one in the paper was selling it for 165k… expensive eh???… but the ice cream vendor said that they could point us to somebody selling it for 65k… whoa?… is that possible? freezing time is nill they said… yeah right… being a mechanical engineer, I know very well that that isn’t possible… but then again… I’m thinking of going ahead and buying the powdered ice cream and try freezing some of it at home… see what happens… these taiwan equipment is going to saturate the market with cheap goods… durability… now that’s another question…
Oh yeah… and the vendor who told us to go visit them in the expo?… was nowhere to be found… then again… we didn’t know what company name they were using… as well as we made no conscious effort to look for them either… considering that we felt like we were in disneyland with all these equipment… playground… hehehe… asawa ko nagpakasawa sa free food… hehehe
Now plays the question… is this a good venture to go into? considering the capital cost that has to be incurred? how fast is the ROI? considering that you will be competing in a saturated market… aside from a good product… the only thing you can leverage is location… it’s wise to invest in a good location… now the other thing is the equipment… you have to get your ROI by the 3rd year… why?… that’s how usefull these equipment are… now that’s a lot of drinks to be sold… bawi nalang sa cakes and pastries… hehehe
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