A downtown coffee shop has found a way to lure customers like Felicity Moller during hard times.
Moller, who’s from Meriden, spent a “lazy Sunday” in New Haven. She had brunch. She took in the Picasso show at the Yale Art Gallery. Then she spotted the chalkboard sign on the sidewalk outside the Atticus Bookstore Cafe on Chapel Street: “$1 Coffee… Until The Recession Ends!”
“The dollar includes tax,” explained Atticus manager Jean Recapet. “It’s actually 94 cents.”
Atticus has been offering 12-ounce cups of joe for a dollar, down from the normal price of $1.75. The sale was initially just a special for the month of April, but it was so popular among Atticus customers that Recapet and Atticus owner Charles Negaro decided to extend the sale until the recession is over.
“It was a smashing success,” Recapet reported. Coffee sales went up, “and a lot of people got to know us.”
The reduction in price means a reduction in revenue, Recapet said, but Atticus is making up for it with increased foot traffic brought in by the “recession-proof coffee.”
“I suspect that is has brought in a lot of new clientele,” the manager said.
Atticus coffee is not only “recession-proof,” Recapet said. It’s also fair-trade, organic coffee, which makes it more expensive to buy wholesale. “We pay more per pound than anyone else on the street,” he said.
Nevertheless, the manager stressed that his business is not taking a loss by selling the coffee for a dollar. “We still make money,” he said.
Recapet said business was down at the beginning of the year thanks to bad weather combined with a bad economy. “We had a very difficult first quarter,” he said. “But April and May are good. We feel like we’re back in the saddle.”
The new pricing is not only a response to the troubling economic climate, it’s also a recession “reality check,” Recapet said. “I think coffee has gotten insane,” he said. “Four dollars for a coffee? Give me a break!… Come on, it’s coffee!”
While 12-ounce coffee and 16-ounce iced coffee will be priced at a dollar at Atticus until the recession ends, Recapet said that he’s planning other reductions to prices across the menu. When the recession is over, Recapet said the price will go up, but “prices will not go back to $1.75 or two dollars,” he said.
So who decides when the recession is over? “I guess the Wall Street Journal will tell us,” Recapet said.
Recession pricing on coffee worked for Felicity Moller. She walked out of Atticus on Sunday afternoon with a 16-ounce iced coffee. She takes hers with a little bit of skim milk.
Moller (pictured) said that her coffee intake has not been affected by the recession. “I usually make it at home,” she explained. But she saw the sign and figured, “it’s only a dollar.”
New Haven psychologist Dorothy Morgos picked up a hot black coffee. She said that the recession has reduced her coffee drinking. “Definitely,” she said. “No more fancy coffee drinks.”
It’s the “social component” that keeps Morgos coming to coffee shops, she said. Coffee for a buck makes that social component cheaper to come by. “I hope they keep it,” Morgos said of Atticus’ pricing.
Sweetening The Deal
In addition to selling coffee for a dollar, Atticus is the exclusive retailer of Carol Monnerat truffles, handmade in Branford. Click the play arrow below to the meet the truffle maker and her sweet treats.