Adapt Ourselves to Expand Ourselves...5/10/16

      You can't dislike what you don't understand! I mean you can, and you can when you understand it, but you find a new appreciation for the chunche (thingamajig), maybe your heart even warms up a little. I dislike coffee and I still do, but it's cool to know how exactly the bean that is made gives so many people a jump start to their day. Today, I had the pleasure of visiting Cafe Britt, and thanks to our awesome tour guides it was a great experience.

At Cafe Britt, Julio and Carmen brought out 

their "comedic" personalities. 

          For the most part, Cafe Britt sells coffee and chocolate in their shops, most of the coffee is bought from coffee farmers, and it is interesting to note that Cafe Britt sells more chocolate than coffee. Cafe Britt just does the roasting and packaging, so in this sense it is both a retailer and a manufacturer. On the other hand, Cafe Britt supplies these coffee and chocolates to Britt Shops, a store of the company. So in this regard, Cafe Britt would be a supplier. 

Cafe Britt only has one coffee plantation in Heredia, Costa Rica.
They get the majority of their coffee from coffee farmers!
Pictured here is where they roast and package the beans.

          Cafe Britt's success comes from its' commitment to providing customers with fresh coffee. However, in order to provide customers with coffee they must have the coffee beans themselves. They must carefully negotiate and create contracts with coffee farmers they believe have good coffee beans. Cafe Britt  has only one coffee bean plantation, so they consider themselves mostly "Roasters not farmers". Having a reliable source of coffee beans is important to Cafe Britt's business because it is basically its' foundation.  Cafe Britt also takes heed to its' customer feedback. They even have a department set up for customer service. Despite the situation, Cafe Britt will always reimburse an unhappy customer. This is significant because a lot of people buying goods at Cafe Britt shops are in turn buying them as a souvenir or gifts. It's important to show your customers that you care about their opinions and are thankful that you have invested in them. The best way to do this is through customer service. All in all, Byron Mora, the Operations Manager for Costa Rica and the Caribbean has stated that in our to expand the company it must be able to adapt. That is a great philosophy to have because what works in one country doesn't necessarily work in all countries.

           I was surprised to hear that Cafe Britt did not appeal to most Ticos, and I think this is what's hurting them the most. Most Ticos don't drink Cafe Britt because they can't afford it, and I feel like this is a similar situation in other countries that Cafe Britt is present in such as Nicaragua, or Peru. You can't have a fully successful business when the people in your community don't even have the opportunity to support your product and vouch for it. I do like how they make souvenirs specific to the countries in which they are located instead of just generic souvenirs, however I think it'd be great if they branched out of appealing to tourists so much. Financially, it seems like they are prospering, but aesthetically it's a different story. In this case, it seems like the two can't go together unless Cafe Britt were to do some re-branding, but right now they seem fine as is.