Customers who want to buy product to make their own.

[Marcy]

I have customers off and on ask me where I buy certain ingredients to my drink recipes and most of the time they want to buy them to make their own at home but I am afraid of losing business or trade secrets to this, so what I'm asking is how do you politely tell them no and is this something that happens at your shop?

[Dennis]

I see a couple of ways of looking at it.....you can tell them, they will attempt to make it...and probably get close over time..but not quite, they will then talk to others about it, it will become a quest for them...to figure it out..they will tell more people about how good this or that is from "your place" and how they can't quite make it as good. It almost becomes "viral" word of mouth. During the process you can sell them the products they need...at a healthy mark-up of course...and in the process, your creating a habit for them...the habit being "coming to your cafe! ". One thing to note is that we all buy things in quantity and receive price discounts for this...they will buy in retail and in the end the price will be twice as much and they had to make it themselves. In the end...they will always come back. Make your products as good as crack and they always come back!