New Juice Bar

Mr. Brightside

Hi
I'm thinking of setting up a new Juice Bar on Dublins Northside. I was just wondering what people think of them. Do you see juices or smoothies as a waste of money? What price do you usually pay, value for money? Perceptions of juice bars etc.

Cheers.

bringitdown

Have a look at Boost: I think their model, their products and their prices are spot on. Their smoothies are unreal and I have yet to come across place in Ireland to match.

http://www.boostjuice.com.au/ - annoying site but some good information on it.

I think it is a model that could work here, you'd need really good quality ingredients. The only catch is the weather, you may have to do coffee as well during the winter.

At the moment I believe Irish juice bars are a rip-off simply because the product you get doesn't match the price you pay. We just can't make a good smoothie yet!

Hope you buck the trend and best of luck with it.

simu

Mr. Brightside wrote:

Hi
I'm thinking of setting up a new Juice Bar on Dublins Northside. I was just wondering what people think of them. Do you see juices or smoothies as a waste of money? What price do you usually pay, value for money? Perceptions of juice bars etc.

Cheers.

Juice bars are cool but irish ones tend to be too expensive. E3-E4 for a smoothie is too much!

snappieT

Fast service is essential. If Zumo in the Jervis Centre didn't have a huge queue, I'd be a huge customer to them. Whereabouts are you thinking of setting up? Some BIG mistakes could be made there.

Mr. Brightside

In or around Glasnevin.

Mr. Brightside

Hi does anyone else have any comments to make?

Gordon

Will you be selling "Protein shakes"?

Scarinae

simu wrote:

E3-E4 for a smoothie is too much!

I'd disagree with you there. I'd pay €5 for a good smoothie

I don't see juices or smoothies as a waste of money. If there were more juice bars around the place and less queues I'd probably buy juice more often. I make them myself at home and love them! I think there is going to be more and more demand for healthy options like this with programmes like You Are What You Eat being on right now

Knifey_Spoony

Personally i think juices are a rip off. I wouldnt bother buying them. Id rather just make my own at home. The queues at the one in the Square in tallaght are terrible too. Queued there with my mate for 15 mins to buy some strawberry thingy she wanted. There were only 3 people in front of us but the guys working were so slow. They were making one juice at a time, then washing out the thing, then making the next one. Took ages!

Mr. Brightside

Gordon wrote:

Will you be selling "Protein shakes"?

Possibly but I need to have a general overview of people's experiences with juice bars first. Why specifically protein shakes?

Scarinae

Blinky1 wrote:

the guys working were so slow. They were making one juice at a time, then washing out the thing, then making the next one. Took ages!

Yeah, I guess it would be better if they mass-produced them beforehand, added tonnes of chemicals to prolong the shelf-life and didn't bother washing their equipment. Well, at least you wouldn't have to wait...

Knifey_Spoony

Fishie wrote:

Yeah, I guess it would be better if they mass-produced them beforehand, added tonnes of chemicals to prolong the shelf-life and didn't bother washing their equipment. Well, at least you wouldn't have to wait...

Eh, no, how about having a couple more machines or having some of the more popular fruit & veg already chopped up and ready to juice?? Thats what i was getting at, but thanx for your assumptions about my opinions all the same.

Fishie wrote:

If there were more juice bars around the place and less queues I'd probably buy juice more often.

Gordon

Mr. Brightside wrote:

Possibly but I need to have a general overview of people's experiences with juice bars first. Why specifically protein shakes?

Sexual innuendo that backfired, my apologies.

fjon

I'd agree with most people on the time it takes to get these things in Ireland.
Two recent things to have hit Ireland are coffee shops shops and juice bars, and while the quality of these is getting better, the service isn;t really.
Having been to Juice Bars and Coffee shops in USA and Australia, where these have been running for years, I am amazed at the speed with which they can get these things made.
It can be done - get more than one or two juicers, and make sure staff are well enough trained to make the smoothies quickly.
I am not too shocked with the price - 3-4EUR is about right. above 4 would be too much unless you are getting something absolutely amazing.

bringitdown

Would agree with the above, the more popular juices - orange, apple, cranberry, pineapple etc. are freshly produced in the morning and kept in large coolers (you know the ones with the arm that spins around).

Serving the customer then just becomes a matter of adding fresh fruit to the ready made juices, some ice and maybe fat free fruit sorbet for a smoothie. Then spinning it on a blender for 20/30 seconds. The process can be 'production lined' - one taking orders, one making up the pitchers to go on the blender, another person doing the blending / serving the product to the customer. It makes sense and is very quick.

Juicing oranges on the fly is not adding anything to the experience except a messy machine and a long queue.