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as he just wants to enjoy doing what he how many will survive remains to be quality will determine how long a café
loves, and he didn’t expect his café to seen. It’s easy to open a café, but keeping will last.”
become so widely popular in such a short it afloat in the long run is very difficult. For those who plan to open a
time. “I just want to have fun. A man Tanakorn believes café will continue to café, here is a word of advice from Taka-
once told me that there are 2 kinds of grow because consumers are beginning to korn; “I want cafés to be like cafés in
people – the people who save up before learn the differences between Starbucks, developed countries where people comes
following their dream, and the people coffee cart, and chain coffee shops. Each regularly to enjoy consistent cups of cof-
who just do what they dream. There are café has its own style and social media is fee. It’s important to have baristas with
no guarantees that the second kind will a great boost to the industry. high consistency. Besides great coffee and
succeed, but they are happy to be do- The development of coffee in- service, there are myriad of other reasons
ing what they love. For me, I chose the dustry is great as it allows coffee lovers to a customer would choose your café, for
second. I jumped into it even though I do more. However, Tanakorn emphasizes example, decoration, use of social me-
don’t think it’ll be profitable. I just want on the importance of quality and service dia, etc. However, these customers will
to do my best and be known as an excel- standards that will encourage customers eventually head off to try other cafés, so
lent café. I want everyone to enjoy the to become regulars. “I want to see high you need to do lots of homework before
café and its menus. However, we might work standards and quality that reflect opening a café. Like I said, ‘It’s easy to
not offer variety of coffee beans because the price. Coffees in cafés in shopping open a café, but keeping it afloat in the
we are trying to do provide the best of malls today are overpriced. Cafés should long run is very difficult’.”
what we have and what we can handle.” not have service charge, if they do, they
Besides coffee, baristas are another charm should at least serve water to the table,
of Hello Strangers Café and they are not sell them separately. The service and
carefully trained to the smallest detail.
“I barely had enough time for other jobs
in the first 3 months. You could always
find me around the counter, training and
explaining things to the staffs. Unlike
modern cafés today, I like how traditional
cafés take care of customers more. If the
café is not busy, water is served by the
staff, not self-service.”
Hello Stranger Café mostly gets
3 different groups of customers. The first
group is Thai and foreign regular cus-
tomers. The second is café hoppers and
the third is foreign tourists who follow
reviews from books and websites.
The Future of Coffee Industry
The number of cafés has grown
extraordinarily in the past 2 years, but

Special Thanks
Tanakorn Sapakitkanjohn:
Hello Strangers Cafe
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