创业与商业slate.com
我开了一家迷人的社区咖啡馆，然后它毁了我的人生
I opened a charming neighborhood coffee shop. Then it destroyed my life.
2009 — 2017，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
这是一篇 Slate 的经典文章：作者出于热爱在社区开了一家咖啡店，结果发现低毛利、高房租、长工时的现实迅速压垮了梦想，最终生意毁掉了他们的生活。文章以亲身经历揭示了“为爱开店”这一创业陷阱。
为什么经久不衰：它戳破了“把爱好变成生意”的浪漫幻想，多年来反复登上 HN 首页，对任何想开实体店或为热爱而创业的人都是一剂清醒剂。
HN 评论精选
认为作者失败在于定价过低和不够坚持，为爱创业仍可通过提价和调整活下去。
有趣的是文章结尾引用了 Anthony Bourdain 的话：“最危险的店主，是那种为爱入行的人。”作者为爱开店为何失败？要么爱得不够，要么算错了账。可颂卖 3 美元不行吗？咖啡卖 3 美元不行吗？提价，让顾客养活你。既然梦想是开咖啡店，为什么不全职投入？别的咖啡店能活下来，说明模式是可行的。每门生意起步都艰难，不要放弃，模式不行就调整。
pj查看英文原文
Funny how the last line of the article says, Looking back, we (incredibly) should have heeded the advice of bad-boy chef Anthony Bourdain, who wrote our epitaph in Kitchen Confidential: "The most dangerous species of owner ... is the one who gets into the business for love." This in spite of recent conversations here discussing "doing what you love": http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=449295, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=449457 Why didn't doing it for love work for the author? I suppose if I were to answer the question myself, I'd say either a) they didn't love it enough. or b) They did some bad math. Why not just sell the crossiants for $3? Why not sell the cold house coffee for $3 instead of $1? Raise the price, let your customers keep you alive. If they like what you have to offer, they will. If their dream was to open a coffee shop, why /not/ work there full time? Why not make it work? Other coffee shops have figured out the formula and do survive. Maybe their owners loved it more? Every business struggles in the beginning. Do /not/ give up. Keep going. If your formula isn't working, tweak it. Don't close up shop. That's what you don't do if you love what you do. You don't give up on something you love. You can't.
成功的咖啡馆靠高毛利产品和快速外带客流生存，而非留住久坐的顾客。
这也解答了我关于咖啡馆的老问题：为什么有趣的咖啡馆这么少？旧金山 Valencia 街上几百家店，好的咖啡馆只有 Ritual Roasters 和 Four Barrel 两家。坐五小时用笔记本的人付不起高昂房租，养活店铺的是不断外带进出的客流。Four Barrel 干脆不装 WiFi。它们的解法是自制高毛利产品——对任何精品类创业的启示是：自己掌握供应链。
TooMuchNick查看英文原文
This also answers my longest-standing question about cafes: Why are there so few fun ones? San Francisco's Valencia Street (with its immediate offshoots) supports hundreds of interesting businesses. Many of them are cafes. Only two of those cafes are any good: Ritual Roasters, and Four Barrel. Four Barrel was founded last year by a disgruntled co-founder of Ritual. While the rest of Valencia's cafes are grimy, poorly lit, deathly quiet, or all of the above, RR and FB are sunny, friendly, and loud. That noise is all the foot traffic (and some David Bowie). The people sitting in Ritual for five hours on a laptop aren't paying the (staggeringly high) rent. It's the constant in-and-out of to-go cups. Mercifully, Four Barrel has no wifi and thus a more talkative, flowing crowd. Ironically, because RR and FB have coffee that makes people come and go quickly, they can afford to make a pleasant space for people who stick around. Their solution to cafe economics was to make their own high-markup product. Of course there are other solutions. Cafe du Soleil in the Lower Haight offers an extensive sandwich menu and gets its baked goods as part of a chain of boutique cafes and restaurants called the Bay Bread Group, which also sells bread to bigger clients like the Ritz Carlton. For all I know, Soleil is riding on the profits of the Bay Bread Group as an indulgent loss leader. But I suppose there's a lesson there for any startup with a boutique aspect: Make your own supplies, and you might have a business plan to support your dream. In a way, wasn't that the model for Reddit and Justin.tv?
咖啡客不是价格敏感人群，作者败在不敢提价，而非行业本身。
故事其实是 2005 年写的，价格别当真。我有几个开咖啡馆的朋友，低客流、两人经营、靠低毛利食品的模式很难成立，应该专注咖啡本身，或把利润率提到满意为止。作者没意识到定价空间有多大：咖啡客对价格并不敏感，价格敏感的顾客早就去了 Dunkin。骄傲地卖 3.5 美元的可颂吧，真正想要的人不在乎价格。
simonsarris查看英文原文
I don't know why the title says from 2010, the story is from 2005, so take the prices with a grain of salt. Even in New Hampshire $2 for a good croissant* is very low. I have a few close friends who are cafe owners in NH (and when the time is right I will probably open one as a "side project"), and even here, getting a low-volume cafe or a two-person cafe working well, with staff dedicated to preparing food at bad margins is unlikely. Instead focus on coffee coffee coffee or raise your margins until you're happy to sell every item. I don't think he understands the leeway he has on prices. Imagine the article his competitor (still in business) didn't write. It goes like this: "We doubled the prices of food expecting demand to go down, but it went up!" Humans, they aren't rational. And the "coffee buyer" breed of human, they are hardly the price-sensitive crowd. At least in New Hampshire, you already lost the price sensitive crowd to Dunkins. Forget them. Sell the amazing $3.50 croissants with pride. The people who crave it will come no matter the price. * there are no good croissants in New Hampshire.
人们想要的往往是咖啡馆的体验而非经营它，开店等于高价买下一份低薪工作。
推荐“咖啡馆谬误”（2011）：很多人以为自己想开咖啡馆，其实不是。那相当于花二十万美元买一份最低工资的工作。他们真正想要的，是当顾客坐在咖啡馆里喝咖啡、对人友善、顺便策展。
endymi0n查看英文原文
The coffeeshop fallacy (2011): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3134322 > Lots of people think they want to start a coffeeshop. They likely don’t. That’s like buying a minimum wage job for two hundred grand. What they want is to be a customer and sit in a cafe, drink coffee, be nice to people, and possibly curate an art gallery. [...]
历次讨论
同类还值得读
微软已死（2007）
Microsoft is Dead (2007)
Paul Graham 2007 年的一篇短文，判断微软在互联网与创业竞争中已不再令人畏惧、失去影响力——所谓“死”并非字面倒闭。
创业与商业上首页 8 次 · 2007–2025paulgraham.comH&R Block 与 Intuit 游说反对简化报税（2017）
H&R Block and Intuit Lobbying Against Simpler Tax Filing (2017)
2017年ProPublica调查报道梳理了H&R Block和Intuit如何通过游说反对更简单的美国报税方式，尤其是政府预填税表和免费申报等改革。
创业与商业上首页 5 次 · 2017–2022propublica.org你本不该有老板
You Weren't Meant to Have a Boss (2008)
Paul Graham 2008 年的经典文章，论证人类在演化中习惯于小团体协作，而大公司的层级结构和老板制度是人为产物，对程序员尤其有害——因为编程的本质是创造新事物，而大公司…
创业与商业上首页 5 次 · 2008–2020paulgraham.com为什么要在经济糟糕时创业
Why to Start a Startup in a Bad Economy
Paul Graham 的经典短文，论证经济衰退并不是创业的障碍：真正决定成败的是创始人和产品，而非宏观环境；衰退期反而竞争更少、人才更易招、成本更低。
创业与商业上首页 5 次 · 2008–2022paulgraham.com做那些不可规模化的事
Do Things that Don't Scale
Paul Graham 2013 年的经典创业文章《Do Things that Don't Scale》。
创业与商业上首页 4 次 · 2013–2025paulgraham.com编辑精选