I have an oportunity to lease a coffee drive through on a busy street here in oregon my question is how do i find out if it its ok to operate the biz topless
thanks Dale

Check with your local Attorney Generals office, the department that handles liscensing for adult oriented businesses. They of course have certain zones where that sort of thing is not permissiable (which might be the whole state since a drive thru is a publicly viewable area - you might run afoul of public indecency laws)

Anthony Jones - Business Consultant
ABC Solutions
ajones@abcsolutions.cjb.net

Can I just say this............

HOT COFFEE and Topless...........OUCH!!!!!! Hope you will have a good insurance policy!!!

I've slung coffee in my early adulthood... It's not something I'd want to do topless. But then, I wouldn't work at a Hooters either, so maybe my prudishness is colouring my thinking. But since you wouldn't be hiring my old carcass anyway, I doubt you'll have trouble find girls willing to work the counter; you won't be getting away with minimum wage, I imagine, though.

As Anthony pointed out, I would think you'll run afoul of decency laws. So, if you had a completely enclosed drivethrough, where the car had to pass through a tunnel or somesuch, so the drivethrough window was not visible to the street, you might just get away with it.

I live in a small town where there has been a strip club since the turn of the century. It's gone now and I realize that you're talking about only serving coffee topless, but the parallels, I think, are important.

I do not believe that this shop will be given the same power and respect it is due by the local Business Association. You will be relegated to operating out of the dark. Your business will have a reputation, instantly, amongst locals and it will be relegated to the same status as a brothel.

If you can live with the stygma and you choose a good high-traffic location and the coffee is good, you will most certainly find yourself with a nice steady stream of male customers.

That said, I gotta ask, are men that hard up that they really need a woman's gazongas in their face with their morning coffee???

Something for everyone, as they say.

I say go for it, but hope you don't set it up in my town. G-d, I'm such a prude. lol

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!

Ha! Tina your post is hilarious.

But businesses need to go through their local business development department and I really don't see this topless, drive thru coffee shop getting any approvals. What's to stop an idiot from bringing a child through the drive-thru? Are you going to have someone checking each car before it's allowed to go through? I don't think so.

If you're hell bent on a topless business you will likely need to find something else besides a coffee place.

Was this a joke?

Sylvia
http://smallbusinessstartup.biz
Startup & Biz Plan Help
http://smallbusinessstartup.biz/blog

If you're asking if my post was a joke.

No, it wasn't. It was a little light-hearted and tongue in cheek, but no, I was quite serious.

There's a point in life that we women have to sit back and realize (whether we like being sex objects or not), that sex sells -- For that matter, it sells big!

Hooters isn't the franchise it is because of their chicken wings. It's because their waitresses all have great boobs threatening to pop out of their sweaters. And Hooters is a mild family-oriented sex shop if you can imagine such a thing.

Christie Hefner (pardon the spelling if it is incorrect) has taken the Playboy Enterprises franchise and turned it into a colossus over the past few years, so much so, that The Girls Next Door is a popular reality tv show and new Playboy Clubs are opening up all over the place.

There are strip clubs, drive-in car washes where the girls climb on top of your car NEKKID! and scrub your car with their body parts... eeew, and Names like Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson are becoming practically household names.

The rock videos on MTV and other like networks sell sex disguised as rock and roll, so much so, that a complete counter-culture guised as Christian-based has risen up so that families can expose their children to television without blackening their souls.

I'm kinda in the middle somewhere. I don't believe in public censorship, as I'm a libertarian and I think that people, and indeed children should be taught to govern themselves and make the choices that are good for them and their souls without infringing on the rights and freedoms of others... Plenty of that going on without us adding to it.

That said.

Yes, I think if this drive-thru was placed in the right neighbourhood and everything in the owner's power was done in keeping with the local decency laws, I really do think... no wait... I KNOW that such a thing will sell.

How well will it sell? Well, like any business, in demand, it will depend on two things... the size of the niche market and the location of the business.

I wouldn't frequent such a place. I have a hard time seeing my co-members of the local business association giving the business owner of such an establishment a fair crack and the support he deserved from the association because, well, prudes are prudes. But I assure you, that if my kids weren't in the car, and the lineup at Tim's were really long, I just might cut a corner and drive through that dark curtain to get my coffee... What do I care, after all, they're just boobs, they come in all shapes and sizes and every woman on the planet has a pair -- Well, except my Mom, who lost one to breast cancer.

Oh hey, there's an idea... topless coffee in Breast Cancer mugs.

I'll hush now, my marketing brain is trying to pick, up that ball! lol

T

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!

The sad part is that even though "boobs come in all shapes and sizes" I can bet that the servers won't be all shapes and sizes, cuz that does not sell. The servers will surely be well endowed with itty bitty waists. Now not only would sex be on the menu, but discrimation, but I guess that is how society is. Like being referenced to playboy, the magazine would not sell with saggy breasts and untouched photos either.

O what a wonderful world! Still think hot coffee and exposed boobs is not a great idea though! Could you imagine spilling the coffee!!!!!

>If you're asking if my post was a joke.
>
>
>Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
>Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
>Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
>http://www.peppermaster.com
>
>Eat more peppers!

Sorry for the confusion Tina. I knew you were serious. I meant I thought the original post was a joke. I guess I was wrong. It takes all kinds...

Sylvia
http://smallbusinessstartup.biz
Startup & Biz Plan Help
http://smallbusinessstartup.biz/blog

Thank you all for your repli es. your thoughts are interesting, helpfull and amusing. The drive thru will not be topless the list of things that could go wrong is endless. However I will have baristas in costumes and very little clothing I will feature a different theme everyday of the week I do need help with a good creative name I will also have menu items with provocative names any ideas ? thank you again

Well a little clothing sounds better than none! LOL!!

As far as names, off the cuff...The "Hot" Spot, Kinky Kups......not too sure where your directions is going, so I will leave it at that.

I think you would have a problem by alienating almost all women and most married men. I can't think of a woman who would support it. You must have some REALLY good Coffee. Here are some statistics:

Lets pretend 50% of potential customers are female and 50% of the remaining male population are married. That leaves you with a potential 25% of your remaining population.

Of which.. maybe... maybe 1-2% will shop at your store.

Can your business survive on 3 visits per day at $.50-$3.00 profit per purchase? That's profit before rent, lights, labor, etc..

Joe

Why would you? especially in Oregon?????


Joanna Swank
Marketable Concepts
jswank@marketableconcepts.com
www.marketableconcepts.com

November Sales Special - 99 for 2009 - go to http://www.jswank.com/november.html for these great marketing and business plan deals.

That's an interesting question, Joanna... how does Hooters' do in Oregon... and just curious, but why do you say "especially in Oregon"... are there morality laws there, that I'm unaware of?

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!

What would be the purpose of selling coffee topless? As a woman, I find it somewhat "exploitive", but that's just me.

Men on the other hand, LOVE that kind of stuff.

Good luck

Caz