True or False: Coffee Sells Better than Sex

With the proliferation of scantily clad barista-babes manning drive-thru coffee stands, many might answer false to the above question. After all, if it works for bars and lounges, surely the concept should help to sell coffee. However, Teresa Gubbins wrote last week that in Fort Worth, Texas, anyway, risqué costumes on baristas fell as flat as a latte in Australia. Sexy costumes were tried in a new Fort Worth coffee shop, but coffee lovers answered “not in Texas, y’all!” Coffee Dreamers advertised that their female waitresses would wear “Daisy Duke” outfits that exposed midriffs when the shop opened last year. It didn’t take long for them to learn that this offended customers, so the girls now wear a shirt under their top, covering the bared area.

Turns out it was mostly the women customers who complained, but the publicity backfired as men called to find out about the “bikini baristas”. The misinformation caused the negative response to grow way over the top, so the owner-couple decided it was better to advertise the goodness of their coffee rather than the bareness of their baristas.

After all, which product are they selling? While it’s still a fact that commercials in the US still sell everything from autos to house wares with sex, it’s good to hear that the coffee-loving crowd may be a step above the norm when it comes to shopping for coffee. One of the comments following the article was noteworthy, stating, “people that visit coffee shops tend to be a whole different type than those who visit Hooters. Different climate within the establishments too. Different reason people go to each. … Who would've thought that nowadays in America that sex can't sell everything?” Indeed, who woulda thought?