The dog days of summer can sometimes lead to sluggish revenue. You may have less customers walking in each day so to mitigate loss in sales you’ll likely want to consider how to increase each person’s spend.

Fresh baked pastries and fresh fruit are a common go to but they are money down the drain when you toss the remaining products out at the end of the day. Consider, instead, non-perishable but sellable items to increase spend at checkout. We know there are a lot of products out there, and it is critical that what is displayed aligns with your own brand so we’ve listed a few eye-catching suggestions below.

The Munchies

This one’s a given. A customer arrives to a coffee shop for a caffeinated or thirst-quenching drink; it’s almost intuitive that they’d try to grab a snack to counterpart their coffee. Here are some unique & perky foods one can sell:

1. Specialty chocolate: Pair that specialty mocha drink with a specialty chocolate bar! There are all sorts of eye-catching and curious choco morsels, ranging from Chocolate Coated Jalapeño Dusted Corn Nuts to an electrolyte-filled chocolate superbar to peanut butter cups. Featuring items that aren’t normally in any grocery shop or drugstore can attract the attention of any sweet tooth. Plus, this is a great opportunity to support local chocolate-makers, especially since specialty coffee shops so often serve as a great space for the community to discover craft, local products.

2. Dried fruit: Non-perishable, healthy, straight from Mother Nature’s hands… You can’t go wrong with dried fruit. With recent fads for super-fruits and health berries, shops and cafes have started to boast dried fruits such as goji berries, pineapple, and coconut on their shelves.

   

   

   

3. Snack Bars: Energy bars, protein bars, granola bars, you name it — they provide muscle power, are convenient, and are on-the-go. Don’t be afraid to test out more uncommon products, such as EPIC protein bars (made from Bison meat!).

Merch

The checkout station is a great place to boast your shop’s swag. Whether it’s hats, shirts, or even a few custom silicon bracelets or buttons, you can bet on customers’ eyes wandering to a cute design with a bright logo. Plus, these self-design items are extremely easy to mass-order online.

The East Village’s Boris and Horton, for example, offers a variety of merch — hats, pins, mugs — with their lovable dog logo printed on top.

Eco-Friendly Products

With the rise of environmentally-conscious fads and decrees — such as NYC’s impending replacement of plastic straws with paper ones — displaying eco-friendly items at checkout can encourage customers to adopt a green mindset.

Placing such products on display encourages customers to adopt more environmentally friendly habits which reduces waste. Each canvas bag that they tote around can replace hundreds of plastic bags, each metal straw can replace hundreds of plastic straws, each keep cup hundreds of of plastic cups, and so on. Going Green, like perusing specialty cafes, is hip right now, and so is the specialty cafe audience — so it’s difficult to not take advantage of the trend.