Memphis Coffee Service for Offices and Break Rooms
Put in your Memphis zip code and say how many people drink coffee at your site. Providers that run routes in your part of town send back quotes for equipment and supplies.
A break room at two in the morning
Memphis has a night shift most cities do not. The airport is a major air cargo hub, and the warehouses along Airways Boulevard and Lamar Avenue, and across the state line in Southaven and Olive Branch, keep trucks moving after midnight. A coffee service that only thinks about nine to five misses everyone on the night shift.
If your building runs two or three shifts, tell the provider up front. Coffee use at a warehouse is not like coffee use in an accounting office. Cups go faster, the machine runs hard, and a brewer that quits on a Sunday night is a bigger problem than one that quits on a Friday afternoon.
Three states on one route
The metro crosses lines. Southaven, Olive Branch and Horn Lake are in Mississippi. West Memphis is in Arkansas, over the Mississippi River on the I-40 bridge. A provider based in Memphis may deliver to all of them, or only to some. Some routes stop at the Tennessee border because the tax setup or the warehouse sits on one side.
When you get quotes, name your suburb and your state. A distribution center off Goodman Road in Southaven is a different stop from an office on Poplar Avenue, and you want a provider who already drives there. DeSoto County has grown fast and has a lot of warehouse space, so you will find providers that treat it as home territory.
Offices, clinics and the medical district
The other big employer type is health care. St. Jude, the Methodist hospitals, Baptist and the clinics and specialty groups around the medical district downtown and out along Poplar and Humphreys Boulevard surround themselves with small offices. A waiting room wants something different from a back office. Patients drink tea and decaf. Staff want strong coffee and a fast machine.
East Memphis, Germantown and Collierville are the white collar side of town. Law firms, wealth managers, engineers, insurance agencies and a good number of regional headquarters sit along the Poplar corridor. Those offices tend to want bean-to-cup machines that look decent in a reception area, plus tea and flavored creamers. Bartlett sits further north and east and has a mix of small offices and light industrial buildings, and a provider on the Germantown Parkway side usually covers it.
Downtown Memphis has a lot of older buildings with limited loading space. Ask whether the driver has to carry boxes through a lobby, and whether the building has hours for deliveries.
Airport-area offices and freight forwarders near the hub have their own rhythm. Their busiest hours are late afternoon and evening, when the planes load, so ask for a delivery before the shift change and not during it. Ask whether the route that would serve you already runs the airport roads.
Heat, humidity and storing supplies
Memphis summers are long and sticky. Creamer cups and sugar packets absorb moisture, and a closet that never gets air can turn a case of beans stale. If you stock more than a month at a time, keep it off the floor and out of a hot back room. Some providers will deliver smaller, more frequent orders if you ask, and that is often better than a big drop.
Water is the other half of it. If your building has older plumbing, a filter on the machine helps the taste and keeps scale from building up inside. Ask the provider to include filter changes in the schedule rather than leaving it to someone in the office.
Choosing the machine
- Warehouses and distribution sites: sturdy batch brewers, or a hot water dispenser with instant options, with high-volume restocking.
- Medical and dental offices: a single-cup brewer at the front desk and a bean-to-cup machine in the staff area.
- Professional offices: bean-to-cup with a milk option, and cold brew if staff ask for it.
Single-cup pod brewers are everywhere, and they are convenient for six people. They get expensive for sixty. Ask the provider to quote you the cost for a typical month of use, then compare it with a bean-to-cup setup. The difference is usually large enough to settle the question.
Cleaning is the other thing that goes wrong. A machine nobody wipes down grows a film of old coffee oil. Ask who is responsible and how often. Ask whether the provider sends a technician or leaves a laminated sheet on the wall.
What to ask before you sign
Read the minimum order. Warehouses with seasonal swings, especially around the holidays when shipping peaks, need a provider who will raise and lower deliveries without a fight. Read the equipment terms, too: some providers lend the machine for free, and some charge a rental that disappears once you hit a certain volume. Ask what happens to the machine if you leave.
Ask about delivery windows. A driver who arrives while your receiving dock is closed will leave a note, and then you are without coffee. A provider who works with your schedule is worth a little more per case.
Request quotes from two or three providers who actually run routes through your part of town. Memphis is spread out, and the difference between a company that comes to you weekly and one that sends a truck monthly shows up in how often the machine is stocked.
Looking for a different city? Here are some nearby.
Other Memphis business topics.
