Coffee shop notes

Cafe Tables and Revenue per Seat

Turn time, cost per seat and the seats that never pay back, in the arithmetic a cafe actually runs on.

Updated 2026-11-07

Revenue per seat is the number that pays rent

Divide daily revenue by seats, not by square metre. Twenty seats turning four times a day earns more than 30 seats turning twice.

That is why a four-top can be worth less than the floor it occupies: slow turns plus low ticket equals occupancy without income.

Turn time is set by the chair as much as the menu

A hard seat with a 350 mm back turns a table in 25 minutes. The same table with an upholstered back and a low arm holds it for 50.

Neither is better. One is a coffee stop and one is a workspace, and the room has to pick which trade it is chasing.

Cost per seat, landed, is the only fair comparison

Add furniture, freight, duty and spares, then divide by seats. Two quotes at the same unit price land 20 percent apart because of carton volume.

Ask every supplier for cubic metres per seat, not just price per piece. cafe furniture is a fixed cost that scales with volume, not with value.

The seats that never pay back

Corner banquettes built for six that seat four. Counter-height tables with no footrest. Any seat that needs a staff member to move a chair before a guest can sit down.

Each one looks like a design decision in the render and reads as friction in service. Cut them at the drawing stage.

What a seat has to earn

Take monthly rent plus wages, divide by seats, divide by trading days. That is the daily threshold per seat before anything else is paid.

Seats that cannot clear that threshold at a realistic turn count are seats you are subsidising. cafe sets makes the arithmetic visible before the order.

Judging the mix after three months

Count covers by seat type for two weeks. The type with the lowest covers per seat per day is either mispriced in the menu or wrong for the room.

Changing two four-tops into four two-tops is a furniture order, not a rebuild. It is the cheapest revenue change available to an open cafe.

Photographing the room for the listing

Shoot at counter height, not standing height. The room reads bigger and the seat mix is visible in one frame.

Two frames do most of the work: the counter with seating in front, and a corner with the booth and one table. Everything else is detail.

Writing the spec sheet once

Model, finish code, upholstery code, overall size with a plus or minus 5 mm tolerance, carton count, spare parts. Six lines, and they replace a conversation.

Spec sheets also make a second supplier comparable. Without one, every quote is a different product at a different price.

The three numbers to bring to any supplier

Finished floor to underside of the counter, the longest clear wall, and the width of the door opening. Those three decide what fits before any catalogue is opened.

Add 600–700 mm for two, 800–900 mm for four if the room is on a raised platform. Twenty millimetres of step under a table leg is a wobble that no spec sheet warns about.

Signing off before production

Approve three things on the sample: the finish under your own lighting, the seat height against your table, and the stack height if you plan to stack.

Then put the approval date in writing. Production starts from that date, not from the deposit date, and the difference is often a week.

Questions we get asked

Where does the budget usually go wrong?

Freight and spares. Volume sets the first and nobody budgets the second. 5 percent of order value in spares is the cheapest line.

How many seats fit in a 40 sqm coffee shop?

Twenty to twenty-six after the counter and the service path, at 600–700 mm for two, 800–900 mm for four per two-top. The count drops to 16 with a 1100 mm path through the middle.

Should I buy loose chairs or sets?

Sets for booth runs and fixed corners, loose chairs for tables that move. cafe table and chair sets covers both from one order.

Where the rest of it lives

Everything in this note comes from the same catalogue: cafe furniture catalogue, custom cafe furniture, cafe layout support and cafe furniture projects. Floor plans sent to that desk come back as a seat count and a price, not a brochure.