Next time you walk past a cafe, take note of whether there are empty milk crates sitting outside for collection.

Each crate is equivalent to around 100 coffees. Each coffee (sold at about $3.00 each) is profit of around $2.50.

Do the sums…one crate is profit of $250. Why, then, do cafes so often charge so much for food? Even if they only covered their costs for food, they’d certainly attract more customers, and imagine the number of coffees they could sell.