42 — The Magic Number for OCS Operators
Revised Article © 2001 Stuart Daw
(Original Article © 1982 Stuart Daw
Published in Tea & Coffee Trade Journal)
I was reminded of the
question of bag counts at the 2001 NBPA convention in March in Atlantic City.
At a round table seminar a show of hands indicated that operators today pack a
multiple of bag counts - 46, 42, 40, 38 and on down. What is the
"correct" bag count, and how did it get that way?
One of the most valuable
workers in the coffee service industry used to be the little man with the
knife who spent at least part of each day opening cartons of nationally
branded coffee, removing four packages to bring the count from 46 down to 42.
The numbers were
significant. If an operator consumed 2,000 cases per month, four packages per
case means 8,000 packages which, at 1.5 ounces each means 12,000 ounces, or
750 pounds. At, say, $2.70 per pound, that meant $2,000 in savings. And the
customer getting 42 instead of 46 packages at the same case price ordered nine
percent more often, raising gross sales.
Who said 46 was the right
denomination? The difficulty dates back to the pre-coffee service days of the
institutional roaster who always packed cartons with a 64 count. For the
mathematically minded, this was because whatever package weight you used in
denominations of one quarter ounce, 64 always brought you out to an even
number of pounds, simplifying the computation of a sales invoice.
64 X 2 1/2 ounces was 10
pounds of coffee. 64 X 2 1/4 ounces was 9 pounds, 64 X 2 ounces was 8 pounds,
64 X 2 1/4 ounces was 11 pounds, 64 X 3 ounces was 12 pounds, and so on. To
get an even number, one only had to pack in a multiple of 16 (16 X 2 1/2
ounces is 2 1/2 pounds, 32 X 2 1/2 ounces make 5 pounds, thus 64 equals 10
pounds).
It took about five years of
existence before operators in the coffee service industry were able to
persuade roasters that packing 64 to a carton made no sense for them.
Justification for 64 had become a matter of saying that a decanter of coffee
held 11 cups, and 11 X 64 was 704. Thus as some readers may recall, in the
early days of coffee service a kit was referred to as containing 700 cups. At
5 cents per cup, the "Executive 700" sold for $35.00.
One problem with this effort
to make the suit fit the cloth was that a decanter does not necessarily hold
11 cups. Perhaps justification for this measurement of a decanter of coffee
came when a national roaster, in an elaborate experiment, went over to the
sink with a decanter and an empty 7 ounce paper or foam cup, and sure enough
seemed to get around 11 cups out of it, providing the philosophical validation
for the 700 cup kit, packed 64 to the carton.
But then came the idea that
coffee should be marketed at 5˘ per cup and, because $25 was a nice round
number, there was a general desire in the trade to have a kit priced at that
level, necessitating something construed as yielding the equivalent of 500
cups of brewed coffee.
Thus the 11 cups to the
decanter idea was carried over into the concept of a 500 cup pack. Dividing
500 by 11 forced the trade to put at least 46 packs in the carton, as 11 x 46
equaled 506 cups.
But what does a decanter
really hold? To begin with, it was designed to hold 64 fluid ounces. Because
in the brewing process we lose approximately two ounces of water for every
ounce of ground coffee in absorption and evaporation, given a two ounce
package we should net out approximately 60 fluid ounces.
A standard cup can be
properly said to contain five ounces of black coffee. This is a generally
accepted figure and allows, in a normal drinking cup, space for air and cream
(milk, non-dairy creamer, etc.). Thus, given a decanter that nets 60 fluid
ounces after the four ounce loss of water, and given a cup that holds five
ounces of black coffee, we can accurately say that the yield is 12 x 5 ounce
servings.
Then, in our desire to reach
a 500 cup kit of coffee we divide 12 into 500, and find that 42 is the
handiest denomination. And 42 has another virtue. As there are 21 working days
in the average business month, 42 packs of coffee mean that a customer can use
two decanters per day to qualify as a one kit user, assuming that a coffee
service operator is content with the one kit user in the first place.
But what about the advent of
automatic machines? Operators installed them so the decanter filled to the
neck, the whole 64 fluid ounces. Five ounce servings meant that instead of 12
from a 60 ounce decanter, we now had 12.8 from 64 ounces. And 12.8 divided
into 500 cups meant 40 (actually 39.06) was the handiest denomination to use.
How to justify fewer than 40
bags? Sorry, you’ll have to ask someone in higher mathematics, beyond my
ability.
© 2001 Stuart Daw
