Battle for Coffee Dollar Froths Up

Tasmanian coffee drinkers will have more choice from Tuesday with chain Hungry Jacks entering the local market.

Tasmania will become the first Australian state with Jack’s Cafe ‘barista-made coffees and specialty beverages’ at all of their restaurants and drive through facilities.

The Tasmanian launch follows an initial pilot trial in Canberra last year and comes ahead of further national roll-out plans to be announced next year. Their barista coffee will be available at newly-established ‘Jack’s Cafe’ units within their Kingston, South Hobart, Hobart, Glenorchy, Launceston, Mowbray, Burnie and Devonport Hungry Jack’s restaurants. Delivery also available from all except Burnie and Kingston.

A Hungry Jacks statement said that: “Several positions have been created for Tasmanian locals, with both new hires and existing staff being upskilled. From time to time, additional new positions may be found and applied for via the Hungry Jack’s website.”

Hobart barista Andreas Argys of Kornet Cafe said he was up for the challenge, although also worried about potential oversupply.

“It’s not that great,” he said when asked about business conditions generally. “Corona’s here, a lot of people are working from home. There’s a lot of competition so we’re all sharing the pie you know; there are more than 100 coffee outlets in the CBD.”

He said that being local they were tightly connected to the Tasmanian economy and that was a reason people should favour them rather than chain store coffee.

“I’m guessing Hungry Jacks would bring coffee from a main supplier, whereas we support the local roasters, the local milk, the local everything, and so this is not just about our job but a lot of jobs,” he explained.

“And in the end I’m sure that we have better coffee and better service so I hope people support us.”

Argy has been running his Centrepoint cafe in Hobart for over nine years and is keen to go on for much longer, still enjoying his work.

Coffee drinker and self-confessed expert Samantha said she had her favourite places around town and would be unlikely to try ‘junk food coffee’ as she described it.

“I think it’s for those people who go to junk food chains anyway, it’s just something to make them feel a bit fancier and spend more money,” she said. “But if you’re going to meet a friend for a coffee date, you aren’t going to McDonald’s or Hungry Rooster or whatever, no way.”

She also said she likes cafes were there is a variety of coffees on offer, not just beverage styles.

“I always drink coffee black, but between Ethiopia or Sumatra or Colombia or other places of origin there can be a lot of difference,” she said. “I like to ask the baristas what they recommend, that’s part of the experience. Some of them are incredibly knowledgeable, they really know their stuff.”

Samantha, a fashion salesperson, views ‘barista-made’ as just marketing spin. “I’m sure they’ve trained people well and all that but in the end big corporate chains can’t do personal, can’t do extraordinary, can’t do seasonal, can’t do a bunch of things. Even specialist coffee chains can’t really do it so if you figure a burger barn can then good luck with that.”