I didn’t know what to expect when we set up a suggestions box. I agreed that we’d do it on a trial period…and only because Alyssa and Nate have more experience in business than I do. I don’t want to be totally un-democratic, and I don’t want to be one of those people who stubbornly holds to a single way of doing things if there’s a better way.
We’re new at this. We could all use suggestions to improve.
Except if the suggestion is ‘I think half the cafe should be an oxygen bar’. I mean…let’s not get crazy. I don’t like oxygen bars, I don’t think they’re safe, and the only one I DO think is safe is that fad one that uses hyperbaric chambers. Oxygen therapy- the type where you climb inside a glass bubble (or an inflatable bubble, because a lot of them nowadays are portable) and breathe in a bit of extra O2- is fine. Not for our cafe, but it’s fine. Melbourne’s hyperbaric oxygen therapy is something I know a little bit about from my friend, whose father has a portable one of those things in their home, and I’ve seen it in use. It looks fine.
This hyperbaric cafe was one of the ones I visited while I was doing research for Cafe Mint. I walked inside and saw that their setup was half and half: normal tables on one side, and hyperbaric chambers lining the wall on the other side. You paid a fee, stepped inside the chamber and they’d bring you a coffee or cake or whatever you like while you drink up a very low, medically recommended level of oxygen.
Truth be told, this did inspire me somewhat to instigate our half-and-half policy, although ours is focused purely on a different dining experience. If I’m being super harsh, I’d say the fad will collapse pretty soon.
Not as fast as we’d collapse if we converted to providing pure oxygen. People just don’t go for that anymore.
-Melanie