One decision you will need to make before you launch your juice bar is whether to use glass bottles or plastic.

I personally lean toward glass for a few reasons.

When I first started making juice in my juice truck we were using plastic cups. It was really easy and made sense for what we were doing. When I moved into my first store we added glass bottles and eventually transitioned into using only glass.

From the customer experience perspective glass makes the juice seem more high quality. Think about the difference between wine that is served in plastic or glass. The perceptual vae of something that is served in glass is always higher than something that is served in plastic.

I also noticed that my customers liked the design of the bottles. I could sense that people were proud to show off the bottles and even use them for drinking later on. The bottles with our branding on them were a symbol of being healthy and taking health seriously. 

Your Values As a Business Owner

Within this conversation it’s important to think about your values as a business owner. If you choose to use plastic, then over time you are going to be creating a lot of waste. You have to ask yourself if saving money is worth having a negative impact on the environment.

Glass is slightly more expensive, so this is necessary to note. The glass bottles were using costed 48 cents and alternatively the plastic ones were around 20 cents. We passed this cost onto the customer, charging them an extra dollar for their juice. Consider if your target market is going to be willing to pay the extra dollar for glass.

Breakage Costs 

The last thing I want to note within this decision is breakage costs with glass. If you choose this route, inevitably you will deal with broken glass at times. I was able to create procedures for my staff to avoid this issue and we rarely had breakages resulting in major losses. The extra cost of replacing broken bottles was completely negligible and really not even a consideration.

Something else to think about with plastic bottles is the potential for chemicals to leach into the juice. Personally when I drink water out of a plastic bottle I can certainly taste something different compared to spring water out of a glass bottle. If you are focusing on high quality in your product, glass bottles are a must.

An Added Benefit

If you decide to use glass, you can offer an incentive for your customers to return the bottles for cash back or wellness shots. This is very beneficial to you as a business owner because it creates a reason for your customers to return to your store. Naturally, having customers visit more often leads to more sales. 

Even if you break even on the bottles being return, it will make you more money long term.

Within my online course I dive deeper into this topic and similar important questions to consider before opening your juice bar. I learned all of these things the hard way so I designed this course to give you everything you could ever need to make opening your juice bar as easy as possible.