Upstairs cafés in Hong Kong

Due to Hong Kong's land shortage, retail rents in Hong Kong are constantly rising. According to property consultant CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), Hong Kong placed second with an average rent of US$1,695 per square foot per year in the report on global retail rents in the third quarter of 2011.[9] Entrepreneurs of upstairs cafés choose the upstairs locations to avoid the high rents charged for ground-floor spaces.

As Hong Kong is a densely populated city, there are limited affordable public spaces for its people to gather for leisure.[10] Upstairs cafés provide a cozy environment for people to gather with their friends without any time limit while maintaining affordability.

Upstairs cafés often have unique marketing strategies to compete with chain competitors in Hong Kong such as Starbucks and Pacific Coffee Company.[1] Many upstairs cafes have their own themes to make themselves stand out from the others.

Upstairs cafés are one of the common leisure spots for youngsters in Hong Kong. Their popularity comes from the uniqueness of different cafés.[1] They usually have specific thematic concepts, ranging from providing board games to providing book loaning services to their customers.[1] The wide variety of upstairs cafés have attracted many teenagers.

According to Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, teenagers are in search of identity and looking to stand out from others. One way would be visiting these uncommon places.

Moreover, these upstairs cafés also provide business opportunities for young entrepreneurs. Upstairs cafes can be a platform for youngsters to showcase their creativity and talents as they compete by using different strategies to draw attention from customers.[11]

"Lazy" is one of the traits that media loves to use when describing Hong Kong’s "post 90s",[12] which is youngsters born after the year of 1990. One of the claimed reasons is that they enjoy doing nothing. The popping up of more cafés in Hong Kong is partially related to this phenomenon, as youngsters in Hong Kong would rather spend hours in these upstairs cafés chatting with friends, rather than go for a hike on a sunny day. Besides, youngsters in Hong Kong are often living in packed houses, due to the overloaded population and lack of housing in Hong Kong. So these upstairs cafés also provide a common area for friend gatherings since crowded houses in Hong Kong may not be suitable for group of friends to play together.[13]

There are a lot of upstairs cafes that are unlicensed.[14] According to the " Food Business Regulation", unlicensed operation of a restaurant is subjected to a maximum fine of $50,000 and imprisonment for six months. However, since most of the upstairs café are located in the upstairs, which might locate in some hidden places, it is difficult for the government to find out.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department only has 200 inspectors who are responsible for inspecting the restaurants. Without receiving any complaints, it is difficult to uncover unlicensed cafés located in different buildings and different district. Without licenses, a lot of safety problems may arise.[15] For instance, food hygiene problems, lacking of fire escape exits, problems of building structure etc. In addition, the quality of food and the hygiene of the environment may not be guaranteed.[16] One of the examples is that some of the unlicensed cafés will allow people to smoke inside the café, which pollute the air quality and violate the law. These cafés may have their own "spy" to check whether there are any inspectors. Therefore, once when one was reported to the Tobacco Control Office, the inspectors could not find anyone who violated the law. These problems often arise in the unlicensed upstairs café in Hong Kong, which affect people’s health and safety.