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Research on Coffee Shop
Assignment 2 – Comparative Research
English 2 (ENGL0205)
Group Members:
Cheong Siew Leong 0310845
Yip Chin Seng 0311956
Lee Yuan June 0311128
Kelvin Chiew Kah Kheng 0311848

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Table of Contents
Section Page
Artistic cover (Front) 1
Cover page 2
Table of content 3
Research Proposal 4
Research Paper 5-14
Reference and citation 15-16
Minutes of meeting 17-18
Appendix 19-20
Artistic cover (Back) 21

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The Research Proposal
Name: Cheong Siew Leong, Yip Chin Seng, Kelvin Chiew Kah Kheng, Lee Yuan June
Class: English 2
Period: Tuesday & Wednesday
INTRODUCTION:
Our research report is about the coffee shop businesses in Penang and Kuantan. Other
than that, it is mainly concerned about the concept and style of the coffee shop.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
1. Origin or family history of the business that we are studying.
2. The products are marketed to international or local businesses? Who are the
main customers? Why will the products attract these groups of people?
3. How does the business advertise and does it advertise? Are the products
distributed to various places and where are the places? Why are they distributed
in this manner?
4. Who is their business enemy? How are they threatening the trade? What
strategies are used to counter the threats or competition?
5. What trade policies have been put in place by the government so far? What are
their impacts?
6. How does technology affect the trade? Which technology has the biggest
impact? What are the positive and negative impacts?
7. What is the future of the trade? Is the industry growing or stagnating? What are
planning for the next 10 years?
8. What have they experienced in the past to achieve these goals? What is the
most important aspect in building this business?
9. What is their business concept and what are their business principles?
10. What are the extra services provided to the business?
METHODOLOGY:
Each of us will talk respectively.
1. Greet them politely.
2. Show evidence that we are coming from Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus.
3. Ask permission to interview them.
4. Talk in a soft voice tone.
5. Request to take photos with them and their shop.
6. Thank them for being cooperative with us.
CONCLUSION:
We expect that they will cooperate with us so that we can interview them. Besides, we
try not to annoy them in the process of interview. Moreover, we hope that we can obtain
information such as historical background of their businesses and the method they used
to achieve their goals. Other than that, we also try to gain permission to take photos with
them and their shops.

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Research Paper
First of all, this research paper is about the coffee shops that we have
interviewed on our study trip to Penang and also coffee shop from Kuantan, Pahang.
We chose to do interviews on coffee shops as instructed by lecturer. Coffee shops are
also known by most of the people in Malaysia as “Kopitiam”. Coffee shop culture in
Malaysia is very famous among the Malaysians where they will enjoy chatting with their
friends on weekend and business partners on weekday while enjoying their coffees. The
type of coffees are generally separated into two types which are the local coffee and
foreign coffee. Local coffee is coffee that is locally brewed such as Ipoh White Coffee
whereas foreign coffee is referred to non-locally brewed coffee, for example Starbucks
coffee. Coffee is originated from Arab and then it is spread to the Europe. The
Europeans are the main contributors to the wide spread of coffee around the world. The
British brought in the coffee into Peninsular Malaysia during their colonization and they
grew it in large scale as coffee was one of the most profitable trade products at that time
and so it is today. There are many ways to drink coffee, for local Malaysians, we prefer
the “Kopi-O-Kao” which also means saturated black coffee in Hokkien while others will
most probably choose to put sugars and cream if they cannot stand the bitter taste of
original coffee. As for non-local coffee, one can enjoy the coffee in varieties of way. The
most well-known ways are probably the ice-blended or iced and Espresso based coffee.
Follow on, for both types of coffees, some of the coffees are presented in artistic ways
by incorporated patterns on the coffees. These have made the coffee not only tasty to
drink but also as an art piece as good skills are needed to create a nice and flawless
pattern.

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Secondly, the first coffee shop that we have interviewed is a non-franchise
western styled coffee shop. The name of the shop is 42 La Boheme and it is located at
Jalan Sri Bahari Road which is a side road beside the renowned Penang Road. It was
opened by a married couple at about 2 years ago (2011). From our interview, we found
out that the reason the married couple chosen to open the coffee shop is to earn a living
as they already have a small child. The husband is a pastry chef and he isaFrench. He
told us that he have graduated at 16 years old from school and after that he started to
learn how to make pastries. Then, he knew her wife while he was on a trip. Besides
selling their pastries at their shop, they also have customers from others coffee shops to
buy their products to sell but it is just in minimum amount. Their main customers are still
customers that visited their shop. Follow on, we have been informed that most of their
customers on weekday are working class people whereas on weekend are families.
Besides that, as their shop is located at the heart of Georgetown which is also awarded
by the UNESCO as one of the world heritage sites, this has attracts a lot of travelers
from others countries as well as the Malaysians. This in turn will give the shop an
opportunity to have more customers and so they are basically targeting both
international and local market.
Thirdly, the owners of the coffee shop will do their promotion by having good
conversation with their customers face-to-face. The customers are the main promoters
of their coffee shop. Nevertheless, they have Facebook page too which will provide their
potential customers important information such as the location and business hour.
Follow on, a lot of similar coffee shops have opened in Penang at the rate of about one
every two months and this has posed a serious threat to their coffee shop. Some of the

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competitors have big modal and so they can have a better equipped shops in better
locations. In order to survive, they face the competitors by doing their best in operating
the shop and not planning to compare with others as that might affects their overall
morale. In addition, they are facing threat from high rent too, so in order to save money,
they do not employ anyone to help in the coffee shop and they chose to open their shop
in a more affordable location which is a shop that is staying outside of main road.
Besides, they cut down the cost of operating the business by using recycled furniture
and to our surprise, most of the furniture they have collected are in pretty good shapes.
After that, through our interview, we also found out that no government policy is
helping the business and the business environment is getting tougher and tougher as
the rent is climbing. Furthermore, the prices of materials are rising too even though
some of them such as sugar and flour are subsidized by the Malaysian government.
Next, the technology of internet has played a big part in their business as it has helps to
promote their coffee shop through social website such as Facebook and also through
food blogs. Last but not least, the owners think that their business will be able to survive
for the next ten years and the industry will keep on growing especially in Penang which
is a famous tourism location.
Next is about an interesting coffee shop named Moontree47. Moontree47 is a
private established café and has 3 years of operating history since 2010. The shop is
located in Muntri Street Penang which is under Local Heritage coverage to keep the
original appearance of the building which is also an old house. As it is only in the early
development of its business, it does not include any origin or family history in the past.
The café only closed on Wednesday and its operating hours are from 9am till 10pm.

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This business only markets its products to local people while its target customers are
people ranges from 20 years old and above, tourists are also one of the targeted groups
because Moontree47 has been listed as a heritage building in Muntri Street. This
attracts them because it is a unique café that it combines Italian cafe, art gallery and
homestay together while also keeping the vintage of the old shop.
On the other hand, in term of advertisement, the business uses both old and new
ways to promote their coffee products, which is through the traditional mouth-to-mouth
method and the trending Facebook advertisement way, where Moontree47 posts the
upcoming and experimental coffee on their page. Besides, they have no products
distributed to any external seller such as supermarkets and shopping malls but it is only
available for walk-in customers to have a taste on the homemade Italian coffee. While in
the aspect of business enemy, there are no specific competitions stated that have
threatened their café business, but the owner rather has a lot of friends around in
Georgetown that have involved in coffee shop businesses with different styles and that
he would like to share experience with them to produce better coffee for the customers.
By the way, government policy has no any impact or any advantage on the business
itself.
Technology has affected the trade as people tend to take photos before ordering
the coffee themselves, these technologies including photo sharing websites and social
networks which allow people to post their photos and share it to others. However, these
technologies have its advantage and disadvantage, which the benefit is it is able to
promote their coffee for free and introduce the café to the people as well, while the
weakness is it allows a person to judge a product based merely on its appearance

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without having a try on it, and that they may post their opinions under the photos which
may affect the others. In addition, the future vision of this trade is to promote the
handmade culture in Penang. It is set as the main target for the café because it is one of
the traditional arts of Penang and the state currently has no proper handicraft in the
business industry. Nonetheless, it is also viewed as a rich and tough culture by the
owner because of its delicateness and is presently a growing industry in this state. In
the case of handicraft, the owner likes to repair or make his café chairs and tables
himself and involves a lot of old type decorations such as the fan and old pictures in his
shop to create an old-fashioned style.
The owner stated that he has a tough life experience in order to achieve what he
has today. This includes that he has studied several times on graphics design courses
before changing to Italian coffee career. But as a result of his study, he owns an art
gallery in Penang and thus he combined all of his experiences together and established
this café which includes the two essences as well as the old house in Muntri Street,
which is capable to make it as a homestay. He clarifies that hiring people is the hardest
part in constructing his business and he has done many things on his own including
repairing the furniture as stated before. Other than that, Moontree47’s concept is to
conserve the vintage of the old house or shop while combining the essences as well,
whilst its principle is to provide suitable coffee for each group of its customers in order to
guarantee their satisfactions. The café provides extra services such as free Wifi for the
visitors and guest for their homestay, while the bicycle rental is for the tourists’
convenience to sightsee the state, Penang.

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Furthermore, we not only visited coffee shops that are locatedin Penang but we
have also visited a coffee shop in Kuantan which named New HupLekKopitiam. New
HupLekKopitiam is a business which started by a family and they actually moved from
an old shop to a new shop which is located in Taman Timur. Besides that, their family
business already have 20 years’ time and now the coffee shop is a self-own shop and
continued by the old owner’s son. Also, most of their workers are from home
(housemaid) or hired outside with salary about RM2000. Their business day is from
Monday to Saturday from 8am to 3pm, and they have one day off which is Sunday.New
HupLekKopitiam is selling some foods in their business such as nasilemak, curry mee,
dry mee and so on. Not only the foods are they selling in their business, they also
selling drinks in their business, the most famous drink in their business is their milk tea,
which we call “Teh C” in Malay. Besides that, their business is a local business because
most of their customers are local citizen. Also, most of their local customers are adult,
most of them are male with the age about 20 to 40, it is because most of them are
business man and they will go to New HupLekKopitiam for their breakfast. In our
research, the reasons why peoples went to New HupLekKopitiam are because of the
workers service and effectiveness of the workers, the workers are nice and friendly, and
they served their foods and drinks very fast. Not only the service, customers also said
that the New HupLekKopitiam’s milk tea is the best in town.
For the promotion, they mostly promote their foods and drinks through the
customers and they have no distribution to other places, they sold their products only at
the business premise. They have told us that they need more customers to promote
their products, it is because the area that they starting their business have many

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competitors who also selling the same products, examples of the competitors are
LembingKopitiam, Old Forest Cafe, Lai YienKopitiam and so on. The competitors are
quite threatening because most of the coffee shops are the old business in the area,
and most of the old citizens will go to the other coffee shops to enjoy their food. Also,
some of the competitors are new businesses but their shops have provided Wi-Fi
service to their customers and New HupLekKopitiam does not provided Wi-Fi, therefore
their business are quite threatening by the competitors. So, the only way they can
attract more customers to the shop is to upgrade their products and the worker’s
effectiveness.
The owner also told us that the government does not help them much with the
government policies; it is because the prices of the ingredients have risen over the
years. Besides that, the technology nowadays does not affect their business; it is
because they do not use any of the technology such as promoting their products via
Facebook page. They said that they wanted to continue their business with traditional
way so the new generation will know more about the traditional things.
Lastly, the owner has told us that he is not planning to open more shops because
this is their family business and he should not let outsider to continue their business. He
also said that he hopes to earn more money in the next 10 years because of the
inflation; he also planned to hand over his business to the next generation after he
retired.
After that, we have been able to identify one of the similarities between three of
the coffee shops which is the serving type of the waiters in the coffee shop. The serving

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type of the shops are not self -services but are all well-served by the waiters of the
coffee shop. The waiters there will make sure that the foods and drinks ordered by the
customers are all being sent to them on time and none of the orders will be forgotten.
Besides that, the ordering systems of the three coffee shops are also the same. The
orders are all in hand-written by communicating face to face between the waiters and
the customers. None of the orders are recorded using machine or computerized to
avoid any problems that may occur during the ordering process.
The business types of those three coffee shops are all private limited companies.
Private limited company is a type of company that offers limited liability, or legal
protection for its shareholders but that places certain restrictions on its ownership
(BusinessDictionary.com). There are some differences between the business tactics of
the three coffee shops from the aspect of shop location; the 42 La Bohemeand New
HupLekKopitiam are using their own houses to run their businesses, which mean that
their houses are also their shops. On the other hand, the Moontree47 coffee shop is
separated. Nevertheless, all of them rented for shop lots to run their businesses.
Furthermore, there are also no Wifi services for 42 La Boheme and New
HupLekKopitiam. Two of these coffee shops do not provide Wifi services because the
shops were built a long time ago and at that time there are no Wifi being used. For the
Moontree47 coffee shop, there is Wifi service because the shop has been modified
recently. This is a tactic that being used to attract young customers. We have also
interviewed the owners’ background from 42 La Boheme, New HupLekKopitiam and
Monntree47. The owner of 42 La Boheme is a French, the owner of the Moontree47 is
from Italy whereas for New HupLekKopitiam is a locally Malaysian.

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For the foods and drinks that they sell, since the owners of 42 La Boheme and
Moontree47 are both from Western country, the foods and drinks of the shops are
mostly westernized. The coffee is all imported from foreign countries. Besides, they are
not offering any set meal. Examples for the coffee made in their coffee shops are
cappuccino and latte. Moreover, the foods that they sell are mostly pastries. As for New
HupLekKopitiam, the coffee is locally brewed coffee. This coffee shop doesn’t offer any
set meal too but they sell some local foods such as fried rice and fried noodles that are
just the same with most of the Kopitiam in Malaysia.
Next is the design of the coffee shops, we found out that 42 La Boheme and
Moontree47 are both in British Colonial style. The shops are designed in this style
because both of the shops are old shops that being built during the British colonization.
Whereas for New HupLekKopitiam, it is just an old shop lot similar to the shop lots of
Malaysia. The employees of 42 La Boheme and Moontree47 are all their family
members, none of them are employed. For New HupLekKopitiam, the waiters are all
employed from foreign countries such as Bangladesh. Follow on, 42 La Boheme and
Moontree47 are using technology for their advertisements. They publicize their products
by using Facebook where they create a page for their shops and they promote their
foods and drinks on the Facebook page. For New HupLekKopitiam, the shop already
has about 20 years of operational history so they do not use any technology and also do
not have any advertisement. They got free advertisement by being promoted by the
customers that have patronized their coffee shop. For the customers of three of the
coffee shops, 42 La Boheme and Moontree47 are mostly local and foreigners whereas
New HupLekKopitiam is mostly patronized by locals only. This is because the 42 La

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Boheme and Moontree47 are located in a very famous tourist location which is Penang
while New HupLekKopitiam is located in Kuantan which does not have that many
tourists.
In conclusion, from our visits to 42 La Boheme, Moontree47 and New
HupLekKopitiam, we have identified that 42 La Boheme and Moontree47 are operating
their businesses in 21st
Century way where they are both using communication
technology such as Facebook to help in promoting their shops. Moreover, they are
using heritage buildings to attract tourists too. But this is not the case for New
HupLekKopitiam as they are still operates in the same way since the day they opened
the shop. So, we can say that the tight competitions between businesses in Penang
have lead them to innovate new ways in order to survive while coffee shop in Kuantan is
still operate in a traditional way. And of course, despite the differences between the
Penang coffee shops and Kuantan coffee shop, they are still selling coffees that try to
satisfy their customers. We hoped that the traditional local coffee shop will survive for as
long as possible while the modern coffee shop will continue to invent new way of
operating business.

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Reference
Published Source:
1. Lonely Planet. (1st
Edition-2003). World Food Malaysia and Singapore. (E-book)
Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd. Available at -
http://books.google.com.my/books?id=_MkeiYC5g2kC&pg=PA95&dq=coffee+in+
malaysia&hl=en&sa=X&ei=kn6pUeXIJKafiAL19IDYAw&ved=0CDwQ6AEwAQ#v
=onepage&q=coffee%20in%20malaysia&f=false. (Accessed date 1/6/2013)
2. Lonely Planet. (2009). Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei. (E-book) Lonely Planet
Publications Pty Ltd. Available at -
http://books.google.com.my/books?id=VMKOuzRxOJsC&pg=PA68&dq=kopitiam
+malaysia&hl=en&sa=X&ei=udCpUemIGozjkgXE8YDYAw&ved=0CC8Q6AEwA
A#v=onepage&q&f=false. (Accessed date 1/6/2013)
3. Corby Kummer. (2003).The Joy of Coffee. (E-book) United States of America,
Publisher- Houghton Mifflin Company. Available at-
http://books.google.com.my/books?id=qNLrJqgfg7wC&printsec=frontcover&dq=c
offee+making&hl=en&sa=X&ei=CLKpUeXxCY-
G9QS584HoCw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=coffee%20making&f=false.
(Accessed date 1/6/2013)
4. Lonely Planet. (2008). Borneo. (E-book) Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd.
Available at-
http://books.google.com.my/books?id=vvXoC8F5Oq0C&pg=PA44&dq=coffee+in
+kopitiam&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_bSpUfvGBYm-
9QSiioG4Bg&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=coffee%20in%20kopitiam&f=
false. (Accessed date 1/6/2013)
5. Jean Debernardi. (2009). Penang: Rites of Belonging in a Malaysian Chinese
Community. (E-book) Singapore, Publisher- National University of Singapore.
Available at- http://books.google.com.my/books?id=JWP1m-
nCghgC&pg=PA269&dq=penang+heritage+site&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VNOpUavSM
M3AkQW9nYDwAQ&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=penang%20heritage
%20site&f=false. (Accessed date 1/6/2013)
6. John Ellis. An Historical Account of Coffee. (E-book) Publisher- John Ellis F.R.S
Agent for the Island of Dominica. Available at-
http://books.google.com.my/books?id=0_0aAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq
=coffee+origins&hl=en&sa=X&ei=h32pUaTfMqq6igKKnYCoCw&ved=0CF4Q6AE
wCQ#v=onepage&q&f=false. (Accessed date 1/6/2013)

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7. Michel Picard & Robert E.Wood. (1997). Tourism, Ethnicity, and the State in
Asian and Pacific Societies. (E-book) Publisher- University of Hawaii Press
Books. Available at- http://books.google.com.my/books?id=39-
p0VTOdc8C&pg=PA103&dq=georgetown+heritage+streets&hl=en&sa=X&ei=y4
GpUZLbM4XDigL9vYHoAw&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=georgetown
%20heritage%20streets&f=false. (Accessed date 1/6/2013)
Internet Source:
1. Wong Pow Long. (October 28, 2012). 42 La Boheme Review (Blog).
Retrieved from-http://www.bestpenangfood.com/2012/10/28/42-la-boheme-
review/. (Accessed 1/6/2013)
2. Tourism Penang. George Town Unesco World Heritage Site. (Website).
Available at- http://www.tourismpenang.net.my/. (Accessed date 1/6/2013)
3. My Love My Food. (Friday, May 6, 2011). MoonTree 47 (Blog). Retrieved
from- http://mylovemyfood.blogspot.com/2011/05/moontree-47.html.
(Accessed date 1/6/2013)
4. BusinessDictionary.com. Private Limited Company (Online dictionary).
Retrieved from- http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/private-limited-
company.html. (Accessed 2/6/2013)
“ ….a type of company that offers limited liability, or legal protection for its
shareholders but that places certain restrictions on its ownership.”
(BusinessDictionary.com)

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Team Meeting
29/5/2013
5pm
Library Third Floor
Meeting called by: Cheong Siew Leong Type of meeting: Discussion
Note taker: Cheong Siew Leong
Attendees: Lee Yuan June, Kelvin Chiew, Yip Chin Seng
Minutes
Agenda item: Research Paper Presenter: Cheong Siew Leong
Discussion: Format for the research paper and work distribution
Conclusions: Format for research paper was set and works are distributed to each of the group members
Action items
 Lee Yuan June will work on the Similarities and Differences
 Cheong Siew Leong will do the introduction, conclusion, compiler and
coffee shop 1.
 Edwin Yip Chin Seng and Kelvin Chiew will work on their own coffee
shop which is coffee shop 2 and 3.

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Team Meeting 2
31/5/2013
7pm
Carpenter Workshop
Meeting called by: Cheong Siew Leong Type of meeting: Discussion
Note taker: Cheong Siew Leong
Attendees: Yip Chin Seng, Kelvin Chiew and Lee Yuan June
Minutes
Agenda item: Research Paper Presenter: Cheong Siew Leong
Discussion: Collection and examine of work
Conclusions: Everyone have did their works and handed to Cheong Siew Leong
Action items
 Lee Yuan June finished and handed in Similarities and Differences
 Cheong Siew Leong finished the introduction, conclusion and coffee
shop 1. He will do the compilation work.
 Edwin Yip Chin Seng and Kelvin Chiew finished and handed in their
works on coffee shop 2 and 3 respectively.

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Appendix
Moontree 47:
42 La Boheme:

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New HupLekKopitiam and its competitors:

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