Let me first point-out that:

1. I don't drink coffee and so...

2. I've never been to Roka Moka in Parker.

While driving to work today, the question struck me again...how is Roka Moka staying in business?

Most every day I have to drive by their coffee hut off Parker Road between Lincoln and E-470 and I have seen 2 cars at their stand in probably 2 months...and I'm driving during morning rush hour. To the uninitiated eye, the stand looks like an oversized abandoned outhouse in the parking lot of a vacant office building. Unless one knows better, folks driving by would have a hard time knowing a coffee business was waiting to take their orders.

I then read the owners are from Salem Oregon and thought their drive-thru coffee concept would work in Parker.

What? That doesn't sound very promising. I've lived in Salem Oregon...and it's nothing like Parker Colorado.

Salem:

1. Very liberal attitudes/viewpoints/mindsets/business ideas in a very liberal state.

2. Capitol of Oregon and populated primarily by public/state employees, college students, and other types where getting coffee at a coffee kiosk might be the highlight (and only productive activity) of their day.

3. Net influx of population during the day...city not spread out.

Parker:

1. Very conservative attitudes/viewpoints/mindsets/business ideas in the most conservative county in Colorado.

2. A bedroom community where the vast majority of the population go somewhere else outside the city to work (and I emphasize "work").

3. Net outflow of population during the day...very spread out...business convenience/location rule.

My point? COMPLETELY different demographics, traffic patterns, work patterns, and priorities between Salem and Parker.

Then there were the recent local newspaper stories on Roka where the owners were practically begging for customers to try them out along with all the reasons why folks should. Desperation is never a good business model and neither is berating your potential customer base for not keeping you in business.

I do admire the owners' pursuit of their dream. It takes guts to start and run your own business. Maybe things are going just fine now and I'm just driving by the Roka Moka stand when there isn't a line of cars going around the place. I really don't know.

God bless ya Roka...I give you credit for trying.

Editor's note: Click here to read a previous YourHub.com story about Roka Moka.