A small coffee stall outside a corporate office turned into a surprisingly busy business experiment for content creator Devansh Tyagi, who wanted to find out how much a person could make by selling coffee to office-goers. Tyagi set up a temporary stall, priced each cup at Rs 40 and spent the day serving employees during their morning and evening breaks. By the end of the experiment, he claimed that he had sold 450 cups, bringing in Rs 18,000 in total sales. However, the figure represents revenue, not profit, as the cost of coffee, milk, flavours, cups, gas and other supplies would have to be deducted.
A small stall gets ready before office hours
Tyagi documented the experiment in a video shared on Instagram. The video showed him preparing the stall with a table, gas stove, instant coffee, milk, cups, utensils and other ingredients. He said he wanted to create a coffee experience that felt closer to a cafe while keeping the price at Rs 40 a cup. “Let’s see how much money can be earned by selling coffee outside the corporate office. I arranged everything in the morning, and at 10 o’clock, my small coffee shop was ready,” Tyagi said. He then prepared the milk and introduced four flavours to make the coffee more appealing to customers. “Then I quickly boiled the milk on the gas, and to give the customers a cafe-like coffee feel, I used four flavours. Then I mixed the coffee and milk well, and my premium coffee was ready,” he explained.Once the stall opened, Tyagi began interacting with customers and asking them about the taste. The first few hours gave him an encouraging start. “The morning break of the office started, and customers started coming, and the feedback was also very cool,” he said. According to Tyagi, he sold around 40 cups during the first two hours.
Evening rush pushes sales higher
The demand did not remain constant throughout the day. Tyagi said business slowed down during the afternoon before picking up again when employees stepped out in the evening. As the crowd increased, he had to prepare the drinks faster to keep up with the orders. “That’s why I increased the speed of making my coffee, and now I had become a coffee machine. My hands were working at double speed, and the cash was coming non-stop,” he said. The growing demand eventually created another problem. Tyagi ran out of coffee stock while the stall was still operating. By the end of the experiment, he claimed that he had sold 450 cups.At Rs 40 per cup, 450 cups would generate Rs 18,000 in gross sales. But that amount should not be confused with earnings or profit. The experiment, as described in the video, does not provide a complete breakdown of expenses such as ingredients, disposable cups, fuel, equipment, transportation or any other costs. That distinction is important because a business can have high sales while its actual profit is considerably lower.
Viewers question whether the model can work every day
The video also sparked a debate among viewers about whether the result could be repeated as a regular business. Some users pointed out that a one-day experiment may not reflect the reality of running a coffee stall every day. The location, office crowd, customer curiosity and support from people who knew about the experiment could all have influenced the sales. One viewer commented, “Brother, you have made the coffee business look very easy in this video, but in reality, it is not that easy…” Another user argued that the experiment should not automatically be treated as evidence of a sustainable daily income, writing, “It was an experiment by a reel maker, and corporate employees supported him for a day.”Others raised another practical concern: finding and retaining a suitable location. A temporary stall outside an office may attract customers, but running a permanent street-side business can involve competition, local restrictions, permissions and changing customer demand. One viewer noted that a person may also face competition from existing tea and coffee sellers operating in the same area. For now, Tyagi’s experiment offers a simple takeaway: selling 450 cups at Rs 40 can produce Rs 18,000 in gross sales in a day, but turning that one-day result into a reliable business would require much more than making coffee quickly. It would depend on consistent demand, manageable costs, a suitable location and the ability to keep customers coming back.