The Manhattan location of Central Perk should have made it easy to get customers, but the caf茅 always seemed perplexingly under-visited, to the point where one orange couch was (almost) always free. Will this count against its value?
We combed through hours of Friends to get an average on how many people visited the coffee shop, along with an average order value and estimated weekly takings to help put together a valuation of Central Perk.
Check out our valuation below, and see how much Gunther could expect to make if he decided that he could no longer be there for you.
Annual Takings from Central Perk
To try and estimate Central Perk鈥檚 takings as closely as we could, we watched a few episodes to see how many people are in the shop at any time. From our 鈥渞esearch鈥� and extrapolating the numbers out we guestimated that in an hour there were:
鈥� Twelve people sat down
鈥� Thirty thirsty people getting coffee to go
With people both drinking coffee and having the occasional pastry, we put an average order value at a reasonable $7. With a 10-hour opening time, and forty two people being served in an hour, that would put Gunther鈥檚 daily takings at $2,940. Multiplied by 365 days in a year, we get $1,073,100 in a year. Not bad for a coffee shop!
Central Perk Annual Takings
拢697,515
Central Perk Property Value
Given the size and placement of the coffee shop, we don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 too likely to be owned by Gunther himself. Given he would be renting; the premises would be worth $0 to him.
Central Perk Property Value
拢0
Central Perk Asset Value
Whilst there are quite a few chairs (and a familiar orange couch...) the real asset value comes from the coffee machines. We鈥檒l give the shop a total asset value of $38,000 / 拢25,000. Adding these together, we come to our price.
Central Perk Asset Value
拢25,000
Central Perk Total Valuation
Rather than using annual takings, we鈥檝e used looked at what he鈥檇 make in just under six months to get a representative price for the coffee shop. Whilst it might seem quite low, were Gunther to own the space the shop is in, it would cost much more to buy. The coffee seems good and the seating looks comfortable, though he could probably bring in more customers if he booked Phoebe to serenade the coffee shop with Smelly Cat more often.
