Why cereal bars are the new benchmarks of hipsters in regressive triple

Chocapic, Crunch, Frosties, Smacks, Lion, Honey Pops and many others.About fifty cereals and colors are displayed on the shelves of the first Parisian cereal bar.Cé-Réaliste has moved more than about the Picasso museum.After New York and London, the capital had its latest element to make it the new temple of hipsters: the Décorée Cereal Bar.It was in March of last year.And behind the opening buzz, the fashion and novelty effect, customers continue to flock."Our typical customers are 25-35 year olds who grew up in the 90s and who want to get into regressive mode", analyzes Fred Chauvet, co-founder of the brand with 4 friends.The place plays the vintage card with many super hero figurines from comics in decoration that rub shoulders with a legendary games with some legendary games.

Customers still hurries in the store: from 60 to 70 customers during the week, double from Friday.Flouring tourists in the marsh at the suburbs who came specially to savor a bowl of cereals, the store brews a heterogeneous audience.The prices offered do not make tasks in the very chic Parisian district: 5.5 euros the small bowl, 6.5 for the large with a possible increase according to the ingredients.Prices that inflated during the move of Beaubourg to the Marais because they were moving at the start between three and five euros."For the greediest, we can arrive at 8 euros but it will last you for hours," said the co -founder of the brand.And to tell the truth given the list of ingredients, doubt is not allowed: to the choice of cereals, there are a milk among fifteen possibilities: coconut, rice, soy, almond, almond,hazelnut, etc... Sans oublier l'accompagnement choisi parmi les Kinder Country, M&M's, Oreo ou encore OJ Crunch.The icing on the cake the possibility of adding cut fruits on which a nutella, caramel or even salted butter sauce will fall..Everything you need for blood sugar to make a diabetic pale.

In cereal bars, "everything is salable, apart from the sellers"

All this to taste on site or take away in a shop where everything is ultra marketed.The floor and the walls are immaculate white, adorned with decorations sold by artists for the occasion."We started in events in music and art, sums up Fred Chauvet.We also sold our clothing brand, Louis Cochon.We needed a food part.Suddenly during a watered evening, we thought of the cereal bar ".And in fact the cereal bar is only one element of the concept store set up by the five friends.A part of American grocery store with imported products, including cereals, rub shoulders with board games like Monopoly Nintendo or Star Wars figurines.Beside the clothes of the Brand des Compaes are on sale like works of art.In the basement is even, the hive, a tattoo lounge.

But what was the business model of this real concept store containing a cereal bar?"If we only had a cereal bar, it could not be profitable in a neighborhood like the marsh given the rents practiced, explains Fred Chauvet.But we have never done our business-plan only on the cereal bar because we sell a lot of clothing and grocery products.We also provide outside services.Here everything is Venders Vendeurs ".A way to differentiate yourself from competitors who arrived on the market and which center their business model often on cereals.

The place was financed by friends: 20.000 euros for the first shop near Beaubourg and 80.000 for that of the Marais."When we proposed a cereal bar to banks, they have necessarily been very reluctant," laughs the co-founder of Cé-Réaliste.And opening projects soon in franchise in France and abroad are under study.

Cereal bars, a gentrification instrument?

While a London cereal bar had been attacked in September 2015 by anti-nomerrification activists in Shoreditch, Cé-Réaliste dismisses any trial of intention in the matter."All the founders come from the Parisian suburbs, from an environment where we have learned to be done by ourselves, defends the co-founder of the brand.Guys from 93 who gentrify the marsh, I think it is not possible ".Before letting go of a small tackle coded to the competition: "We would be in the 18th century but in the marsh no".

Same speech for Flakes, a cereal bar which opened in the fall of 2016, in Ménilmontant (XXth), in a district which still remains popular.There too, we refuse the gentrifier label."Yes I wanted to create a cereal bar in a popular neighborhood because I like this district" advances Cindy, its thirty -year co -founder.The founder, who worked in the advertisement in Seattle, defends herself to participate in the confuse of the neighborhood: "At the beginning I ciblanted the thirty -something who could be tempted by the regressive codes and the cocoon atmosphere of a refuge which recalls the'childhood.But today I have elderly or women with their children.My turnover is made on premises ".

And for amateurs who have not yet encountered a cereal bar, the concept is trying everywhere: in Paris other openings are in the pipes, in addition to the Harper's in Jules Joffrin, Toulouse recently had its cereal lovers and... Clermont Ferrand a aussi son Bol&Bagel Cereal bar monté par un couple franco-américain.And cereal producers are not to be outdone with Kellogg's who launched his own cereal bar in New York.According to the brand, no project of the same type is on the agenda in France.Despite everything, the fans of Madeleine de Proust have not finished rehashing their darling past.