Inventory, pricing, P&L and all — behind the counter running the whole shop.
Drop it in alongside your retail management and marketing coursework—Kaldi’s Coffee Sim is built with faculty at Mizzou’s Trulaske College of Business for the concepts that don’t stick from a lecture alone.
Turn a profit in the first weeks as manager.
Become the new manager of Kaldi’s Coffee shop — on a college campus, in a hospital, or on a busy city corner. Inventory orders, menu design, pricing, profit and loss: every decision must be made, and every decision shows up in the numbers. The retail management and marketing concepts that are hard to internalize from a textbook turn into choices with consequences, with sales data reacting in real time to what was decided.
It still teaches retail management. It just feels like running a coffee shop.
Platform
Web App
Audience
Undergraduate Retail Marketing and HR Students
Genre
Web
Content
Business Management / Retail Marketing
Built With Faculty. Tested in Real Classrooms.
Kaldi’s Coffee Sim was built directly with Trulaske faculty — Katie Essing, Courtney Cothren, and Anthony Vatterott — and tested the way it matters most: in an actual classroom. It’s been used in Katie Essing’s Retail Marketing class, where students ran their shop and watched the kind of management decisions that are easy to skim past in a textbook turn into something they had to actually own.
It’s one half of a bigger simulation.
Same shop, different lens – see the HR side of Kaldi's Coffee SimWe’re recruiting classes to run the shop.
Kaldi’s Coffee Sim is in active use at Trulaske, and open to other business schools who want the same hands-on management training. Interested in bringing it to your program? Reach out and we’ll talk about what that looks like.
Partner with UsStatus: In Active Use
Kaldi’s Coffee Sim is in active use in Trulaske’s Retail Marketing curriculum, with students stepping into the manager’s seat every semester.
View Developer RoadmapSupported by
Supported By
Kaldi’s Coffee Sim is funded by the Trulaske Experiential Learning Fund.
Meet the Devs
This team can talk water cycle chemistry for an hour and game balance for another hour right after. Here’s the crew who’s bringing MHS into the future.
Joe Griffin
Class
Projects
- vSchool
- Kaldi’s Coffe Simulator
- Mission HydroSci 1.0
Title
Founding Director
Power-Ups
Nachos
Joe Griffin is the Founding Director of Adroit Studios (adroit.missouri.edu) housed in the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri. Since coming to MU, Joe has collaborated on grants totaling over $18 million by providing Game Production expertise as well as other game development services. Joe has designed game-based learning and support systems for individual learning, for collaborative learning, and for nontraditional educational contexts. Joe has worked on the development of iSocial, a 3D VLE for youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Joe was recently working with a team of researchers and developers awarded $10 million to scale up Mission HydroSci (mhs.missouri.edu), a game-based 3D virtual learning system, with funding from the U.S. Department of Education. Joe is also currently working on vSchool, a game based assessment to be used in middle school SEL education funded with $2 million from IES.
Katie Essing
Class
Projects
- Kaldi’s Coffe Simulator
Title
Assistant Teaching Professor
Past Missions
Calico
Power-Up
Any kind of cookies!
Sidekicks
Buttermilk and Asteroff
Katie Essing is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Marketing Department at the Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business, University of Missouri. She is currently teaching retail and digital marketing courses. Essing is an alum of the Trulaske College of Business and was a Sam Walton Scholar. She has over 30 years of experience in marketing, buying, retail, commercial real estate and nonprofit management. Essing is the founder of Strategic Retailer, LLC, providing retail consulting, coaching, education, community building, and related services in support of economic development for merchants.
Angela Jarecki
Class
Projects
- Mission HydroSci 1.0
- vSchool
- Kaldi’s Coffe Simulator
Title
Concept Artist
Past Missions
Sims, BOTW, Animal Crossing
My name is Angela Jarecki, and I’m a graduate of Columbus College and Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration, and the University of Missouri with a Master of Science in Instructional Design. I love how working at Adroit has allowed me to blend my illustration and instructional design skills to help create educational games.
Brian Nielsen
Class
Projects
- Mission HydroSci 1.0
- Kaldi’s Coffe Simulator
Title
Lead Developer
Past Missions
Final Fantasy VIII, Overwatch, Children of Morta, The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima
Power-Ups
Peanut Butter
Sidekick
Rascal (Cat)
Hello! My name is Brian. I’ve just made the switch from full time Civil Engineer to Game Programmer! I’ve been developing games as a hobby for roughly six years and am very excited to be part of the team here at Adroit. Outside of game development I’m a big fan of all things martial arts. I’m currently focusing on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. My favorite video games are Final Fantasy VIII and Overwatch.
Erin Weaver
Class
Projects
- vSchool
Title
Curricular Specialist
Power-Ups
Popcorn & Chocolate
Sidekick
Scout (Dog)
Hi! I’m a former science teacher pursuing my Ed.S in Learning Technologies and Design and a graduate certificate in Serious Games and Simulation Design from Mizzou. I love animals, science, and being outdoors. I currently live in San Francisco with my husband, Brandon, and my fluffy cat Scout.