Here’s an interesting question to consider: are big chains like Starbucks and Wal-Mart actually as harmful to mom and pop shops as common wisdom dictates? Not so fast, says Temple University prof Bryan Simon, who tells Reuters that that it least when it comes to Starbucks (sorry, Wal-Mart), the assumption is flat wrong:
“‘In fact, Starbucks created the market for the small coffee shop,’ says Bryant, whose new book ‘Everything but the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks’ is due to be released in October.
Simon argues that 20 years ago you couldn’t find a ‘good’ cup of coffee anywhere, until Starbucks came along and ‘created a desire and a taste for specialty coffee’ that eventually gave birth to the corner specialty coffee shop.”
So the guy’s got a book to sell, and those kinds of statements make headlines because they fly in the face of what most entrepreneurial types believe to be true. But what do you think? Does the argument hold water? For once we’ll refrain from commentary until you weigh in. More tomorrow…
Tags: big business, small business, starbucks
It’s kind of ironic that Starbucks came in on a revolution of a “better cup of coffee” and now it’s known for mediocre-crappy coffee (at least in my neck of the woods). I think “we owe Starbucks for specialty coffee stores” is far-fetched. I remember Starbucks putting a lot of coffee shops out of business a few years ago. Now (again, in my neck of the woods), coffee shops within a five-block radius are actually doing quite well … and largely because they brand themselves as offering premium coffee (including $8 vacuum-brewed coffee).
I think you have to give Starbucks credit for their ingenious marketing and world wide expansion. After all, they did start out as a mom & pop business in Seattle in 1971. Until Starbucks franchised all over, no one was serving anything but plain black coffee with cream and sugar. I think that Simon makes a valid point. And… I still go to Starbucks because I consistently know what I’m going to get… even if others have come along and serve a better quality brew.
Yeah, one thing I forgot to say was that they do create a consistent brew (and I’m guilty as charged for being a regular), but it’s just funny to me that it’s now the “McDonald’s of coffee” and it was once heralded as something greater. I just wish it was consistently good coffee!