Starbucks
I was reading this hatchet job from Reuters about Starbucks because, well, I’m a glutton for intellectual punishment. It’s about how Starbucks has been experimenting with stores using other branding, trying to go for a more local feel.
This article posits that “Perhaps consumer really do want something more than branded artifice; they want something genuinely local.” Bullshit.
This is wishful thinking on the part of people with a fetish for local mom-and-pop businesses. They write the same victory speeches on their LiveJournals every time one Wal-Mart moves out of a neighborhood, despite the fact that for every instance of that hundreds more move in.
Starbucks is facing attacks on all sides. They’ve got Peet’s and Caribou growing quickly. They’ve got McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts both heavily promoting their coffee lines these days. They’ve got the fact that they drastically overbuilt in the first place (though I thank them for it, as it inspired what was quite possibly the greatest standup comedy bit of all time) coupled with a double-digit unemployment rate that makes people think twice about that daily $5 cup of joe.
True, they do have local coffee shops improving the quality of their offerings as a direct response to Starbucks. Unlike retail, which is all about using volume to reduce costs while retaining a thin sliver of a profit margin, it’s not nearly so hard for local businesses to compete in an industry with 1,000% markup. The fact that they have to buy their coffee for 20% more than the chains is virtually irrelevant.
But people don’t give a shit about locality or being different, at least not enough people to matter. They all eat at Fridays and Olive Garden and shop at Wal-Mart and Target. Hell, go to any public place and at least 75% of people are wearing pants made of the same fabric and in the same color. Seinfeld once joked that we all ought to wear the same thing, the way aliens always do in sci-fi movies. Well, we haven’t settled on the shirt yet but we’re half way there.
So it’s hard for me to believe that a nation full of people who all own at least 4 pairs of blue jeans really worry about sameness when it comes to buying a latte. That’s just wishful thinking on the part of people resistant to change.
I don’t know where mom-and-pop stores got this recent mystique, but the whole fetish is just the modern equivalent of tilting at windmills. Thankfully it’s relegated largely to blogs and drum circles too, because I do love my Venti Apple Chai Latte.
December 1, 2009 at 3:59 pm
dude go get another dollar double cheese burger and stuff it down your throat. you have it all backwards. there are millions of people who want something different and not mass produced, not because it makes them feel like they’re changing the world, but because these local items are better for their bodies, better for their environment, and better for the economy. believe it or not people are caring more and more about these things, and maybe its time you start to as well.
December 1, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Do you really think the coffee at a local coffee shop is any better for you than the coffee at Starbucks? It’s actually worse for the environment. Retail and food service chains of all sorts (including Starbucks) invest a lot in logistics, which at the end of the day means less shipping. Every gallon of gasoline they don’t burn is another $3 in their pockets, so they get things from point A to point B with an efficiency that is impossible for mom-and-pop stores reliant on 3rd party transportation.
Most of what hippies like you think is better for your body, environment, and economy turns out not to be upon any serious examination. That won’t sway your opinion though because you’re using logic to justify it rather than form it.
December 1, 2009 at 7:05 pm
December 2, 2009 at 1:43 am
With all due respect, I don’t think I like your attitude. There most certainly is a place for the mom & pop establishments in America espscially coffee shops. While I will agree with you on this point ”
But people don’t give a shit about locality or being different, at least not enough people to matter. ” , you have to understand that there seldom are any alternative to the corporate establishments and people are too lazy to seek out independant alternatives so they ultimately take the path of least resistance. Corporate anything in America pretty much blows. If you can’t agree that indepedant business should be patronized over the corporations than I can only assume that you own stock in Starbucks or know someone who does….either that or you live outside of the U.S. Not only will I continue to seek out independant Family owned alternatives but I will also seek out the ‘Made In America’ label in everything I buy. Shame on you.