in economic terms, coffee is a complementary good to coffee
Starbucks, friend of the independent coffee house:
…Strange as it sounds, the best way to boost sales at your independently owned coffeehouse may just be to have Starbucks move in next-door.
That’s certainly how it worked out for Hyman. Soon after declining Starbucks’s buyout offer, Hyman received the expected news that the company was opening up next to one of his stores. But instead of panicking, he decided to call his friend Jim Stewart, founder of the Seattle’s Best Coffee chain, to find out what really happens when a Starbucks opens nearby. “You’re going to love it,” Stewart reported. “They’ll do all of your marketing for you, and your sales will soar.” The prediction came true: Each new Starbucks store created a local buzz, drawing new converts to the latte-drinking fold. When the lines at Starbucks grew beyond the point of reason, these converts started venturing out – and, Look! There was another coffeehouse right next-door! Hyman’s new neighbor boosted his sales so much that he decided to turn the tactic around and start targeting Starbucks. “We bought a Chinese restaurant right next to one of their stores and converted it, and by God, it was doing $1 million a year right away,” he said…
January 7th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Like most business “discoveries”, piggybacking on the marketing might of the dominant brand isn’t a new idea. In the ’70s when Burger King was expanding they had a policy of locating next to existing McDonald’s stores.
January 9th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I noticed this a long time ago. When I got out of the Army and started school at the University of Washington in 87 the coffee boom was getting underway there. On drives back home to Michigan the good coffee ended at the Cascades. Once Starbucks went national in a big way you could get good coffee (frequently better than Starbucks) in places like Minot or Bozeman.
January 9th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
In Boston, though, we had The Coffee Connection before Starbucks, and then, after Starbucks bought them out, we had … Starbucks, mostly. And I know, there are one-off coffee places in Somerville and Harvard Square and similar tony places, but… we had a Coffee Connection out in Lexington, and now we have … Starbucks. And Peet’s, if going to a mini-starbucks with patchouli scented baristas is your bag of roast.
I miss the Coffee Connection, but I don’t blame Starbucks. I blame the owners of CC, who sold out to SB.
January 10th, 2008 at 10:23 am
[quote comment="115186"]I noticed this a long time ago. When I got out of the Army and started school at the University of Washington in 87 the coffee boom was getting underway there. On drives back home to Michigan the good coffee ended at the Cascades. Once Starbucks went national in a big way you could get good coffee (frequently better than Starbucks) in places like Minot or Bozeman.[/quote]
Fascinating.
May 25th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Thanks very much for the review! Got these up now and I figured I had better do a little research before buying, and I’m glad I did. I’ll save my money.