The Setup
Awhile ago, I used to frequent the Coventry neighborhood in Cleveland, and hanging around Revolution Records and the Arabica coffeehouse were the fun things to do. It was important for me to get out to Arabica from time to time, to gab with the folks that went there so I could gauge their musical tastes and what was relevant topic-wise on their minds. Plus the fact that a few of my professors also spent time there: getting some face-to-face time or a smaller group chat helped the educational process.
Sometimes it’d be a bit smoky there, and sometimes there would be a silly guy (or gal) spouting off about something silly (and frequently nonsensical) about somesuch or nonsuch, but it was usually quite nice and fairly quiet (not too much background crowd noise that would drown out conversation among “decent folk”).
It seems like just yesterday, but actually it’s been more than twenty years.
Oh, how times have changed.
The Premise
Last month, I encountered a post about the reaction of independent coffee vendors to Starbucks’ [SBUX] recent events. In it, Melissa posits that while Starbucks dots the landscape, there is still plenty of room for the independents, and there is no longer the apprehension (or outright fear) of competition from Starbucks that there used to be. The comparison that is alluded to is the difference between a McDonald’s [MCD] and a fine dining restaurant, where Starbucks represents the McD’s of gourmet coffee.
This is a healthy outlook for many coffee beverage vendors because otherwise, Starbucks itself would be lurking around every corner in a stagnant market, with very little drive to innovate. Of course, given the condition of today’s economy, that would most likely spell doom for the company.
Irony is the Strangest Form of Flattery
In an ironic twist, if Starbucks is the McD’s of gourmet coffee, what does that make McDonald’s itself? As you may have heard, or in my case, personally experienced, McDonald’s has also entered into the gourmet coffee dispensing business. Unfortunately for McD’s, and luckily for Starbucks, the gourmet coffee machinery is considered to be an optional purchase that many franchisees have chosen not to obtain, thereby making Starbucks a viable venture in many densely populated areas that share confluence with the local McDonald’s stores.
The Action
So, while I’m still doing the massive 90-mile driving course of Starbucks stores, I’m also still looking for that cool, traditional, avant-garde coffeehouse that I started with, decades ago. I’m sure they exist somewhere in my area, along with smaller coffee retailer chains, but given the vast areas I pass through, it seems less likely that I’ll encounter one that is as convenient (or as omnipresent) as Starbucks.
Plus, let’s not forget the Starbucks Card. 
N.B.
Other potential titles:
- Renaissance of the Old Coffeehouse? Finally…?
- The Romance of the Old Coffeehouse
