Summer fun food and drink - Starbucks in decline chapter two · Thursday July 10, 2008 by colin newell
Listen here for our radio interview today… Flash thingie below – if you cannot see that, click here for the mp3.
Starbucks in decline chapter two
“We are immune to economic ups and downs!” At the dawn of the 21st century, that has always been the bleat of the Starbucks upper Echelon.
While most restaurants feel the squeeze in hard times, as consumers stay home for more Mac and Cheese, Starbucks’ Vente-latte-sipping well-to-dos will keep coming back for more. Or so the economic theory dictates.
Truth is – luxury brands attract premium customers who are less sensitive to economic swings. Better job security and more income to ride out the lows. “When Starbucks continued to rack up impressive gains through 2002 and 2003, analysts went so far as to label the company “recession-proof.” Like the Titanic I suppose.
The past few years have seen a multi-faceted rebuild and re-branding of the Starbucks mission. In its insatiable desire for unchecked growth, the company automated too much of the artistry once known as specialty Coffee. Out with the La Marzocco manual machines – and in with robotic coffee. Starbucks as a therapeutic “alternative – not the home not the office space” for its customers, has given way to drive-through windows, interstate off-ramp kiosks and questionable reconstituted greasy breakfast sandwiches and Cd shills.
Two sucker punches come along. Overbuilding and under-training, and coffee that suffered – even to my grizzled taste buds. As people became more educated about what a real coffee should taste like (thanking Starbucks in the 80’s): consumers sought out the mom-and-pop coffee shops (in the U.S. up 40 per cent to 14,000) — with an seemingly endless cortège of thirsty Starbucks refugees.
During one of its costume changes, Starbucks has attracted a new type of customer, one drawn to the fashion statement of the specialty coffee experience, but lacking the requisite bling to sustain a daily double-tall Vente Macchiato habit.
So, the U.S. housing market collapses – a threat of layoffs, these lower- and middle-income Americans are forgoing the to-go cups. Caramel lattes or a a gallon of gas? Gas wins.
They wanted to win everyones heart in order to sustain their growth – and have ended up leaving us with a caffeine withdrawal induced headache – that isn’t going away anytime soon.
Remember this? Chairman Howard Schultz once said coffee drinkers who try out cheaper competitors will upgrade to Starbucks.
“Those consumers over time are going to trade up. They’re going to trade up because they are not going to be satisfied with the commoditized experience or the flavor,” he said.
Your right Howard. We got sick of the flavor. And we moved on.
Thanks for the memories.
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Summer all fun, food and drink marathon - The Otto Espresso maker · Sunday July 6, 2008 by colin newell
Sydney Australia – A city of 4 million souls who live in an espresso crazy society. For Craig Hiron, a youthful 36 year old living in one of Australia’s most populated cities, bright ideas are merely a cup of coffee away.
And so it was – that he and his circle of free-spirited 30-something friends would gather (like so many other young people around the globe) looking for the answer to life’s age old problems and questions.
Photo above: The Otto Espresso maker is the product of passion, Australian ingenuity and the burning desire for award winning fine design.
For Craig, a young man who has plied his trade as a professional roofer and successfully migrated into the film and entertainment industry… the question burned within him: “What does this city need? Why do my people need? What contribution can I make?”
Sydney is noted for its spectacular Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, and its beaches. The metropolitan area is surrounded by national parks, and contains many bays and inlets. But on the street level, Espresso coffee is the language of its people. Australia, in general, is quickly becoming an espresso-centric society – and that means, Espresso coffee is the building block of all its coffee beverages. Neato. For me, that means heaven!
Minor digression. Sydney resident Craig Hiron’s creative light-bulb kind of flashed in an unexpected and amusing way. He had urged his friends to talk amongst themselves – and those friends with their tertiary friends… “What is that it thing that we Sydney young people need… that would be really cool? If we can collectively think of it, I promise you… I will build it!”
Good thing – Craig was good and ready to put his money where his coffee cup was… but what came of this exercise?
In the middle of one of their brain-storms, one of the gals popped into it, midstream, offering… “Those blasted people over at Ya-da Ya-da Coffee Company are useless! I am trying to get a widget-gadget for my 50 year old Atomic coffee and they are hopeless!”
The idea hit Craig like a sack of unroasted Arabica coffee.
Take one 50 year old coffee maker. Update that coffee maker. Sydney society needs a coffee maker to put Australia on the map and into the coffee culture history books for all time. It just made sense.
But what of the name Otto? True story. The name of this new coffee maker comes from the 1st born Son from within Craig’s creative and bright circle of friends.
Additionally, all the research and development is taking place within the community of Sydney, Australia – all paid for by Craig and a handful of his friends.
Craig and I spoke over a trans-pacific phone line for over a half-hour. His infectious laugh and sense of humor did little to hide his burning passion for all things caffeine. We will be hearing more from this story – as it happens.
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Summer all fun, food and drink marathon why is this family smiling · Friday July 4, 2008 by colin newell
Why is this family smiling? Well. To be honest, I think they have been watching my latest CoffeeCrew.Com poll with great interest. I picked out, what I thought, were the most promising 12 cafes in Victoria – excluded communities include Oak Bay, Esquimalt, Western Communities and anything North of the Malahat.
And yes, that leaves out some pretty amazing places – but one thing at a time.
The purpose of all of this, apart from the shameless self-promotion that I am getting… walked into The Black Stilt cafe today and introduced myself to the owner and he pointed out the giant banner over the food display case… CoffeeCrew.com is holding a poll of the cities best cafe – so vote for us or get the heck out!
Or something like that. Cannot be sure really. Seemed threatening. Then again maybe not.
That and the winner gets a custom Reg Barber tamper for the Bar – made in solid gold, silver or maybe aluminum… and a handle of organic farmed bird friendly balsa.
It also gives me a sense of how many CoffeeCrew readers, if any, live in Victoria.
So far I am pretty sure that there is at least 1. We have had about 200 votes in 24 hours – and you can only vote once in 24 hours… unless you change locations really quickly.
The 3 voters in the photo above seem pretty cheerful. I figure they have visited all 12 cafes today and sampled most of the drinks – the kid is probably on her 20th espresso – which would account for her cheerfulness. The parents, I gather, will be awake for a few more days.
Anyway. Vote for your favorite.
And feel good about it.
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Short-Take: Portland’s Coffee Central · Wednesday July 2, 2008 by colin newell
Portland is that third city on the West Coast that is similar to Vancouver and Seattle.
Comparable in size to Vancouver, both cities share many similarities: industry, port city, wet winters, trendy urban districts, fiery-hot real estate markets…the list could go on.
The Portland coffee scene seems to be on-par with Vancouver’s as well. Two weeks ago, I visited the city for an annual sports competition I compete in, and made some time to check out the city and the coffee scene within.
After some research and mapping out good coffee spots around the city relative to my hotel, Stumptown Coffee Roasters looked to be the spot. Cruising through some of Portland’s more historic neighborhoods in the Hawthorne district, I arrived at Stumptown.
The original location where roasting occurs daily, I thought this would be the location to take in the full Stumptown experience. Housed in an old low-rise brick warehouse, the location is in a quiet residential neighborhood; the perfect setting for a great coffee meeting place. I decided to start the tasting off with an espresso macchiato, a good choice to test out the espresso.
Hair Bender is their espresso mainstay; it is a lighter roast, sort of a northern Italian style. These guys know how to prepare a proper bar drink as well. After cruising around the back of the retail store and snooping around their roaster and bins of ready-to-roast green beans, I gained the sense that these guys are really into the source of their product.
Cruising through their website, the focus on supporting sustainable growers and the socio-economic aspects of coffee overseas certainly appears to be a focus for this company. I then grabbed an Americano for the road, and 1lb. of Hair Bender whole beans to enjoy once back in Vancouver.
There are five locations of Stumptown in the Portland area, and two locations much closer to me in downtown Seattle. I came away from my visit making some very similar comparison to a few coffee shops in Vancouver. JJ Bean and 49th Parallel could be seen as the Vancouver equivalents of this Portland shop. I will say that the Stumptown espresso is right up there with the best I have had on the West-Coast (considered to be coffee-central for North America). As well as checking out a few more independent coffee shops in the Portland area, I can now say that this city has just one more thing in common with it’s two Pacific-Northwest sister cities to the north.
Dave Reimer is a Vancouver resident, gold medalist rower, itinerant dude and all around great guy. His contributions periodically grace the coffeecrew blog.
