Wednesday, July 29, 2009

What To Do Against Big Boys

OK, I haven't had time to have coffee at the legendary murkycoffee at Clarendon and now they had closed the cafe down and moved to near Chinatown. But this op-ed by its former owner Nick Cho, is worth to ponder.
But if Starbucks brings one of these new concepts to Washington, I'll be among the first in line. To me, Starbucks is only a problem if the quality of their coffee gets worse, and this new spinoff might help it get better. (If they want to compete with the likes of Victrola and other great third-wave coffee bars, it's going to have to get a lot better.)

I hope the coffee wars help nudge the caliber of all coffee upward. Just because you're not a corporate behemoth doesn't mean you serve delicious brew. The dirty little secret of most independent coffee shops is that they don't know how or don't care to serve high-quality coffee. They believe that furnishing their shops with comfy chairs and knowing the names of their customers' dogs is all that matters.
Bottom line: competition is good. And if you have the right taste of (real) espresso, burger as good as Ray's Hell Burger, or rigorous research methodology; you shouldn't worry about Starbucks, McD, or any "imperialist" field of science.

4 comments:

  1. But it important to realize that people didn't drink the coffee alone, they "drink" the barista, "drink" the service, and "drink" the convenience. Sometime it will be more than a taste.

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  2. i think you need to be more careful here.

    competitions based on free markets are good. but not all big boys become big because of free market competition.

    second, free market does not automatically produce competition. that's why - to my understanding - we have anti trust laws.

    btw, i have added you as a friend in facebook for ages, but still no reply. why?

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  3. free market is good, may be best. Ironically it's also still a myth, I mean there are no real "free" competition ever exist. But it important to keep free market paradigm and hope it will be come true

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