When does a local business enterprise, lauded for being unique, different, and — because of being local — inherently good become a chain? Two stores? Four? A dozen? At what point does a business, lauded for bringing a unique experience to the masses, become vilified for the sameness and blandness of the experience, which remains the very experience we asked it to provide all along?
There are many out there, I know, who denigrate Starbucks’ coffee — let alone “the Starbucks experience” — but let’s face facts. Before Starbucks raised the bar, there simply was no significant market for gourmet coffee. In making and taking advantage of this market, they have opened the way for thousands of coffee roasters and small local shops to do business. In fact, one might argue that the cheapening of the Starbucks experience presents an excellent opportunity for another renewal in the market. I’m not talking McDonald’s, either. It will be an unseen renewal, noted perhaps only by whatever small industry groups represent the independent coffee shop. Here again, though, is a fine line to walk. How much of the ease of the Starbucks experience will we give up in order to feel fully actualized in our coffee habits again? Will we wait patiently for a better cup of coffee? Nobody makes it faster than the guys in green. Will we enjoy a more complex roast? One of Starbucks’ advantages is that it will be the same every time. Will we spend time searching for coffee shops near our hotels, instead of just asking where the nearest Starbucks is? Will we frequent the copycats (Tullys, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Caribou Coffee) with the vain hope that this other experience will be more unique, by virtue of being available in fewer places and to fewer people, than the other?
Do the very patterns that enable success doom the large coffee chain to mediocrity? I’m sure these are the questions that Howard Schultz asks himself every day as he attempts to revive and revitalize his company’s brand and mission.