Re: My new neighbors

bernie digman wrote:

Inevitably my neighborhood has been invaded by Starbucks. They purchased a lot down the street from the store and will begin building in short time. This will be the third in a town of 80,000. With the lowest demographics of all but Mississippi. We now have a good drive-through and a large enough menu so we are moving away from just concentrating on excellent coffee. Excellent coffee will always lose out to convienience in America. I'm thinking of adding a second window and a fast-order board in the lane to speed things up as much as possible. I figure if I match the speed of a national chain and exceed their quality I'll not lose too much ground. I sure as heck don't kid myself that I'll be competing on a level field, but by moving slightly to a different field we should be doing okay. I'm a firm believer in the old adage that nobody has ever gone broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
Bernie


I deal with the ever increasing competition by maintaining my standards, improving customer service and sticking with the traditional Italian espresso menu. I rarely get asked for anything Starbucks-like, since I train my customers to get addicted to proper coffee. I disagree with Jack in that respect - loyalty is everything here. I can comfortably keep my prices below *$ and give a quality product. In an area where just about every retail operation has a superauto or other espresso machine, or sells a "latte", sometimes for as low as 60p I can't hope to compete on price. I *can* compete on quality, though.

In the last 12 months 4 new operations have or are starting up. They all sell (speciality) coffee, but I'm still here, with an ever growing customer base (at least in the summer :) ). This isn't much of a tourist spot, so repeat business is everything, and to encourage loyalty I do not compromise on quality and I reward customers with the occasional "round on me" etc.

--
Regards, Danny

http://www.gaggia-espresso.com (a purely hobby site)
http://www.malabargold.co.uk (UK/EU ordering for Malabar Gold blend)

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