An Idea So Crazy it Just Might Work
October 22nd, 2007 by Brotherhood of the Bean
Picture this… you have a nice little coffee shop, you have built up a nice and loyal customer base, life is pretty good. One morning you hear that a new tenant will be move in next door.
You find yourself hoping they will be cool and begin to think about ways to generate more traffic for each other, whatever their business might be. And then you learn who is coming — Starbucks.
Time stops for what seems like eternity as you contemplate the horror and impending doom. But then you break the spell and decide you aren’t going to roll over and die, you decide to fight.
In what can only be described as a classic David versus Goliath fight, one Salt Lake City coffee house found itself in this exact situation.
For two months now the Cafe Villa Bella coffee house has been waging a veritable coffee war against Starbucks and using the leviathan’s reputation and consumer draw to the smaller shops advantage.
As independent shops, Bella Villa and other local merchants are free to add whatever they want to their menus, or stores. Starbucks is for the most part constrained by it’s corporate image and corporate approved products.
By incorporating unique aspects in their shops such as live music, local art, full meals, and any number of other unique measures that Starbucks cannot, they have been doing what so many independent coffee shops have failed to do — Use Starbucks against Starbucks.
Its an idea just crazy enough that it might work. Best of luck Bella Villa, we will be thinking about you!
Posted: 10:07 AM- OGDEN - A small coffee shop in Ogden has been serving up specialty brews for about seven months.
And for the last two, Cafe Ville Bella has had new neighbors — coffee behemoth Starbucks.
The owners of Ville Bella says it’s good and bad. Starbucks draws more people to the area, but the small shop is also in direct competition with the popular coffee chain.
Ville Bella and other independent shops have been trying to set their businesses apart by offering things like meals to local arts and music.
This entry was posted on Monday, October 22nd, 2007 at 3:18 PM and is filed under Coffee News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:25 AM
I’m cheering for your Cafe Villa Bella, Cappuccino!!
I love David and Goliath stories (in which David wins in the end, of course). I myself love the homey touches to mom and pop cafes–so I hope that really works out for them, and the locals can appreciate it too.
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:12 AM
Starbucks’ strength is their numbers, recognition, and consistency. People know they can go in there and get the same cup of coffee that they can get in their home town, or down the road, or in the mall. It’s not bad coffee, it’s a safe choice.
It’s also not all that great! 9/10 you’re going to get a better cup of joe from an independent shop, people that are free to experiment and perfect their recipes and techniques. That can go bad too, but if the shop’s been around chances are they’ve got their method down.
Given a choice between a local shop with personality–something that looks nice and has good coffee/food smells wafting out–and a starbucks, I’m going to choose the local shop. If I see a starbucks and a hole in the wall with nothing making it stand out, I’m going to go to the starbucks.