I was miserably unemployed for awhile after college, and took a drudge job at Starbucks to break the monotony. It turned out to be a really fulfilling experience, so I've got a soft spot for them. And now, Taylor Clark at Slate puts some data behind some arguments I've been using for years to defend my corporate BFF:
Soon after declining Starbucks's buyout offer, Hyman received the expected news that the company was opening up next to one of his stores. But instead of panicking, he decided to call his friend Jim Stewart, founder of the Seattle's Best Coffee chain, to find out what really happens when a Starbucks opens nearby. "You're going to love it," Stewart reported. "They'll do all of your marketing for you, and your sales will soar." The prediction came true: Each new Starbucks store created a local buzz, drawing new converts to the latte-drinking fold. When the lines at Starbucks grew beyond the point of reason, these converts started venturing out—and, Look! There was another coffeehouse right next-door! Hyman's new neighbor boosted his sales so much that he decided to turn the tactic around and start targeting Starbucks. "We bought a Chinese restaurant right next to one of their stores and converted it, and by God, it was doing $1 million a year right away," he said.
The article also mentions that, unlike Wal-Mart, they don't compete on price, so they actually have to make people like their products, which is a depressingly rare corporate strategy. But I also think Starbucks was responsible for introducing the whole concept of "good coffee" to the American conscience, thereby expanding the market for indie cafes. Many people think Starbucks coffee is swill, but I bet the only reason it occurs to them to make that judgment is because Starbucks spent the last fifteen years saturating them with the idea that coffee is something they should be picky about. That's the sort of meme you can only propagate if you're a very big company, and indie cafes should be somewhat glad that Starbucks spent the billions of dollars needed to spread that message for them.
I always wondered if my San Francisco location gave me a false impression of a robust, diverse cafe economy in America. I mean, if there's going to be a Starbucks backlash anywhere, it's gonna be here. But it sounds like small cafes are doing well anywhere that there's demand for them. I certainly don't think Starbucks is perfect (I hang out in indies usually), and I sympathize with anyone who hates the coffee or the cloying ads, but overall it's a good thing they're in business.
(via Daring Fireball)