If Starbucks coffee shops located across the street from each other, can compete with each other, then anyone, supplying a quality product can as well.
After all, if Starbucks can make a profit by putting its stores right across the street from each other, as it so often does, why couldn’t a unique, well-run mum and dad do even better next-door? And given America’s continuing thirst for exorbitantly priced gourmet coffee drinks, there is a lot of cash out there for the taking.
While I don’t know if many Australians have a hankering for “exorbitantly priced gourmet coffee drinks” I know they like choice when it comes to a caffeine shot. The suburb of Sydney I live in has numerous cafes within close proximity to each other, and so far none have run the others out of business.
Dan Cox, a coffee consultant said: “You can’t do better than a cup of coffee for profit. It’s insanity. A cup of coffee costs 16 cents. Once you add in labor and overhead, you’re still charging a 400 per cent mark-up. Not bad. Where else can you do that?”
400 per cent mark up? I may have to have a few local coffee shop owners on about this…
Great post. At least here in America, independent coffee shops can co-exist with Starbucks. In fact, coffee shops that have a Starbucks move in on the block often find their sales going up instead of down.
It’s an interesting prospect isn’t it. I saw another article making the same suggestion a few weeks ago but didn’t bookmark it. It’s certainly the sort of thing that would be of interest to coffee shop owners in a coffee mad world :)