Small chains such as Vancouver-based Caffé Artigiano and Portland-based Stumptown Coffee Roasters are winning customers in the high-end coffee market that Starbucks brought to the masses. Bryant Simon, a history professor at Temple University in Philadelphia and author of 2009's Everything but the Coffee , a book on American culture and Starbucks, says the pressure on the Seattle chain will intensify.
A decade from now, will Starbucks be overtaken by a hundred little chains of a dozen cafés each?
A million little ones are already chewing away.
What's changing--why are people leaving Starbucks?
In the 1990s, and early 2000s, Starbucks seeded the demand for upscale coffee. The reason people went, it reflected discernment. But when it's everywhere, there's no distinction any more. Going to a Stumptown, or an Artigiano, you show that discernment, appreciation of subtly, of quality. It says: "I know enough about this to appreciate it."
What else is going on--is it just better espresso and simply not being so massive as Starbucks?
Much of what companies sell today are stories, narratives. The Stumptowns, they literally sell the farmer to you, you can touch the farm, and the beans, where it came from, the terroir.
David Ebner