Indie coffee shop owner says Starbucks tried to steal her customers

Soon after Penny Stafford opened her Bellevue, Wash. coffee shop, green-apron-wearing baristas bearing fully loaded trays of Starbucks samples began offering their goods near her front door. "The first day that Starbucks began to solicit my customers, I was shocked," she says. During the course of one hour on July 7, the Starbucks baristas came back four times. She eventually went out of business. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Comments

[I support local]

I think this article should be retitled "minimum wage workers work harder that small business owner"

It is true their are tons of Starbucks, it is also true that the reason that you can even think about opening a coffee shop is because Starbucks created a firtile coffee market for you to exist in.

The owner of Uptown Espresso has told me before when asked about the threat of Starbucks. "I am not threatened by Starbucks, I hope they keep opening more stores, they make more coffee drinkers which makes me more money." All of his coffee shops are located within a close vicinity of Starbucks. But he has his very loyal customers that know that his quality and service is to par or better than that of Starbucks and patronize him.

Starbucks has very strict guidelines on where the company will put its locations. Starbucks must have the potential to gross over $1,000,000 a location. Is that neccessary for a small locally owned coffee shop? I could live very confortably with a small coffee shop that grosses half that or less. So I too could afford to go into "premature" markets or developments that Starbucks "cannot afford" to enter.

If you ask me the woman in this article should quit complaining and deliver a better product than Starbucks, so that Starbucks Baristas working for mininum wage wont outdo her in the coffee world.

[colleen]

I don't get paid minimum wage at starbucks. I'm pretty sure almost no one that works for starbucks does unless the minimum wage is really high in the area of location.

Sounds like her coffee shop just sucked.

[Christopher]

I normally support Starbucks, but if they were indeed doing that right outside her door, that's poor form.

Anyway, on the subject of Starbucks and wages, check this out from today's WSJ:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114048584654678628.html

"The job: a Starbucks barista

The pay: Varies by region: in Manhattan, a barista can make $8.75 an hour, while in Indianapolis, pay starts at $7 an hour.

Benefits: For employees who work 20 or more hours a week: health care, life insurance and disability as well as dental, vision and prescription-drug benefits, plus a matching 401(k) plan, stock options and a discount stock-purchase plan.

Other incentives: Free beverages during your shift, tuition reimbursement, fitness-facility discounts -- and a free pound of coffee or tea every week."

Chris
http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/

seems like she should have been doing a l'il sampling herself, instead of writing a journal about the bad guys taking away all her business.

[LeftyGrrrl]

Workers from a local coffee company just came into a nearby Starbucks and tried to woo the PARTNERS to come to the other side! Trying to steal the employees of the competition is even worse than sampling to customers. There is bad business everywhere, sometimes even in Starbucks, because not everyone is good at handling business decisions.

[this space for rent]

Hm. The PI story didn't say she went out of business. The story said she closed her cart and reopened in a bigger spot, expanded her offerings and now plans to go into wholesale coffee. That's slightly different than "going out of business."

But yeah, I think she shoulda started giving out samples in front of the Starbucks.

[davey]

If a coffee shop goes out of business it's probably their own fault anyway. Where I went to college (Hanover NH) when word got out that Starbucks was looking to move into town, the owner of the one coffee shop in town shook with fear. Why? He knew he couldn't compete. His coffee was complete garbage.

When I worked in Seattle last summer I went to Uptown Espresso almost every morning and it was damn good. I'd agree that he has nothing to worry about.

The bottom line... if you can't compete, get out.

[Jonathan]

I used to work at a Starbucks in a strip mall and we were instructed to be very careful about offending the community with unfair business practices. In fact, we were told not to sample frapppuccino outside our own door because there was an ice cream shop three doors down that sold a similar product. Individual managers may be more aggressive but in my experience Starbucks is very sensitive to perceptions that it is a corporate monster.

[CinnamonSweety]

I agree her coffee just sucked. Our coffee is so good we son't have to steal our customers. They know where to go for the good Java.

Bad form. But hey, some managers everywhere are going to be jerks.

Fact of the matter is, many indie coffee shops
are annoying places to study (I'm a professor). They're always bugging me to buy
more, and making me feel uncomfortable about
taking table space even when there's _plenty_
to go around (because...).

I try my best to support such places, but
more often than not, I discover that I would
have been better off spending my money at
Starbucks.

[zim]

well if she had enough time to dilligently log how often the starbucks baristas came around during the hour, she must have had tons of time on her hands and had no customers to begin with.

also, I agree that her opening up a full shop does not mean that she went out of business.

[jose]

I opened up a my coffee shop across the street from a Starbucks. "Indie Coffee & Tea"
We are gradually taking customers away from Starbucks. I believe we are able to do this because of our better tasting coffee, better customer service, cleaner environment, happy atmosphere and better personality.
Come by sometime if you are in town. We are located in the North Hollywood, Ca. area.
visit our myspace site and say hello...

[P. O'Neill]

Indianapolis needs a 24 hour Starbucks!!!!!

[katyy xD!!]

umm i love starbucks cause it's the shitt :)

[katyy xD!!]

umm i love starbucks cause it's the shitt :)

[Richard]

I actually know the manager of the starbucks mentioned above and she was just doing her best to grow business.

[Clarissa]

Yeah. I want to open a shop in the small town I live in. I figure it should be easier than in a bigger town. There are no Starbucks here, and there really aren't any place where people can get good coffee. There is a Casey's general store, but their coffee is nearly tasteless, and sits out all day long.The elders spend all their time sitting in resuraunts, just for the morning coffee, so I figured...give them what they want, and give the kids a place to hang out in and stay out of trouble.

[Clarissa...again.]

What do you think? I would love to have some feedback. Thankful actually.