4 ms·
Starbucks wasn't about a literal grab for land. it's not that hard to find locations for coffee shops. It was a grab for a piece of culture. The US didn't have
by netcan 17y ago
Starbucks wasn't about a literal grab for land. it's not that hard to find locations for coffee shops. It was a grab for a piece of culture.
The US didn't have enough coffee houses with good coffee and that kind of an atmosphere. If Starbucks had taken 10 years to get to LA, there would have been Starbucks-like coffee houses there by that time.
- patio11 17y agoI don't even think Starbucks needed the culture, except for branding. If they make it into your morning ritual, you -- one individual customer -- are worth $1,000 a year. Every store they drop down is just another vending machine to recruit $1,000-a-year walking bags of money. This gives them expansion imperatives similar to a bank's desire to situate branches, or a cell phone company's desire to site stores.
- netcan 17y agoThat is more or less what I meant by culture: to become a part of a city/office/industry/person's culture. The culture was forming and if they didn't become part of it, some other cafe would have been the place where you go for your morning brew, George and Jenny meet on Tuesdays or the theatre school people go to use the internet.