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In Europe, a similar situation existed with Nespresso. They are absolutely huge on the market here, and the machines are found in nearly every office place (and

by foz 12y ago

In Europe, a similar situation existed with Nespresso. They are absolutely huge on the market here, and the machines are found in nearly every office place (and many homes, where the capsules are different, to avoid people stealing them at work). Nespresso has lost nearly every attempt to protect exclusive control of the capsules [1]. In grocery stores, you can find many compatible capsules and a variety of flavors and choices. [1] http://qz.com/200161/someone-is-finally-forcing-nespresso-to-open-source-its-coffee-pods/ http://qz.com/200161/someone-is-finally-forcing-nespresso-to...

bostik 12y ago
I've always felf the entire brew pod setup is an answer to a single question: "how do you get customers to accept cafeteria margins on their homebrew coffee?" Healthy competition is the only thing that keeps customers from getting fleeced. Or skinned.
- rodgerd 12y ago
  > I've always felf the entire brew pod setup is an answer to a single question: "how do you get customers to accept cafeteria margins on their homebrew coffee?" There's also "how do we stop losing business to companies that don't abuse the shit out of their suppliers?" There has been an increasing amount of noise over the last 5-10 years about the phenominal margins that exist in the coffee business, with growers typically seeing the barest fraction of what companies like Nestle sell coffee for. As companies selling fair trade coffee become more profitable, what are companies like Nestle to do?
  - furyg3 12y ago
    I work in this space, and I will say that consumers can do a lot here to change the behavior of these mega companies when it comes to treatment of farmers. Consumer choices and/or bad press makes big companies move, sometimes very quickly, especially on their premium brands. Due to some earlier PR debacles, nearly all (all?) Nespresso coffee is now Rainforest Alliance certified. A very large amount of coffee at many supermarket chains in many european markets is certified by FairTrade, RFA, or UTZ. Certification isn't the answer to all the problems in the coffee world. I'd rather drink coffee where the small independent roaster is buddies with the premium quality grower, but I don't see this becoming the norm. It'd really make my day to see all coffee from these big actors (not just their premium brands) certified under a 3rd party scheme.
- TillE 12y ago
  It's pretty strange and wasteful. I'm just not seeing the advantage over your typical American electric drip coffeemaker. Insert filter, add ground coffee, press a button. Or if you can't wait a couple minutes, there's some half-decent instant coffee available these days. If you're going to add milk and sugar anyway, it's perfectly fine.
  - dllthomas 12y ago
    Tossing a K-cup in the trash is way cleaner and easier than wrangling a normal filter-full-of-grounds into the compost. I don't find that advantage to be worth it, but it's an advantage.
    - judk 12y ago
      You can throw grounds in the trash like a kcup
      - dllthomas 12y ago
        The fact that grounds can go in the compost is a plus for the normal approach. The downside is the wrestling of something comparatively large and more often dripping, as opposed to tiny and comparatively self contained.

by foz 12y ago

bostik 12y ago

I've always felf the entire brew pod setup is an answer to a single question: "how do you get customers to accept cafeteria margins on their homebrew coffee?" Healthy competition is the only thing that keeps customers from getting fleeced. Or skinned.

rodgerd 12y ago
> I've always felf the entire brew pod setup is an answer to a single question: "how do you get customers to accept cafeteria margins on their homebrew coffee?" There's also "how do we stop losing business to companies that don't abuse the shit out of their suppliers?" There has been an increasing amount of noise over the last 5-10 years about the phenominal margins that exist in the coffee business, with growers typically seeing the barest fraction of what companies like Nestle sell coffee for. As companies selling fair trade coffee become more profitable, what are companies like Nestle to do?
- furyg3 12y ago
  I work in this space, and I will say that consumers can do a lot here to change the behavior of these mega companies when it comes to treatment of farmers. Consumer choices and/or bad press makes big companies move, sometimes very quickly, especially on their premium brands. Due to some earlier PR debacles, nearly all (all?) Nespresso coffee is now Rainforest Alliance certified. A very large amount of coffee at many supermarket chains in many european markets is certified by FairTrade, RFA, or UTZ. Certification isn't the answer to all the problems in the coffee world. I'd rather drink coffee where the small independent roaster is buddies with the premium quality grower, but I don't see this becoming the norm. It'd really make my day to see all coffee from these big actors (not just their premium brands) certified under a 3rd party scheme.
TillE 12y ago
It's pretty strange and wasteful. I'm just not seeing the advantage over your typical American electric drip coffeemaker. Insert filter, add ground coffee, press a button. Or if you can't wait a couple minutes, there's some half-decent instant coffee available these days. If you're going to add milk and sugar anyway, it's perfectly fine.
- dllthomas 12y ago
  Tossing a K-cup in the trash is way cleaner and easier than wrangling a normal filter-full-of-grounds into the compost. I don't find that advantage to be worth it, but it's an advantage.
  - judk 12y ago
    You can throw grounds in the trash like a kcup
    - dllthomas 12y ago
      The fact that grounds can go in the compost is a plus for the normal approach. The downside is the wrestling of something comparatively large and more often dripping, as opposed to tiny and comparatively self contained.