Ok I'm sold on the idea that Philz has the means to compete against Starbucks in malls across America, but I'm less convinced that third-wave coffee is going to

Ok I'm sold on the idea that Philz has the means to compete against Starbucks in malls across America, but I'm less convinced that third-wave coffee is going to be impacted in its core urban market. When you said that Philz would give "third-wave coffee a run for their money" did you more mean that you're skeptical that Blue Bottle will be able to take their brand national? I agree with that, that that could be hard. I think their best bet for non-urban areas would probably be to closely follow areas where Whole Foods has made inroads. Regarding expansion to urban areas, I wonder if too much good real estate for third wave coffee places is already taken up by local independents. From what I've seen SF has surprisingly few third wave coffee shops. In Vancouver there are often several Blue Bottle quality independent coffee shops in each neighbourhood. When I saw that Blue Bottle got funding I wondered how successful they'd be in expanding to areas with well established locals. There's really not that much that they do different from others.