Advertisement
There are times when it’s best to be an impartial, non-biased journalist.
This is not one of those times.
The building that previously housed National Penn Bank and the Chamber of Commerce smack dab on the corner of Gay and High Streets has been unoccupied for months, and the workforce that passes by daily has been wondering what will fill its empty space. Word had been circulating through the borough’s restaurant industry since Thanksgiving that a corporate coffee conglomerate would soon be moving in—a rumor that, unfortunately, has proven to be true.
Starbucks will open its first shop in the heart of West Chester this fall. Their closest location until then is inconveniently on Route 3, about a five-minute drive away. Many suburban dwellers will be excited for the opportunity to patronize the coffee company that is sometimes credited with the resurgence of America’s obsession with caffeine…but some will be very, very disappointed.
Personally, this coffee-loving, cafe-working writer is saddened. Starbucks will not add to the up-and-coming feel that West Chester has been working tirelessly to create. The newly purchased location is not just in the center of town, but in the center of the town’s coffee industry. Businesses, such as Nick’s Cafe, Signature Pastries, Fennario, Cream & Sugar and Sprazzo, all depend on coffee sales for revenue. That being said, the aforementioned cafes should not be scared of a looming, corporate version of what should be an intimate experience. The key to competing with a massive, impersonal chain is to *not* compete!
West Chester’s cafes do compete for business, but they seem to do so in a very mature, financially solid way. What one shop offers, the others do not. While Starbucks focuses their sales solely on that quick cuppa joe, their future neighbors have already expanded their horizons to reach West Chester’s other needs. Nick’s Cafe boasts an amazing breakfast and lunch menu, specializing in Greek cuisine; Sprazzo plays up the lunch crowd by offering Italian panini and soups; Cream & Sugar whips up early-dinner sandwiches and salads that are so good customers keep going back for more; Signature Pastries has hands down the best sweet treats around; and Fennario is a smoker’s heaven. Nick’s, Cream & Sugar and Signature all open early to make the town’s finest drinks for hundreds of business people, and Fennario and Sprazzo stay open late at night to grab a younger crowd. It seems as if Starbucks saw a diverse coffee-drinking population and swooped in for the kill. Financially, is it good for them? Yes. Is it good for West Chester? No.
Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz wrote a memo this February, 2007 that outlined mistakes that “were right at the time” but also “in retrospect, have lead to the watering down of the Starbucks experience.” He goes on to state that decisions made in order to streamline stores for more speedy delivery have “remove[ed] much of the romance and theatre” of the cafe experiences. Speed and quantity proved more important “ faster, automatic machines are too tall for customers to see the barista. This loss of open communication between customers and servers makes getting coffee a cold experience—wouldn’t you rather see a friendly face and enjoy mid-day banter, even if it breaks up your workday only a bit?
I could go on for ages. And ages. And, you get the idea. My plea as a barista, to you the consumer, is this: just say no! We, your local cafes, have been here for you through thick and thin. You wanted coffee last year? We were here. You wanted that drink made with two Splendas mixed in a half-caf/half-decaf in an extra tall cup? We made it. You wanted to try a combination latte of raspberry and peppermint? No problem! You might not have liked it, but we tried it anyway! Did you brave the snow storm this past Valentine’s Day, dead set on keeping your reservation at the restaurant and getting dessert and a cappuccino after? We braved the snow, too! We name special drinks after favorite customers, remember the names and work places of countless regulars and have your drink ready before you even get to the door. To West Chester’s baristas, you, the customer, are part of our everyday lives. If a Starbucks drink is what you really want, ask us for it! We’re smart. We can make it. If we don’t know how, we’ll learn! We would much rather make it for you at a locally owned shop than to see you walk down the street, have your favorite drink ready and then have to pour it out when we see you go into Starbucks.
About the Author
Sarah's dream job is to own a small cafe and bookstore and if that doesn’t work out she wants to be homeless in Europe. In the mean time she's exploring and reporting on the wide and wonderful world of WC Restaurants.
More About Sarah Reese...16 Comments So Far
-
boo to starbucks. i only go there when there is no other good coffee/cafe option. luckily west chester is chock full of them. i hope the community speaks out against placing a corporate powerhouse in the middle of the quaint cuteness that is west chester. a quaintness that comes from not having all locally owned and operated businesses.
this is a bad decision for starbucks. im sure it will not be as profitable as they are thinking. WC patrons love the atmosphere and they will speak out. -
remove the “not” from that last post in the third line….
-
I think it sucks. There are enough Starbucks around already and we have enough coffee purchase opportunities in the borough now. I worry that places like Spazzo and America’s Cup won’t be able to compete. This is not good.
-
why don’t we start a coalition of sorts? any ideas?
-
I forwarded a link of Sarah’s story to the WCU school paper. I feel a good indie paper may speak up against the ridiculosity. However, they do take guest editorials from students and letters to the editor from anyone int he community, so I urge you to write something an email it to quad@wcupa.edu . That is a good way to maybe get some of the anti-corporate coffee takeover coeds on your side.
-
p.s. the last issue of the year comes out this coming week, so get those letters in by friday
-
What’s wrong with Starbucks? I like it. In fact, there are so many terrible coffee shops in this country that it’s no wonder they’re everywhere.
-
There was an article in the Wall Street Journal about 18 mos ago that cited a study that business for independent coffee shops actually improved when a new Starbucks opened nearby. It would increase foot traffic and help everyone. Competition is good and the independent shops will be fine if they run a good business and they make good coffee.
-
what is it about other coffee shops that makes them so terrible? the way i see it, people have gotten used to (brainwashed?
) walking into a starbucks and feeling at home - just because it’s an almost exact replica of all other starbucks. don’t people feel uncreative? it’s like saying TGI Fridays is your favorite restaurant, because there are a lot of bad restaurants out there. -
If you frequented the same Starbucks every day, you would know that those baristas are every bit as friendly and interested in getting to know you, and more than willing to go the extra mile to be pleasing and innovative. The fact that Starbucks is a chain doesn’t make it any less of a “local cafe” experience for regulars. Get to know a good one well before you decide they’re all anonymous clones!
-
Living near the Exton Starbucks on Rte 100 with nothing else around means its the place for me. When I’m in WC however I take turns with the locals.
-
I couldn’t agree more with your article…my parents house is about 25 minutes down route 3 and on my way there i pass 3 different starbucks…ridiculous. I used to work at America’s Cup Cafe on Market street and I’m still very close with the owner Barbara Miller and I know she has some serious concerns about the competition Starbucks will add.
-
This appeared in the Daily Local News on Sunday, April 22, 2007
Remember when you were a freshman in college and there was this person, this beautiful blond, who you really wanted to meet? Maybe get to know them, maybe start a relationship, maybe propose, maybe settle down, maybe raise a family and buy a mortgage and send the kids to college and celebrate each other‘s 50th birthday and retire to the South of France with? Remember that?
But they weren‘t having any of you. They were just way too cool for you, and they had other friends to be with and places to go and Spring Break vacations to take, and you, well, you just weren‘t up to their speed. Remember that?
Then you made a splash in the college newspaper because you had been cast in whatever MTV reality show was debuting that September (or whatever the 1960s equivalent of the MTV reality shows were), and all of a sudden your dream person started showing up at your dorm room around 7:30 a.m. wanting to know if you could accompany them to the cafeteria for breakfast and maybe have a ”study break“ later and then send the kids to college and retire to the South of France with. Remember that?
Then you will know how we felt when we heard the news that Starbucks is planning to open a café in West Chester.
After all this time, the Starbucks folks have decided that we here in West Chester are classy enough to be part of their ultra-hip, ubiquitous coffee culture. Not only will Starbucks come to town, but they‘ll be plopping down right smack dab in the middle of the borough, at the corner of High and Gay, where nobody can miss them, not even a West Chester University student walking home at 2:30 a.m. from a ”study break“ at Rex‘s Bar.
We are not amused.
Remember, this is the coffee company that decided it was better to open cafes in Paoli, Chester Springs, Kennett Square, Exton and Downingtown before coming to our fair borough. Remember, this is the coffee company that opened four, count ‘em, four outlets in Johore Bahru, Malaysia, before it opened one in downtown West Chester.
You think we‘re happy? You think we are going to start counting down the days until we can order up a grande of Ethiopean Yergachefee and crank up the Norah Jones on our iPods at the ‘Bucks? You couldn‘t be farther from the truth if you were Albert Gonzalez trying to explain the attorney general firings.
Read our lips, Starbucks folks: We don‘t want you anymore. We are not going to fall for your newly discovered attraction for our brick sidewalks, our historical county courthouse, our brightly painted street signs, our newly elected Democratic state legislators, and just roll over and order whatever size Breakfast Blend you tell us to, like we fell for that beautiful blond back in college.
You had your chance. We asked, nearly begged, for you to come here years ago and you ignored us. Coffee love has a small window of opportunity, and for you we have slammed it shut.
Now The Gap, on the other hand …
-
venture north on rte 100 to the far northwest corner of Chester County and check out the Bakery at St Peters Village. They are having the grand opening tomorrow, we checked it out last weekend. They serve Kimberton roasters coffee and the view off the deck down into French Creek with ancient glacial rocks is breathtaking You will never want to sit in a Starbucks again.
-
booo to Starbucks is right.
-
Starbucks will soon be opening a cafe in the library at West Chester University. The company whose coffers are already overflowing with the ill gotten gains from victims with wool over their eyes the world over, now seeks to inflate the already bulging, venti bank accounts of its corporate officers by robbing hard working students four dollars at a time for overpriced, poorly made lattes and machiattos. As if this weren’t bad enough, it is a calculated move on the part of Starbucks to begin putting the squeeze on local merchants who rely on university students and faculty for a large portion of their business, so that the local economy will be less equipped to compete when Starbucks opens their cafe down-town later in the year. This atrocity must be stopped and it is up to the students of West Chester University to make that happen.
People who shop at Starbucks aren’t customers, they are victims- victims of an evil empire that is built on the blood of an exploited working class, victims of an organization that is playing a part in systematically destroying the neighborhoods in this country, and victims of a company who charges too much for bad coffee!
Starbucks is renowned for poor business practices that hurt hard working people, and kill local economies. In a recent attempt at unionization, workers complained that, “the gourmet coffee giant is grinding them down with oppressive working conditions.” Christina Rosevear, a Starbucks Barista, was forced back to work during her eighth month of pregnancy, despite her doctor’s advice against it, under threats of losing her job.
Any victim who has ever walked into a Starbucks and attempted to order a cup of Fair Trade coffee can attest to the company’s lack of interest in supporting the communities around the world responsible for growing, harvesting, and processing the product from which billionaires like Starbucks chief Howard Shultz make money. The corporate executives at Starbucks will glady continue to get fat on the underpaid labor of growers in third world countries who are dying from curable diseases because they have no medical care!
Coffee farmers are becoming even more impoverished, going further into debt and losing their land due to extremely low world coffee prices. Meanwhile Starbucks has not lowered consumer prices but are pocketing the difference, even taking into account the quality premiums in the specialty industry.
According to Fair Trade Labeling Organizations International, Fair Trade farmers sell only about 20% of their coffee at a Fair Trade price. The rest is sold at the world price, due to lack of demand. Demand can be created by large corporations selling Fair Trade.
Starbucks’ policy of cannibalizing neighborhoods is no secret- their scouts seek out the hub of a neighborhood and locate successful locally owned and operated businesses. They attempt to break the leases of the current proprietor, and if they are unable to send the current tenant packing, they open up shop across the street and try to steal customers one by one. The invading company is quite open about this carnivorous tactic in magazine articles and power point presentations.
Starbucks brings death to neighborhoods — the depoliticized world view spews from the uncaring unfeeling corporate monster like a scentless gas, invisible yet highly explosive. Nietzsche’s pflight- The wings of American neighborhoods clipped by expensive coffee drinks!
Nietzsche’s pflight- students, it is your moral imperative, arise as one! Put the kibosh on Starbucks’ and their evil empire’s attempts to exploit you by monopolizing the coffee trade in your neighborhood! Boycott, protest, speak out with one voice and say “NO!”
Check out the article in the daily local news fro 10/1
Pingbacks & Trackbacks
- [...] certain businesses to come to West Chester. Based on the huge amount of comments we received on Sarah Reese’s article about Starbucks coming to West Chester, I thought it would be a good idea to meet him and get his [...]
- [...] Link to Starbucks in West Chester article [...]