Once feisty Coffee People whipped into Starbucks
Posted by TheShot on 20 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: Foreign Brew, Starbucks
This is an old story to those in Oregon (it was announced last week), but it’s also an all-too-familiar story across the country.
Oregon’s Coffee People started in the late 1970s as a hippy-friendly mom & pop (Jim and Patty, where Jim is now a regional barista judge). It was ahead of its time — with high quality standards. In 1999, Diedrich Coffee, a 200-store chain based in Irvine, CA, purchased Coffee People, and the ownership change screwed it up royally. And now Starbucks has swooped in to buy the combined lot: Once feisty Coffee People whipped into Starbucks (The Oregonian).
This is a nearly identical fate that befell the once-grand Torrefazione Italia chain. In 1998, it too was acquired by a larger conglomerate, Seattle’s Best Coffee, and then proceeded to go down the tubes in terms of coffee quality, the skill level of staff, and even the amenities for customers. Then Starbucks bought the lot, dropping the quality even further into the gutter. Torrefazione Italia was almost unrecognizable before Starbucks finally rebranded them with the green mermaid and Pottery Barn CD collections (or closed them down entirely).
I truly hesitate before bashing Starbucks as the evil empire of coffee, as many have made them out to be. Even if it’s all in the past now, they have done a lot of great service for the overall quality of coffee available today. And there’s always a willing seller behind every so-called greedy buyer. But this is one area where their influence has set coffee standards backwards rather than forwards for consumers.
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on 25 Sep 2006 at 12:38 pm PT 1.TheShot.coffeeratings.com » Starbucks Accused of Abusing Monopoly Power in Violation of Sherman Act said …
[...] Independent coffee shops complaining that Starbucks muscled in on their turf and waged unfair competitive practices are nothing new. Starbucks buying up the competition is nothing new. What is new today, however, is a class action lawsuit filed against Starbucks. It claims that, among other anti-trust practices, Starbucks signs exclusive lease agreements with property managers to lock out competition: Starbucks Accused of Abusing Monopoly Power in Violation of Sherman Act: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance. [...]