At least a half dozen articles in recent weeks have reinforced what we already know: well-run specialty coffee businesses are insulated from the economic recession. While Starbucks and its management problems are grabbing national headlines, small regional coffee...
Just the words Starbucks Value Meal send a chill down my spine… a chill of reality perhaps, the acceptance that the chain really is just another fast food company. I’m quoted in the most recent Associated Press article this morning as saying...
Oregon franchisors Human Bean and Dutch Bros. are featured expanding in a down economy. By GREG STILES, (Medford) Mail Tribune MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — Amid the parade of closures, layoffs and cutbacks ravaging the economy, there is some good news brewing in...
Phil Lempert, a.k.a. The Supermarket Guru, weighs in on the current state of the out-of-home coffee marketing in the article “FACTORING COFFEE IN TODAY’S BUDGET: MORE TAKE-HOME BEAN SALES YET NO TOTAL ABANDONMENT OF THE COFFEE SHOP” The Small...
A short but sweet article from the London Evening Standard succinctly hits the key factors behind the ongoing success of coffee retailers despite the economic downturn. There’s no hard data in the story, but after all, the subject matter expert interviewed is...
In an impressive piece of writing and editing of a news story (involving me), Erika Engle of the Honolulu Star Bulletin masterfully extracts the essence of a very complicated and obscure subject (coffee tasting and the Hawaii coffee industry) in a tidy 14 inch daily...