"Romenesko, reached on the phone at an independent coffee shop in Evanston, Ill.,"

Come on, you could at least tell us which one. The Unicorn? Cafe Express? Kafein? Having lived in Evanston once I'd be curious to know where he hangs out. Personally, the Unicorn was always my favorite.

Also, and I guess I run the risk of sounding like a franchise-avoiding elitist here, isn't this media obsession with Starbucks way over the top? Granted, they have a huge market share, but this coffee culture is spread over plenty of cafes,either independent ones or other chains. (frankly I think there's often not a huge difference between the clientelle at Starbucks and at the independent cafe next door) If Starbucks were to drop off and be overtaken by Seattle's Best or Caribou or Peet's I don't see what the difference would be. Can someone give a good reason for the single-minded focus on Starbucks in these articles?

kurtosis:

Can someone give a good reason for the single-minded focus on Starbucks in these articles?

Well, Starbucks has had a pretty phenomenal growth rate in terms of new stores and sales growth.

At the same time, the coffee shop culture has grown along with it. I recently heard of a business model that consists of finding out where the next Starbucks will open, and opening an independent coffee shop across the street. Not to steal Starbucks customers per se, but because they do their homework, and put stores where the customer traffic is going to be much more than their store's capacity.

Also, the other guys didn't re-name their sizes. At Caribou you can get a goofily named "Mint Condition", but it comes in small, medium, and large, not some faux-Italian jargon. The jargon is part of the "in crowd" appeal, or part of the pretension, depending on your point of view.

Fitzpatrick:

Well, Starbucks has had a pretty phenomenal growth rate in terms of new stores and sales growth.

At the same time, the coffee shop culture has grown along with it. I recently heard of a business model that consists of finding out where the next Starbucks will open, and opening an independent coffee shop across the street.

Sure, business-wise Starbucks is somewhat singular, and they clearly lead the pack. That said, I just don't see the cappucino/latte/cafe craze as solely, or mainly, driven by Starbucks. It was already getting a lot of press even in the early/mid 90's, before Starbucks exploded. (although people did see it as a "Seattle thing").

I'm speaking from my own experience here, but I saw this cafe-culture trend as something that started first, and then eventually Starbucks came to dominate the scence. These kind of articles sound like Starbucks branding to me. Maybe other people have a different perceptions.

As for that business model - I remember always hearing the opposite- that Starbucks would intentionally open a store next to every independent cafe in town. And they do!

The single-minded focus is justified when we consider, as the book 'Starbucked' points out, that Caribou, the closest competitor, is one twenty-fifth of Starbucks' size. When I think about how I can reach three Caribou locations with a half-hour drive, that just blows me away (of course, I don't want to think about how many Starbucks I could get to in a half hour).

The remark about Starbucks being overtaken by Seattle's Best reveals how quietly Starbucks was able to not only absorb Seattle's Best and merge their roasting operations, in 2003.

The decision to keep the SBC name, I think, derives less from a desire to preserve a facade of competition where none actually exists, but rather from the prestige of the slightly older (1968-9) company name.