Gourmet Coffee and Café chains

Unless you live in rural Wyoming, you have probably seen and been a patron at the coffee chains such as Starbucks, Caribou Coffee, Peet's Coffee and Tea, Coffee Bean and others. Most of them started as luxury and novelty chains purveying gourmet coffee to US consumers. The business has done well, with many readily plunking down $3-$4 for a cup of lattè. The whole idea was inspired by the European cafés, though the American coffee shops are very different from their European counterparts. In European coffee houses, people go to sit, linger and talk, even for hours on end. Believe it or not, in Europe no one is likely to ask you to leave a coffee house, unless, of course, they're closing :). In Starbucks, for example, businessmen, entrepreneurs and students are the only groups who actually consume their food and drink in-store. This behavior, however, is likely influenced by the faster pace of life in US metros.

A Recent Trend
Retailing of espresso-based drinks has boomed in the past decade. Not that long ago, most Americans drank drip coffee bought in large tins from the local supermarket and brewed with a $25 Mr. Coffee coffee maker. A cup of watery brewed coffee was purchased from the gas station, cost 50 cents, and served just fine. Of course, espresso-based drinks existed, but not in a mass market. These days, especially in large metro areas with significant single and young population -- e.g. San Francisco, there are literally 4 of these chain stores on every city block. The trend is identical in suburbs, though to a lesser extent.

My Gripes
In general, I don't like Starbucks and other such companies, not because they're evil (I do take out coffee occasionally from such stores), but because:
1. They push espresso made exclusively from dark roasted beans on customers. I personally like espresso made with medium roasted beans à la Vienne (Viennese style). They should offer choice to engage the foodies, and to build loyalty.
2. Many youthful baristas don't know much about coffee. They just run machines, and are looking for another job anyway.
3. Their regular coffee is a joke. I hardly ever drink the coffee of the day, but they do no good to their image by serving coffee brewed 4 hours ago. It makes the store smell of burnt coffee grounds. Hint: Change the coffee filter and discard the coffee grounds. Don't serve poor-quality stuff.
4. They don't know what they stand for, and end up looking like any other general merchandise place -- offering stale tarts, hard pastry and ham and cheese sandwiches, thus massively diluting their business proposition.
5. There is consistency but they don't delight the customer. In retailing, unless you regularly (and mostly pleasantly) surprise the customer and make a personal connection, you're just another shop.

Gourmet in Gourmet Coffee
If one likes coffee, a good espresso maker (pressure based, not steam-based) can be had for $300. That's 3 months of one lattè every morning, just that a good Krupp will last 3 years, and you get to choose the beans yourself, and taste the terroir, not Starbucks which would be like "chicken". Unless one can tailor it to one's own taste, what kind of gourmet is one anyway?

I read an article a few months ago where the columnist's proposition was that every nation that got hooked on gourmet coffee soon got destroyed. The first example was the Ottoman Empire.

Happy Glucking!