
{"id":4825,"date":"2009-02-12T09:22:03","date_gmt":"2009-02-12T17:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=4825"},"modified":"2009-02-12T09:22:03","modified_gmt":"2009-02-12T17:22:03","slug":"changing-times-for-coffee-achievers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/02\/12\/changing-times-for-coffee-achievers\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing times for coffee achievers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>By Margot C. Lester<br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>At the end of last month, global coffee conglomerate Starbucks announced it was cutting 6,700 employees, closing stores and slowing expansion plans in the wake of big declines in revenue. One factor cited in the announcement was customers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 changing buying patterns. <\/p>\n<p>During its first round of closings in July, Starbucks shuttered the store at 141 Chatham Downs in north Chatham County. Right now, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no indication any other local stores are on the chopping block.<\/p>\n<p>It seems fair enough that people who had been spending $5 or more on a fancy cup of joe (half-caf, skinny, soy latte or whatever) might decide they could do without the extra foam in order to save a few precious pennies. But what about local coffee drinkers of a more independent ilk? Are they cutting back? <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Spending trends do vary,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d admits Scott Conary, owner of the Open Eye, Caffe Driade and Carrboro Coffee Company. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153People say, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll cut that out\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, but it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t last. Our customers realize coffee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an affordable luxury. What we do see that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a positive overall is people being more careful to spend money on good coffee and in the day-to-day making of it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says. <\/p>\n<p>So instead of shelling out $3.50 for a latte, customers may be opting for a $1.25 espresso. Conary says sales of whole beans are up slightly, too, indicating that more people may be pulling a jolt of joe at home more often than they used to.<br \/>\nWhat does Conary make of Starbucks\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 announcement?<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sort of hand waving and hoping to get a market response,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re paying attention to Wall Street, so the things they cite aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the real issues. For instance, what their CEO is willing to give up in salary isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough money to make a difference to their company. But as we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen recently, Wall Street works on whim and ideas, not reality.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Conary thinks the bigger problem facing Starbucks is that the company did what it set out to do, get more people drinking more fancy coffee. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The introduction to coffee is probably what Starbucks does best,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Conary says. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Now people are moving on. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a shift in how people view coffee and what it can and should be.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s good news for shops like Conary\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that focus on educating coffee consumers on quality, sourcing sustainably produced beans from fairly compensated growers and providing more than just a good cup of java. People are connecting with the coffee in a more personal way, prompting many to eschew cookie-cutter corporate outlets serving frilly joe. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably causing Starbucks to have a little bit of an identity crisis. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re they going to be now?,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Conary asks. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re cutting out decaf after 12 p.m. and introducing oatmeal. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying a little bit of everything at this point.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Margot C. Lester Staff Writer At the end of last month, global coffee conglomerate Starbucks announced it was cutting 6,700 employees, closing stores and slowing expansion plans in the wake of big declines in revenue. One factor cited in the announcement was customers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 changing buying patterns. During its first round of closings in July,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4826,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4825\/revisions\/4826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}