Would Starbucks Throw Me Out?
I listed Starbucks as one of my favorite things the other day, not because of the three-dollar cup of coffee, the line out-the-door, or the traffic jam that the drive-thru causes over at the Garin Ranch shopping center. I’m a fan of Starbucks, Peete’s, or any of the trendy-modern coffee shops because of the opportunity they 
provide to “get out” of the office or the house.
So the other night, after a meeting at church, C and I stopped at the new Saxby’s Coffee in Antioch. The thought is, you get a cup of coffee for only a few bucks and you sit down and relax - it’s the alternative to going home, we don’t want to go out to eat at this hour, and we’re not really “bar” people.
You see, it’s all about the experience at these places.And Saxby’s has it dialed-in: big overstuffed leather couches, cool music and the Lakers and Bucks on the Plasma in Hi-Def (another one of my things!).
Well no sooner had I settled in to my Decaf-with-cream and a Kobe Bryant three pointer than the kid from behind the counter comes over to tell us that they were closing in two minutes and we’d have to leave.
Stunned, we got up, looked at each other and walked out of Saxby’s Coffee for the last time. (It was like 9:30.)
What I don’t think the two young people working there realized is that I wasn’t there for a cup of coffee. So for him to take my money and then ask me to leave was frustrating to say the least.
I work in a service business, so maybe I’m more sensitive to these things than others are. But the truth remains, if you sell a product(like a cup of coffe at the 7-11) you treat customers different than when you sell an experience (like a cup of coffee at a Starbucks).
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January 21st, 2008 at 2:43 am
You would think in Antioch a small business owner would encourage commerce in there establishment. No wonder people flock to Starbucks where they know they can count on the experience.