FROM THE EDITOR

REMEMBER THE SCENE in the mockumentary, Best in Show, where Parker Posey’s character Meg Swan explains how she and her husband first met? She says, “We met at Starbucks. Not at the same Starbucks, but we saw each other at different Starbucks across the street from each other.”
      It was a joke back in 2000 when that movie was made. Starbucks stores weren’t lined up across the street from each other then—at least not very often. But as so often happens, life imitates art, and it wasn’t long before many streets did have two or more Starbucks facing each other. The growth of the company seemed to be eternal, lightning-speed and unstoppable.
      And then in July of this year, Starbucks announced it was pulling back, closing 600 U.S. stores—about five percent of its locations—throughout the summer. The hope, according to the company, is that this will help boost the bottom line and stock prices, while continuing to allow international growth. It expects to open fewer than 350 new U.S. stores during the next fiscal year.
      At the announcement, many in the specialty coffee industry cheered, believing this to be the equivalent of David and Goliath, the big being taken down by the small. Others were concerned—what did this mean for the industry as a whole? Was it crashing and burning, or just changing?
      Ric Rhinehart, SCAA executive director, has this take on the news. “The publicity surrounding the Starbucks closures is not good for them or for the industry generally, not because the store closures are a harbinger of bad things to come for the industry, but because they allow an opportunity for the pundits to scoff at the concept of specialty coffee and its place in the consumer psyche,” he says.
      And perhaps that possible change in perception, out of anything else is the thing we should be worried about most. In our eternal struggle to ask consumers to acknowledge—and pay for—the true value of specialty coffee, there is the potential for these closings to be seen as more than they are, by both consumers and roasters alike. As we move forward, the onus will be on specialty roasters to defend the value of the coffee and to educate consumers.
      “Consumers who do not really care how things taste (the McDonalds, Taco Bell, Two Buck Chuck customer) will take this opportunity to note that one would be crazy to pay for ‘expensive’ coffee, and they will look at how the Starbucks closures prove that,” says Rhinehart. “The best roasters will be ready, willing and able to easily demonstrate that their coffee tastes better, provides a better livelihood for all in the chain, and most importantly, is worth a few more cents per cup. The danger for the industry is not that people will stop drinking coffee, but that people will stop appreciating the value of good coffee.”
      There may not be a Starbucks on every corner anymore, but that doesn’t mean that specialty coffee has to change in the eyes of the consumer. We just have to continue to remind them of why great coffee is worth every penny. Even if they don’t meet their future partner in the coffee shop across the street.

      Keep the flame burning,

      Shanna