Specialty Coffee Retailer

Specialty Coffee Retailer November 2012

Specialty Coffee Retailer is a publication for owners, managers and employees of retail outlets that sell specialty coffee. Its scope includes best sales practices, supplies, business trends and anything else to assist the small coffee retailer.

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Tea is a more solitary, ceremonial- Starbucks and the rest of the coffee world? And how should coffee retailers deal with tea's growth? BY DAN BOLTON Can tea retailing follow the success arc of tipping point Tea and the Subway and McDonald's to Burger King and 7-Eleven brew lattes and cappuccinos. During this time, tea retailers have built at least 500 new shops. How should coffee retailers react? Starbucks is reacting by opening its first Tazo branded tea T he number of gourmet coffee shops has declined in the past five years as thousands of new businesses from retail location this month in Seattle. (See "Storefront puts Tazo in forefront" on page 20.) "Tazo is not likely to change the dynamic of coffee shop operations," Bob Fish, CEO of 157-store Biggby Coffee in East Lansing, Mich., wrote in an e-mail. "However, it may do the coffee industry a favor in educating a customer population that is frankly not that familiar with the intricacies of tea. That education will benefit any food and beverage concept that is serious about their tea." 10 populated urban areas, but questionable in suburban environments." "A coffee shop and a tea shop are two completely different He predicted "possible success for tea concepts in heavily creatures," e-mailed Jack Groot, founder of JP's Coffee in Holland, Mich., and a columnist for this magazine. "A typical coffee shop (and this is assuming the classic definition of a coffee shop; good coffee, meeting place, seating for 50, some limited baked goods/food) is the 'Cheers' of a community. It fills a role that is as much social, as it is product-driven. Teahouses from my perspective are historically product- or tea-experience-driven. And tea is less a social beverage than coffee, or at least its roots are in a more solitary, ceremonial- focused beverage. "As 95 percent of coffee outlets in North America already carry tea, I suspect some may not feel the need to do anything " type beverage than coffee. Photo courtesy of Rishi Tea

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