Bruce Milletto Comments on Starbuck's new "Independent" Coffee Shop Concept in November Entrepreneur Magazine
Bruce Milletto, CEO of Bellissimo Coffee InfoGroup and a leading industry watcher, thinks the company's motivation is more basic: Starbucks is returning to its roots as a comfortable "third place," a living space that goes beyond the home and the office. "People want to have ‘their' coffee bar, and they want to have ‘their' coffee," says Milletto, who remembers when Starbucks was a hip chain of four or five shops. "Starbucks has realized that's a niche they're no longer filling."
Bruce goes on to say, "Once you have thousands and thousands of stores, it's difficult to have consumers look at you in the same way," Milletto says. "I think in coffee, the small independent will always win out if it's doing a fantastic job."
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bellissimo in the news
Fans of Tully's say comparing the two companies is like knowing the difference between Pepsi and Coke, with Tully's coffee having a more mellow taste while Starbucks is a bit harsher. Tully's cooks its coffee beans in two circa-1950s cast-iron roasters and scoops them into bags by hand.
Starbucks, which has a much larger operation with three U.S. roasting plants and one in Amsterdam, Netherlands, declined to comment on Tully's.
"To compete with Starbucks is really an
uphill battle," said Bruce Milletto, a coffee consultant and president
of Bellissimo Coffee InfoGroup in Portland. "Starbucks is probably the
only company in specialty coffee that has nationwide recognition. If
you went to Nebraska, no one has probably heard of Tully's."
