21st Street Coffee and Tea

Nice writeup by The Associated Press today on the Strip District, it’s history, and how the “Trendy, gritty wed…” in the former “shantytown”. Please read the article, then continue reading this post…

Ok done reading? Good…

One thing I want to clarify is my “bragging” about Starbucks and Panera closing in the Strip. Both businesses had closed before we were open for business. I don’t know the reasons why either closed, but it certainly was interesting to learn this did happen. Everyone has their theories, but I can’t say that it would be a good thing for an area struggling for a fresh start to have successful, large companies leaving the area. Does the mayor “brag” when a major corporation moves it’s headquarters to New York? Yeah no. What does that statement have anything to do with why the Strip is so great? Isn’t that what the article was about- all that trend and grit and whatnot? Well, it’s what happens when something is taken out of context… months later.

We had been interviewed by an AP reporter back in April. She was working on a story about how some shops survive in a Walmart world. The Strip is a natural place to focus, seeing how there are numerous examples of successful independent businesses. Just how do the “little guys” do it? The reporter put the question to me several different ways, but it basically boiled down to: given the ubiquitous nature of Starbucks and other big chains, how does a small company such as ours stay afloat in today’s economy?

My response was that we do not try to compete with chains, just as an independent fine dining establishment does not compete with your local burger chain. I explained that if we tried to “compete” with the big chains we would lose every time. By this I mean if we were to do everything as Starbucks does- from the menu and the ambiance to the taste of the drinks themselves… I don’t think we’d stay in business very long. I would not expect customers to come out of their way to seek out an independent business offering the same product that could be had in nearly any corner of our country. People generally aren’t going to show up at your door with bags of money because you’re a nice person and/or they feel bad for you and/or they’d rather “give their business to the local guy/gal” and/or they want to support the community. I explained that’s a bunch of BS.

For us to survive, I explained, we can’t just “compete”… we have to do FAR better. We have to offer a far superior product at a competitive price to the chains while paying much higher costs for said product, while investing an enormous amount of time and energy into training our staff, and then working that business model day after day and improve every day. We do it because we believe in our business and what we serve- and we’re proud to stand behind it. We have integrity and this isn’t just a job or a way for us to spend our days and make some money.

Our goal is that each time a customer comes in we’re better as a business than the last time they came in. We don’t try to be everything to everyone- we focus on something and do it really damn well. The more we’ve focused our business, the more successful we’ve become. I kind of got the impression that I wasn’t answering the way she had hoped. I got pretty excited about our business (like I do on this blog at times), why we’re different, and what the future holds for the area. I’m “bullish” as they say.

So the interview ended, some photos were taken (I hope to get my hands on them sometime), and we waited. After a couple of months we hadn’t heard or seen anything about an article, so I searched around online and found this:

Small businesses fighting to survive
Many owners say they are hanging by a thread that may soon snap

This writeup focused on how tough it is for some small businesses- how they’re down on the economy, how they’re losing money, and so on. It is tough out there, but honestly I told the reporter that I feel like I have more job security now than when I worked my “cushy” corporate job, had a pension, etc. because we control our own destiny. I was excited about the Pittsburgh coffee scene and all the great things we were going to help bring to the area. I guess I just didn’t have enough negative things to say- so that’s why it took nearly four months for my interview comments to be taken out of context.