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news
Starbucks invades
CSULB
By Jeanne Hoffa
On-line Forty-Niner
The cost of getting
a caffeine fix on Cal State Long Beach's campus just got a
little pricier, but the hip-factor has gone through the roof.
The Forty-Niner Shops, responded to requests for stronger
coffee by switching from no-name Lingle Brothers to Starbucks
in all but one of its 26 on-campus dining locations.
It is the first
large-scale food service provider in the California State
University system to provide a virtually exclusive offering
of Starbucks. While all of the 23 CSU campuses that provide
dining services offer gourmet coffee in some venue, all have
chosen to offer less-expensive, not-so-trendy Superior, Farmer
Brothers, Sara Lee or Nescafe brands as well.
Response to the
change has been vehemently mixed, according to food services
workers throughout the campus. Nichole West, night supervisor
for the Beach Hut, said that her store has sold more than
usual, having gone through an extra couple of cases the first
week.
Yet while many
savor the more robust coffee, others grumble about the price.
An 8-ounce cup used to cost 75 cents, but the Starbucks small
size at 16 ounces costs $1.35. The medium 16-ounce used to
cost $1.05. The large 21-ounce jumped from $1.35 to
$1.75.
"People who
complain are the older crowd, who don't like not having a
choice," West said.
Sandie Frakes,
assistant to the president of radio station KLON said that
in the past, refills were available at the price of a small
cup.
"More than
the coffee is the price. I like Starbucks, although my favorite
I get is sent from a place called Tully's in San Francisco,"
Frakes said. "It just bums me out that it costs so much."
In response to
complaints, the Forty-Niner Shops made arrangements to offer
an 8-ounce cup at 85 cents.
Forty-niner Shops
food and dining manager Clint Campbell began his quest for
a new gourmet coffee early this year.
In an effort to
ensure that the tastes of the campus community were represented,
he orchestrated a two-phase taste test, inviting vendors Seattle's
Best, Dietrich's, Gavina, Origins and Lingle Brothers to participate.
His first informal
query was among 20 to 25 faculty members. He then posted signs
and held a three-hour, open-campus taste test, where he asked
students to fill out forms and share their opinions.
Campbell, who previously
worked as director of food and beverages for Rudy's Diners,
considered the combined factors of price, availability, the
deal Starbucks offered and the taste-test results, and said
that the competition was not even close.
Campbell estimated
that the Forty-Niner Shops, an auxiliary organization that
runs the campus bookstore, the convenience stores and the
campus dining facilities, sell 25,000 cups of coffee per month.
The convenience store next to the University Bookstore, the
lone holdout that will continue to offer Lingle Brothers,
sells 2,500 alone, said Forty-Niner Shop controller Bill Beck.
Meanwhile, less
than 200 steps from Forty-Niner Shops headquarters, sits the
gourmet coffee shop The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in the University
Student Union.
The Coffee Bean
and Tea Leaf has garnered growing affection from a variety
of campus groups because the company and manager Michael Borunda
often sponsors organizations and events, according to Jill
Hawtrey, co-chairman for the Health Sciences Student Association.
The company has
regularly donated coffee and prizes for the Latino and Chicano
studies department, Student Services, the American Indian
Pow-Wow, the CSULB Staff Pay Council, the Special Events Committee,
the Executive Committee, the Health Science Student Association
and even caters to some sorority events, Hatrey said.
"Every time
we need something, for a bake-sale or whatever, he just asks
how much we need and donates everything. Cups, cream, sugar,
stirrers. All he asks is that people not waste anything,"
Hawtry said. "He's really awesome. He's a good thing
to have on campus."
The Coffee Bean
and Tea Leaf was not asked to participate in the Forty-Niner
Shops taste test, nor given the opportunity to make a bid
for the account, according to marketing spokeswoman Tami Clark,
a situation she said her company regrets.
It appears that the Forty-Niner Shops' choice of Starbucks
may be a testament to the power of the company's developing
brand name, rather than a show of market aggressiveness. Campbell
said he contacted Starbucks, not the other way around.
When Cal State
Fresno's food services manager Bob Farrar approached Starbucks
about setting up shop on his campus, with its more than 20,000
students, it declined.
The company told
him that it was already operating eight or nine shops in Fresno,
which at that time seemed to adequately serve the city's population
of around one million.
Market analyst
Robert Fredeen said that building a brand name isn't just
about throwing money at advertising campaigns. Brand names
gain respectability when a company lives up to its promises
to customers. Repeated experience breeds a familiarity with
the product, and an expectation of being able to repeat it,
Fredeen said. He added that people also seek comfort
in brand names because it eliminates risk:
risk of an unsatisfactory experience, and risk of wasting
money.
David and Tom Gardner,
who run Motley Fool, an investment publishing company, said
that part of Starbucks' success is because customers know
what they are going to get when they walk into one of its
stores, whether in New York, London or Tokyo.
Representatives
at Starbucks were unavailable to comment on its new foray
into what is the third largest university campus in the most
populous state in the nation.
CSULB has more
than 31,000 students, who, after walking a block or two from
their cars, can safely be referred to as a captive audience.
Only UCLA and San Diego State have larger student populations,
with 33,016 and 31,609 respectively.
Coca-Cola and the
Pepsi Bottling Co. appear to have developed an appreciation
for the college campus market. The rival cola sellers have
managed to procure exclusive contracts requiring sole pouring
and product selling rights with all but four of the 23 CSU
campuses. They also
have exclusive contracts with UCLA, USC, UC Berkley and UC
Irvine, and UC San Diego.
Starbucks has nowhere
near the market share or product diversity of those companies,
and they have only edged their way onto three other CSU campuses:
Sonoma, Dominguez Hills and Fullerton, and only in a limited
capacity. But Bob Farrar said that the smaller campuses will
look toward the decisions made at CSULB. He said that larger
campuses tend to be trendsetters.
Richard Chester, manager of campus dining for Cal State Dominguez
Hills, operates one coffee shop that serves Starbucks, but
said that he would never offer it exclusively throughout his
campus. He said he is surprised at Cal State Long Beach's
move.
"Everybody
here wants the cheap coffee. Who wants to pay $1.45 every
day?" Chester asked. " I have to think of people
who are scraping their change together to make it through
school." Besides, he said he wants to give folks a choice.
Nemo Inomine, a
student working on his second master's degree at CSULB, sipped
a cup of iced Starbucks in front of the Beach Hut and commented
on what he called the evolution of corporatization. Wearing
sunglasses, nameless black tennis shoes and a pair of Gap
pants, he smoked brown Sherman cigarettes made in New York.
He said he also buys coffee at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf,
but he said it was all corporate coffee.
"In America,
there's a free market, and there's all this competition. So
you're supposed to have more choice," Inomine said.
"But look what happens. Your choice is eliminated.
There's a 7-Eleven on every block, a McDonald's on every street
corner. Nothing's different. There's no creativity,"
He then pounded the table with his forefingers for emphasis.
"And it all comes down to this company - buying its way
onto our campus," he added, and then laughed.
Borunda of the
Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf said he has known about the switch
but is not worried about it. He still has his own niche, and
offers espresso, cappuccino, café au lait, muffins
and biscotti, beside a spacious array of indoor and outdoor
tables surrounded by a store full of merchandise and gift
baskets.
"We're not
here to compete with the Forty-Niner [shops]," Borunda
said. "We've got to be here for the student."
Borunda said he
has faith in the quality of his company's product, and the
great relationship that he has with students.
"You can be
a vendor, or you can be a part of the campus community,"
Borunda added. "I don't want to be just a vendor."
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