This is from our friends at Neighborhoodr... A quick headcount Wednesday evening:
1 customer inside Starbucks, First Avenue and Third Street
28 customers inside The Bean, Second Avenue and Third Street
15 comments:
Marcos
said...
I know that The Bean is about more than just coffee, but just like Starbucks, it makes its espresso drinks using a super-automatic machine. In my experience the drip is just barely better than Dunkin Donuts.
Yeah, I wish The Bean would raise their game a little in the coffee department. But I'll continue to love them from afar for being a good neighbor and a genuine local business, and I'll also continue to glare uncomprehendingly at all the plastic people in the new Starbucks (which I pass by daily and which is often depressingly full, actually.
I pass by the Starbucks daily too - there are always more people in there than I'm comfortable with seeing. But I'm glad that the Bean still gets more customers. I also think their coffee's pretty good... I'm not much of a single-origin free-range locally-produced artisan organic pour-over coffee person myself.
The coffee st the bean is weak & their treats are expensive. It's packed because folks are using their wifi. Starbucks new clover machine is great especially if having the Blue Java.
People arrive early at the Bean and install themselves at a table for hours on end using the free WIFI. At this Starbucks, most people order to take away so the comparison is inaccurate. In the mornings the line at Starbucks is as long as it is at The Bean. I have been going to The Bean for years and I am a fan, however, the prices at Starbucks are lower than they are at the Bean, and the food at Starbucks is fresher and tastier. I can't tell you how many an overpriced stale and crusty croissant I have had at The Bean, and the same goes for hard and out of date muffins. The savory stuff at the Bean is ridiculously over priced and equally not fresh. Either Whole Foods or Starbucks would be cheeper and fresher for a light lunch. I want to like the Bean, but they are going to have to step up to the plate in terms of their prices and the quality of what they sell. My loyalty should not require me to pay higher prices for inferior stuff. And while I do love the atmosphere at The Bean, the fact that it is usually impossible to find seats there often means that I will go into Starbucks and get stuff to take home, rather than risk being seen by the hawk-eyed mangers of the Bean who are always on the lookout for disloyal regulars.
I stop by The Bean once or twice a day and aside from the people parked at tables there's always a steady line of customers. But I agree, the food and snacks are a bit spendy.
playing devil's advocate...if it weren't for starbucks starting up in the 90s, the popularity of coffee shops would never have blossomed to what it is now. It started as a local seattle shop and who's to label them as "the man" when they provide jobs (with benefits nonetheless), and fresher foods than your local "bean".
The prices are too high. I was contemplating a vegan chicken salad sandwich the other day but the tiny thing was $7.99. Really?! I passed on it and bought lunch at the health food store on 4th by Dolphin Fitness. Vegan lasagne $4.99!
As I said in my earlier post , both Whole Foods and Starbucks are cheaper and tastier. Neither place is a paradigm of affordability or of a bargain. I had a small slice of cake and a coffee at the Bean recently and it came to nearly $8 which I found to be borderline offensive. When you price yourself above both Whole Foods and Starbucks you ate treading into luxury territory which to me seems antithetical to the Bean's target image of being a pro art, local bohemian throw back to an earlier cooler and more authentic era.
15 comments:
I know that The Bean is about more than just coffee, but just like Starbucks, it makes its espresso drinks using a super-automatic machine. In my experience the drip is just barely better than Dunkin Donuts.
Yeah, I wish The Bean would raise their game a little in the coffee department. But I'll continue to love them from afar for being a good neighbor and a genuine local business, and I'll also continue to glare uncomprehendingly at all the plastic people in the new Starbucks (which I pass by daily and which is often depressingly full, actually.
I pass by the Starbucks daily too - there are always more people in there than I'm comfortable with seeing. But I'm glad that the Bean still gets more customers. I also think their coffee's pretty good... I'm not much of a single-origin free-range locally-produced artisan organic pour-over coffee person myself.
The coffee st the bean is weak & their treats are expensive. It's packed because folks are using their wifi. Starbucks new clover machine is great especially if having the Blue Java.
Joe from 2nd Ave
Nice to see a local business beating a chain!
I like the locals as well, but the coffee at the bean is undrinkable...just like starbucks.
Go Starbucks! keep employing people and giving them benefits! Thanks for coming to the neighborhood!
Most of the people inside The Bean are just doing work on their laptops. Can't really count them all as customers when they don't even have coffee.
People arrive early at the Bean and install themselves at a table for hours on end using the free WIFI. At this Starbucks, most people order to take away so the comparison is inaccurate. In the mornings the line at Starbucks is as long as it is at The Bean. I have been going to The Bean for years and I am a fan, however, the prices at Starbucks are lower than they are at the Bean, and the food at Starbucks is fresher and tastier. I can't tell you how many an overpriced stale and crusty croissant I have had at The Bean, and the same goes for hard and out of date muffins. The savory stuff at the Bean is ridiculously over priced and equally not fresh. Either Whole Foods or Starbucks would be cheeper and fresher for a light lunch. I want to like the Bean, but they are going to have to step up to the plate in terms of their prices and the quality of what they sell. My loyalty should not require me to pay higher prices for inferior stuff. And while I do love the atmosphere at The Bean, the fact that it is usually impossible to find seats there often means that I will go into Starbucks and get stuff to take home, rather than risk being seen by the hawk-eyed mangers of the Bean who are always on the lookout for disloyal regulars.
I stop by The Bean once or twice a day and aside from the people parked at tables there's always a steady line of customers. But I agree, the food and snacks are a bit spendy.
I heart Starbucks. Does that make me plastic? Perhaps, but at least I'm not bitter.
playing devil's advocate...if it weren't for starbucks starting up in the 90s, the popularity of coffee shops would never have blossomed to what it is now. It started as a local seattle shop and who's to label them as "the man" when they provide jobs (with benefits nonetheless), and fresher foods than your local "bean".
Best coffee I've had in NYC is @ La Colombe.
- East Villager
The prices are too high. I was contemplating a vegan chicken salad sandwich the other day but the tiny thing was $7.99. Really?! I passed on it and bought lunch at the health food store on 4th by Dolphin Fitness. Vegan lasagne $4.99!
As I said in my earlier post , both Whole Foods and Starbucks are cheaper and tastier. Neither place is a paradigm of affordability or of a bargain. I had a small slice of cake and a coffee at the Bean recently and it came to nearly $8 which I found to be borderline offensive. When you price yourself above both Whole Foods and Starbucks you ate treading into luxury territory which to me seems antithetical to the Bean's target image of being a pro art, local bohemian throw back to an earlier cooler and more authentic era.
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