Tickers Coffee has been operating in the Westwood Shopping Center for about five years. Starbucks recently opened up across the parking lot from them. SUZANNE CARR ROSSI/THE FREE LANCE-STAR View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

brew haha Mom-n-pop coffee shop, Starbucks go head-to-head in same State Route 3 complex

Tickers Coffee is facing competition from the new Starbucks that opened in Westwood Shopping Center

Date published: 12/1/2005

By CATHY JETT

By CATHY JETT

Pablo Cuadrado's first response to learning that a Starbucks was opening next to his coffee shop was, admittedly, a tad cocky.

"I thought, 'Bring it on!'" said the owner of Tickers Coffee in Westwood Shopping Center on State Route 3.

Then it hit him, as jolting as an extra-strength cuppa joe. After building up his independent business for five years, he'd be playing David to the Goliath of the gourmet coffee business.

"It's kinda like Wal-Mart," he said.

But as the stone-fronted Starbucks building went up where a Long John Silver's used to stand, Cuadrado began to reconsider. Perhaps, just perhaps, there might be room enough in the newly renovated Fredericksburg retail center for both businesses.

"What Starbucks does is bring activity to an area," he said. "It might help. I'm thinking on the positive side."

And he's got his fingers crossed that customers queuing up in the drive-through line at Starbucks will look over and see the Tickers sign while they're waiting for their Frappuccinos.

Cuadrado, who used to own an independent auto parts store in Queens, N.Y., is right to be optimistic, said Mike Ferguson, marketing communications director for the Specialty Coffee Association of America. Having a Starbucks open is no longer the kiss of death for nearby independents that it once was.

"The first wave of people opening coffeehouses were passionate about coffee, but weren't necessarily businesspeople," he said. "They had issues with competing. Today, they've either gone out of business or become businesspeople."

As an example, he cited a short stretch of road near his Long Beach, Calif., office that has two Starbucks, a regional chain coffee shop and two independent coffeehouses. They're all thriving, and one independent's business actually shot up 40 percent after the Starbucks stores opened because he focused more attention on inventory control and teaching his staff salesmanship.

"Starbucks has 34 [percent] to 37 percent of the market. It fluctuates," Ferguson said. "But independents stay steady at 51 percent. No matter how many stores Starbucks opens, the independents keep pace. It's like consumers almost need that option of having the independent."

Starbucks, for its part, does not want to be seen as Tickers' competitor, said Carter Bentzel, Starbucks' marketing manager for this region.

"We serve a different customer," she said.

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Date published: 12/1/2005