[MD] Are we the people stupid?

[Arlo J. Bensinger]

[Khaled]
Years back in a small town i heard a person talking with the beer  delivery in
front of a new store. the question was if they are selling  more beers that
there is a new store in town. The answer was no. Newer  stores make it more
convenient but no more beer will be sold.

[Arlo]
Apparently this was not a college town. ;-)

Although I tend to find greater value in supporting local, community owned
businesses, one interesting (leftist, Marxist) adademic study found that when
Starbucks moves into an area, it significantly increases the amount of coffee
sold. That is, Starbucks creates a market.

Now, personally, I don't like their coffee. I prefer more mellow "mocha java"
style blends, and give my patronage to local coffee houses with a unique local
flair. So this is in no way a product endorsement. But, Starbucks doesn't so
much as take away customers from existing locales, they create new customers
out of people who would never otherwise go to a coffee shop.

Indeed, some (leftist, Marxist) studies have gone so far as to show trends that
nearby coffee shops INCREASE their traffic when a Starbucks moves nearby (so
long as it is not "right" nearby). The notion is that some of these new coffee
consumers, brought out by Starbucks, wander to other places once some of the
"novelness" of Starbucks wears off.

Of course, then you have places like Houston, where a comedian (don't remember
the name) said he found evidence of the coming Apocolypse when he existed a
Houston Starbucks, to look across the street and see... another Starbucks. (He
feels the two Starbucks must be catering to the Alzheimer's crowd... get it?)

Arlo