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Pricey Espresso Makers Position Themselves Against Starbucks

I tried to do the math on this but I haven't had time to press my morning java yet. It seems that some high-end caffeine-delivery systems are making the case that $1,000 and upwards really isn't so much to pay for a Mr. Coffee on Steroids if you add up all those $4-plus lattes at Starbucks.

Bodum, which makes French-press coffee makers (including the $25 one waiting for my ministrations) and accessories like milk frothers, recently sent out a pitch saying users could save more than $1,000 a year making their coffee at home, Juliet Chung reports. Philips Electronics, meanwhile, says its single-serve Senseo machine could, over five years, produce enough savings for a car down payment or a chunk of college tuition.

And Joe Laneve, svp of home furnishings at Bloomingdale's, says sales of single-serve machines and espresso machines are booming. In-store demonstrations include the pitch, "By the way, if you're going to drink two or three Starbucks a day, this is a good way to save."

Poor beleaguered Starbucks. Spokeswoman Deb Trevino says, among other things, that "our customers find value in coming to Starbucks for the convenience and ambience." And if it's any comfort, the coffee I press in my Bodum is, more often than not, Starbucks.

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1 comment about "Pricey Espresso Makers Position Themselves Against Starbucks ".
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  1. Swag Valance from Trash, Inc., January 16, 2009 at 9:32 p.m.

    That's sure convenient for the espresso machine manufacturers.

    But to believe this, you honestly have to believe that Starbucks marketing department is staffed by idiots, since Starbucks sells home espresso machines in their retail stores. They are most certainly not idiots and know their lifetime customer values better than most.

    The fly in this oversimplified ointment is typically that none of the said economic "math" accounts for human factors -- i.e., the degree to which human interest and laziness prefers to have someone else make our coffee for us, and the taste preferences consumers have for what they can make at home versus what they like to consume retail.

    Some people do make money gambling in Las Vegas. But Starbucks marketing has figured out (by selling home machines in their stores) that, on average, the house wins in the end.

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