You are not selling coffee, you are selling an experience. Most people go to Starbucks for the experience they have there, the illusion of being refined members of society who can afford it. To feel cool among their peers. The coffee is an admission price. People with a laptop bothering you? How about providing a wi-fi service and charging for it instead?
To distinguish yourself you want to have outrageous quality and markups. You want to target upper middle class people who don't mind spending $10 for a large cup of coffee and a couple of baked goods.
Make your environment as nice as possible. Make the quality of your coffee as good as it can be. Be remarkable. Be well known for having the best coffee in your city, state, or even America. Make people want to drive 20 miles just to get there.
Just opening another unremarkable little coffee shop doesn't make much sense. Opening the "Fat Duck" of coffee shops does.
People go to Starbucks because once you've learnt Starbuckish you can order your coffee exactly how you like it anywhere. They're selling ubiquity. It's the same business as Subway, you can get your "unique" thing wherever you are. Brands that (successfully) go for "cool" you see people wearing their logo on their clothing and accessories and I don't recall seeing anyone who wasn't staff ever sporting a Starbucks logo.
My regular Starbucks, where they know me and start making my drink as soon as I walk in, I go to because it's on my way home from work and it's open 24 hours. And Starbucks knew that there was this kind of consumer and that's why they're there. That's what they're selling.
You are not selling coffee, you are selling an experience. Most people go to Starbucks for the experience they have there, the illusion of being refined members of society who can afford it. To feel cool among their peers. The coffee is an admission price. People with a laptop bothering you? How about providing a wi-fi service and charging for it instead?
To distinguish yourself you want to have outrageous quality and markups. You want to target upper middle class people who don't mind spending $10 for a large cup of coffee and a couple of baked goods.
Make your environment as nice as possible. Make the quality of your coffee as good as it can be. Be remarkable. Be well known for having the best coffee in your city, state, or even America. Make people want to drive 20 miles just to get there.
Just opening another unremarkable little coffee shop doesn't make much sense. Opening the "Fat Duck" of coffee shops does.