There is a "next" post up at Aldo Coffee in the Mt. Lebanon coffee store's series of "what do we do now?"
I am tempted, as I suspect some others are, to see in this episode some grand narrative of Pittsburgh's struggles. I'll hold off jumping to equally grand conclusions, but I have a metaphoric cast of mind. Aldo Coffee is not alone, and it is not unique, in the challenges it faces.
Here is a first reaction: Aldo's predicament reminds me of the problems assessed in Clayton Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma - and again in The Innovator's Solution. Aldo Coffee was a leap forward for Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh has caught up. The entrepreneur's instinct is to survive by doing the same -- premium coffee -- more and better: lower costs, higher margins, better service. Using evidence from a variety of contexts, including the steel industry, Christensen argues that this is likely to be a losing solution.
More later.
2 comments:
I don't go out that way much and hadn't heard of Aldo Coffee before this. I know I'm not the target market, but I cannot figure out how so many coffee shops have stayed in business.
I did once pay more $10/pound for coffee beans. A woman was in Whole Foods pushing a new type of coffee she said was to support cooperatives in Nicaragua. Before I could stop myself, I asked if she had a kind of coffee that supported the Contras. If felt a bit guilty, so I bought some coffee from her.
Is Aldo the Rollier's of coffee, or is Rollier's the Aldo's of hardware?
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