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The Dispatch wrote
Will McCafes’ java lure coffee lovers?
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
BY BILL CHRONISTER
What with fuel prices, food costs and the onset of summer doldrums, you deserve a break today — or so McDonald’s would like you to think. The fast-food giant has, for the past three months, been installing espresso-based coffee bars and training baristas at restaurants across central Ohio. They’re in 23 stores so far, in Columbus, Dublin, Lewis Center, Marion, Mount Gilead, Mount Vernon, Newark, Pataskala, Reynoldsburg, Westerville and Zanesville.
Local franchisees expect to have them in 106 locations by the end of July. The McCafe coffees, like Starbucks’ and Dunkin’ Donuts’, start with espresso. And like the other two, McDonald’s offers a wide selection of lattes, iced lattes, mochas and cappuccinos in a variety of syrup-based flavors. Prices might differ, but they start at $1.99 for a 12-ounce drink.
Related Stories:
- Starbucks to Close 600 Stores, May Cut 12,000 Jobs
- Dunkin’ Donuts dips further into Columbus market
- Poll: Best Coffee in Columbus
- Review: Yeah Me Too…. Coffee
I don’t think anyone involved in the higher end of argicultural products wants to sabotage the GI system. For starters, GIs are not fungible (or shouldn’t be) in the way a brand or trademark can be or can be manipulated to be. Or as subject to trends. Luxury handbags being a market purely driven by trademarks in trends.
Secondly, GIs give shared risk/reward so that Starbucks benefited from the work the microroasters did among the conoisseurs which build recognition and appreciation of countries and climats. Building a trademark alone is a bitch, but this many players an incentive to cooperate to build a GI.
Lastly, GIs are nice because you can multiply their value with a brand or trademark. Certain Burgundy AOCs have an intrinsic value, but wide price discrepancies between producers.
A.