Interesting bit if you can sit through it.
I wonder about the small shops who market themselves as the alternative to Starbucks and all it's corporate fury. Is their lone redeeming quality simply falling into a gimmick too? Being an indie shop is good, I guess, but if your product is no better than Starbucks... does it really matter? What if the McCafe on the corner has better lattes than both but with none of the emotional satisfaction purchased from either the branding at big green or the emotional comfort of rejecting the big bad corporation?
