coded message from the front

My mother would clean,
My father would fix,
And I will try not to count the days.

My Dad is Starbucks

Howard Schultz, owner of Starbucks said "we earned customers' trust by speaking to their hearts as well as their heads" (Koehn, Nancy F. Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' from Wedgwood to Dell Boston. Harvard Business School 2001p 207). In describing Schultz's experience with Italian Barista's that were to become Schultz's business model, Koehn says "…All of them provided an inherently social experience—one that offered people community, comfort, and some sense of extended family." If you walk in my dad's store the first thing that you will notice is probably and employee, half the time it's my dad, saying hi ( because it's "harder to steal from a face than a store" ), then you'll probably notice the signs. My dad collects signs, and decorates his store with him. If it's the Christmas season the store is decorated, to a certain extent much like our home windows and balustrades, with garlands and cheesy window stickers. You'll probably see that neighbor that you only see at the store and stop and chat for awhile ( yes, yes they do).Then off course you'll notice the prices, heck, next to lighting and the floors, that's the first thing I notice when I walk in a grocery store ( admittedly my dad's store is well lit, and we do our best to keep the floors clean, something that most Discount Food stores don't do) , which are low. The service is friendly and all the signs are homemade ( in fact it's the only way to get customers to read them ). We have customers that come to the store not because we're cheaper ( we are) , closer or whatever, but because half the time you'll find my dad out front, doing stuff way below his pay grade, chatting with the customer. My dad does exactly what Starbucks does, just for the opposite reasons. Starbucks offers service, atmosphere and community to justify the expense, while my dad offers service, atmosphere and community ( I'm not sure if this is a grand scheme or an just an after affect of who he is could be both) because he has an inferior product most of the time, a product that requires, to a certain extent, trust to sell. Take that Starbucks (and everybody out there who think theatre major can't talk business).