It Started With A Donut

It's been quite a while since I posted something here, so I guess I'm probably overdue. I graduated in March and took a while to decompress from all things business, but I've recently taken notice of a trend in the business world that must be addressed. Now I have no delusions that my little blog post will change the business practices of any fortune 500 company, and that's kind of the point. I would much rather see it read by small business entrepreneurs, and used to make their businesses better.

The Evil Corporation

Everyone likes to blame large corporations for the demise of small businesses; I was once counted among this group. If given the choice, I would much rather give my business to a mom-and-pop establishment than to frequent their gargantuan competition. As of late, I've been making an attempt to do this, but I often seem to run into a problem. To illustrate my quandary, I'll simply recall my recent experience trying to find a good donut shop.

The Search Begins

So I recently moved to a moderately sized city with a fairly large population (Approx. 600,000) as well as a significant military presence. Given these factors, I thought that I should surely be able to find a good donut shop somewhere in the area. So I did what most people do when they want to find something, I took a short trip over to my favorite food-finding app and provided the pertinent information. The results were less than promising. I found not one prospect with over an 81% approval rating, which might be okay if you were talking about a politician, but isn't so great when you're talking about something you're going to put in your mouth. 

Putting the Taste to the Test

At this point, I decided to just throw caution to the wind and get some first-hand experience with these donut places; I mean after all, I suppose it's possible that the reviews were completely inaccurate. So the first place I went to was fairly easy to make my judgement call on; primarily because it wasn't there. If the other prospects had presented any greater of a web presence, or had any better reviews, I may have opted to visit them first; which highlights my point. All of my prospective donut shops had mediocre reviews, and virtually no web presence. 

A Tasting We Will Go

So now it's on to the next prospect; which I'm happy to report was actually where my urban dining app said it would be. This place was actually a worse experience than that of the first prospect. When I walked through the door my senses were assaulted by an aroma that smelled like a combination of cigarette smoke, ancient egyptian incense, and a poorly maintained lavatory. Now at this point, I know what you're thinking. You probably suspect that I immediately turned around and headed out of the establishment, and if we were talking about anything other than donuts you might be right. In the interest of giving the place a chance, I ordered simply a glazed donut. I figure there is virtually no way that any respectable donut shop can mess up a simple glazed donut. Let's just say this wasn't a respectable donut shop. Apparently this donut shop's idea of a glazed donut is a cold hard puck that has absorbed the putrid essence of the establishment from which it originates. Needless to say, I was done with this donut shop. Now across town, there resides another shop under the title and branding of the same franchise. In hindsight, I probably should have learned my lesson from the first location, but my thought process was that I'd been to other locations of the exact same franchise while I resided south of the Mason-Dixon line, and had been impressed with the results. That was not the case at this location. In fact, my experience at the second location was almost identical to the first location. I could go on, but honestly after this the explanations become a bit redundant. Every shop I attempted to visit was either nonexistent, or virtually as terrible as the first shop.

The Value of Competition

So where's the breakdown here? I've pondered on these experiences fairly regularly over the last few months and I think I may have come to a realization. The lack of any competition means that the donut shops in this area don't really have to try. When you think about it, if you're the only person selling water in the middle of the Sahara, but your water tastes like sewerage, you're still gonna rake it in. In my opinion, this concept cuts across various brands and industries, but in the interest of avoiding any lawsuits, I'll simply stick to my intentionally brand-free coffee and donut example. 

And on the Subject of Coffee...

I, like many other Earthlings, am a huge fan of coffee, and more specifically, of a national brand of coffee that has become almost universally ubiquitous (universally meaning everywhere in the known universe). I'll use this as another example. In the exact same city, there is a local coffee brand that's on the rise. This coffee company has a handful of locations in the city, but they seem to be rapidly expanding, and I see their marketing material all over the city, their bumper stickers on the vehicles of their adoring fans, and I've even had a couple people tell me how great they are and that I should give them a try. Although I usually avoid change at all costs, I finally caved and gave the coffee joint a try. After having visited the small drive-thru only coffee shop, it was easy to understand why so many people are fans. Purely in the interest of research, I returned a couple days later at a different time of day to ensure that I got the same level of service. It was almost remarkable. Both times the personnel were knowledgable, courteous, and professional. I say remarkable because I almost never seem to get this level of service in the city in which I live, but this further goes to emphasize my point. In the case of the donut shop, there is no large competition to threaten the horrible excuses for donut shops in the local area. By contrast, the coffee landscape is completely different. My favorite universal coffee company is one that prides itself on consistency and excellent customer service. Any small company who wants to compete with that must, at very least, match the level and quality of service of their competitor. This means that they can't simply take a "good enough" approach to their products. Every single customer interaction must be so memorable and flawless that their potential customer base has no desire to return to their competitor, otherwise they will lose that valuable business that is the lifeblood for any fledgling entrepreneurial venture.

So What Am I Saying?

As evil as many large corporations may seem, they get as large as they do for a reason. Generally, they put forth a better effort to give the people what they want. There are certain not-so-isolated cases in which large corporations have used their financial wherewithal and influence to crush smaller competitors outside of the normal confines of the law, but I firmly believe that when everyone is on a level playing field (and by this I mean acting within the confines of the law) there is no reason that a smaller competitor cannot maintain and even grow their business within their specifically chosen niche despite the presence of a gargantuan competitor. The problems arise when small business fail to realize that the expenses associated with marketing, advertisement, and excellent customer service are investments and not costs. I personally believe that when a business makes an earnest effort to ensure that every single patron feels that they've been treated with respect, and have gotten value for their investment, customer loyalty will be one aspect of the business that they need not concern themselves with. But hey, what do I know. I'm just a grad student in search of a good donut.