Hipster coffee shops – a global brand of individual operators

The internet – and everything which has subsequently followed in order to make the world feel more connected – is undoubtably making things ubiquitous across the globe. There is a global village of individual operations – both in the world of coffee shops to restaurants, bars, hotels and more – that look, feel, function in exactly the same way. We’ve all been in these coffee shops in particular and have seen the trademark lighting made from wires and bare bulbs, the neon lighting, and the coffee proudly on display, also available for you to buy and take home.

I understand and empathise with the opinion of some people, that with a number of operators taking their inspiration from the likes of Pinterest, it can lead to the loss of a sense of individuality. Someone in Sydney could, for example, open a coffee shop almost identical to one opening in Manchester without the owners ever having met.

But consider this – many of these coffee shop owners will be ‘one man band’ businesses who are, more likely than not, using high quality, better graded coffee beans than their mass-market counterparts to create the best offering they possibly can. Meaning when you go in as a customer, you can be pretty certain it will serve a good cup of coffee and be somewhere you like.

What’s more, for those who might find themselves far from home, this ubiquitous approach could, as the big players do as a group, create a much-needed sense of familiarity and security for the customer. So ironically, the cool people who think they are being individual and not part of a herd, end up being exactly that, because feeling secure and familiar with the offer in these global individuals fulfils a need.

There could also be an argument, especially from a design perspective, that modelling each new coffee shop after the one before stagnates creativity. Yet isn’t that how we learn and evolve – see what works elsewhere: look, learn, replicate and, importantly, evolve incrementally. This last point has been the strategy adopted by one of our longest serving clients, global casual dining leader Nandos. No design manual, but constant evolution.

Take away the global factor and focus on your local city or big town. I can almost guarantee that within walking distance will be several coffee shops all of a similar ilk. There will also be chain operators who have been using the same tried and tested cookie cutter approach for decades. It’s been this way for years, and yet still from the ‘familiar’ always rises someone who will come along and want to do things differently.

A final question: is taking inspiration from each other and creating this unofficial global ‘brand’ of coffee shops conditioning to people to do, act and enjoy coffee in a certain way? In a simple answer, no. McDonald’s, which has over 40,000 restaurants worldwide, could easily be accused of trying to condition the way we eat - and yet there are still millions of meals served across hospitality business on a daily basis in a completely different way to the McDonald’s format. Thanks to the inherent nature of humans, people will always step away from the crowd and carve their own path, make their own choices and either look to enjoy a cup of ‘hipster’ coffee, or not.