Tully’s vs Starbucks

Saturday night I went to a wedding of an old friend and had a wonderful time. Congratulation Heather (& Drew… even though I don’t actually know you). One of my friends was there, Justin, who works at a Starbucks in Woodinville. He says to me, “I see on Facebook that you’re at the Hollywood Hill Tully’s a lot. Why not just come a little further and come hang out at the Starbucks where I work? Then you can see me too.”

Hmmm… Good question.

So, here I am, not two days later sitting at Tully’s (Redmond – Bella Bottega) again and thinking, maybe I should have gone and hung out at Justin’s Starbucks. It’s just coffee, afterall, right?

I’m not sure.

Overall Business: I’m not opposed to mega-stores per se. But Starbucks is about as corporate as it gets and there is something kinda nice about “small time” Tully’s. Sure I know it’s still corporate with a almost 200 locations. But its not like Starbucks. Tully’s had a $6M net loss in FY2010 and Starbucks $100M+ profit or something just in Q3 reports. (not entirely sure on that because their balance sheet had way too much information on it and I got confused). So I feel a little like I’m supporting the local underdog by being at Tully’s. Point: Starbucks (Sorry Tully’s on this one you’re just running bad business)

Coffee: As far as the straight coffee goes… I’m not sure which is better. I’m currently drinking straight black coffee and they’re both kinda gross as I’m getting used to drinking it straight up. Point: Tie

Environment: At Tully’s you walk in and feel like they say to you “Please sit down. Stay as long as you’d like. Here’s a fire for you. Have some coffee if you want too. Oh… what’s that, you want more… here’s a free refill.” At Starbucks, I feel like… here get some coffee and stay a little if you must. But we’re going to put all of our uncomfortable seats in traffic areas so you don’t stay too long.” Point: Tully’s.

Internet: For years Tully’s has had free internet and really easy to use. Recently, Starbucks has adopted this mentality. My guess is that they didn’t want to end up having you sit too long and take up space in their store with your computer. Plus they probably had a contract with AT&T they had to finish out. Then they had ‘free’ internet as long as you set up an account and even still you couldn’t use it for more than 2 hours. They’ve since made it essentially just like Tully’s and it’s easy to use. But their bad internet years ago allowed me form a habit of going to Tully’s. Thus, Point: Tully’s.

Food: Not that I eat much food at coffee shops, but I must say the Starbucks selection and quality blows Tully’s out of the water. Top Pot better thank Howard Schultz daily. Because they were nothing before Starbucks. Starbucks is to Top Pot what Oprah is to Dr. Phil. (seriously, you should click that link there… that’s funny stuff) Even though I can’t stand Oprah… Point: Starbucks

So with all that said… That’s a score of 2.5 for each place. So I guess it’s all a matter of preference huh? Where you do you drink your coffee? Tully’s or Starbucks? (Yes, I know many of you prefer the ‘non-corporate’, specialty coffee places like Victor’s where they make pretty pictures with the foam on top… I like them too, but I’m only talking Tully’s & Starbucks here)

(yes I realize the picture up top has Seattle’s Best Coffee as well, but come on… they’re pretty much irrelevant anymore.)

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~ by asod on October 25, 2010.