Far Coast is Toast
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 11. 2.07
Image credit Graphicology
A year ago we posted about Coca-Cola opening a prototype store in Toronto for a new coffee chain concept, complete with bamboo floors, a fair trade coffee, cups with recycled content, biodegradable utensils and bamboo stir sticks. Some people thought it was great that Coke was trying to "do the right thing"; others thought that "global corporations will stop at nothing to capitalize on trends."
A year later, the results of the test are in; the store is closing. Now magazine says "the robot-brewed pods weren't fooling any coffee snobs. Coke's spokesperson says it is a "considered closing", part of their test marketing plans; apparently so was not paying any severance to their employees. That's the real thing for you.
I think Tully's here in Seattle has all fair trade coffee, cups with recycled content (that claim to be compostable), etc.
This reminds me of the EV-1 electric car scam:
"What better way to show how bad new alternatives are than to build a test-bed that's engineered to fail?"
Far Coast is closing?! WHAT?! Now that was damn fast... is this 100%?