I wonder how these places actually differentiate themselves?
I work for a, uh, major retailer, one that often has, uh, major seattle-based chain cafes in them. From my limited experience covering breaks for the baristas and reading all the official training materials its given me some perspective. For instance espresso is a fine solution of tiny particles of coffee and if you do not do anything with it after a few seconds it will settle and not mix right. Lots of things like that. When the commercial grade espresso that costs as much as a new car broke down, I made my self really sick as a unbiased taster testing like 5 or 6 double shots to help calibrate the thing.
But for all the fluff about quality and training and whether or not the baristas follow some kind of authentic european tradition, its still coffee. You can argue with me, but I truly believe that the reason why these businesses are successful is because people are literally addicted to caffeine. If you can create some kind of psychological trick with your presentation and experience to really maximize the amount of "gratification" upon entering then your regulars won't be able to live without you. They'll come in and drop 4 dollars for a cup of something that costs a fraction of that, and a little stand no more than 300 sq feet in a low traffic location can pull down like 4 grand a week.
To think people used to drink that mud at work for free, too
And all you really get out of it is 5 minutes of being hyper, 30 minutes of having to pee, and 5 hours of dull headache.