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. With More on the handmade…
A few further thoughts on the handmade world, following last week’s Consumed on the DIY thing. The most interesting response came from my friend Wendy, who said that in the course of some research she’d done on luxury consumers, handmade-ness was often something people cited as a marker of luxury.
That makes sense, although of course I hadn’t really thought of it in connection with DIYism. It reminded me of one of my pet theories, though, which has nothing to do with any of this.
I’m not a drinker of elaborate coffees, but I’m often stuck in line behind such people while waiting to order a cup of regular, black coffee. In those moments of boredom, I’ve concluded that forcing some kid to run around fidding with the espresso machines and whipping this or sprinkling on that is actually part of the appeal of the fancy coffee drink: It’s being handmade, right in front of you. I wonder if, say, Starbucks had located its mocha-whatever manufacturing zone out of sight, and you couldn’t watch the stuff being prepared, if it would have the same appeal. Or if you just ordered it and they handed it to you immediately. It wouldn’t be as good, right? It seems better simply because you’ve watched somebody hustle around constructing it.
Just a thought.
In the blog world, other reactions to that column included a post on Vertical Weblog offering some Devil’s advocate thoughts on the hipness factor of crafting; general crafter support; the small business angle; and a DaddyTypes post suggesting that perhaps the DIY “revolution” is led not by women, but by parents. On the other hand, maybe this column was another example of my “Productivist Bias.”
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Reader Comments
A few thoughts about Starbucks, where I spend an inordinate amout of time. Most stores have register baristas call out bar drinks in Starbuckese, and they are called back to ensure that the order was heard and heard correctly. But at the busiest stores register baristas type up the specific orders on their terminals, and the orders are printed out individually, at the bar, printouts slapped on the cup. Makes for a quieter experience, and enables more customers to get orders processed more quickly, presumably resulting in more sales. However I’m told by my local SBUX manager that “Howard [Schultz] hates it.” The call-and-response reinforces the handmade quality of the beverages, informs customers of available beverages (and possibilities for customization), and has become a recognizable trait of the stores.
I went to a Jamba Juice the other day and was struck, and left a bit cold, by the precise automoton-like process of the line, which operates like one of those $50k/week Starbucks.
A few years ago Starbucks used to have on their back counters large tanks holding Frappuccino mix that auto-dispensed calibrated amounts of Frap mix, similar to those tanks you see at Grey’s Papaya. They were ditched in favor of clear, 2-liter pitchers they keep refrigerated. Why? Because they found customers preferred to see baristas doing the unnecessary grunt work of getting out pitchers, measuring Frap mix, putting the pitchers away, then adding ice and blending individual Fraps.
And Starbucks makes sure it get paid for the extra time spent for extra work. In NYC a double expresso is $2.06, but one over ice is a ‘no water Americano’ which costs $2.17. Ask for your 75¢ bagel to be put on a plate and baristas are supposed to attach an extra 10¢ ‘for here’ charge that defrays the extra time spent cleaning up the store and sanitizing serverware.
When I was a little teenage punk running around the mean streets near the Guggenheim, I often wished there was a place I could smoke my English Ovals and have some coffee and hang out with my friends without some waitress trying to usher us out. The quality of the coffee was never a consideration, nor was any ‘luxury’ inherent in such a situation. But it’s clear that a lot of people, including working class people, see Starbucks, its cups and retail accoutrments, as a form of affordable luxury that discreetly advertises itself (and them).
Like English Ovals.
Very, very well said…