My comparison of the Voom situation.

joemama

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
May 21, 2004
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I just don’t understand the logic behind continuing Voom. :confused: I know there are many still holding on to the Voom balloon, hoping it will continue to fly. Ever since the rumors started to float around about the end of Voom, I’ve been trying to come up with a comparison to some other business proposition, and I think that I’ve finally come up with one.

Before you start to bash me and say that the numbers aren’t totally accurate, I know they aren’t and they weren’t meant to be. But the ratios are close enough to make my point.

Imagine you live in a small town of roughly 5000 people. There are 3 well established coffee shops in town, for this exercise we’ll use Starbucks, Peaberry , and Dunkin’ Donuts. You figure they all make money selling coffee, it can’t be that hard, let’s start Voom Coffee.

After a little over a year, quite of few individuals around town have tried your shop, many are impressed by some of the new exclusive brews featured there. But most don’t stay around long, since many of their old favorites are not on the menu, and there was a lot of service problems early on. After this first year of business, people still pretty much stay loyal to their brand of coffee. Starbucks and Peaberry still have about 2500 customers, mostly the newcomer that wanted something newer and better. Dunkin’ Donuts being the old coffee shop on the block has about 2000 customers, but they are adding some of the fancier blends to match the drawing power of the newer places. About 500 people can live with making coffee at home and don’t care for it much anyway. That leaves you with 3, count ‘em 3 loyal and very vocal customers.

Now, all the other shops are making money on each cup of coffee they sell. But not you, it costs a lot with all the new equipment, the free coffee you gave out trying to attract customers, and a myriad of other things. You are actually losing and arm and a leg for every cup you sell. You start to toy with the idea of selling off you shop, but your 3 customers beg and plead and whine for you to continue to operate, if for no other reason, just to keep them happy. In the end it becomes too much, and you sell your shop and all your machines.

But you still have the recipes for your exclusive blends! Maybe you can get the other shops to pay you to put them on their menus. Or better yet, maybe they’ll let you lease one of their stores to sell the stuff nobody really wanted in the first place.

Be honest, in that situation what would you do?

Comments?
 
I don't drink coffee.
 
joemama said:
Be honest, in that situation what would you do?
Absolutely a no-brainer. I'd continue to enjoy the "coffee" I've been enjoying as long as it's available -- why wouldn't I? Hell, knowing it may or may not be here tomorrow makes it taste all the richer.
 
People's tastes change over time...I doubt you'll find too many diners serving hardtack, scrapple or an infamous cold should of beef. Personally, I equate these outdated staples as being the breakfast foods of the vast majority of SD consumer who continue to subsist on their D*, E*, Adelphia, Cox, Comcast, etc.; they keep eating this crap because that's all they know...but things change. Likewise, there will always be a new generation of joemama Juniors & Juniorettes who will search for their own identities and are willing to try new foods to whet their appetite.

BTW, how many people heard of Starbucks 20 years ago? :confused: Times change and people change, it's just that people change at a much slower rate. VOOM may or may not make it in the long-run, but HD has turned the corner and is picking up speed. Right now NOBODY is offering more HD than VOOM...and the programming continues to improve each and every month. HD is not for everyone and it is going to be an uphill struggle for VOOM HD LLC to survive. However, I am grateful that SOMEBODY is doing SOMETHING to mass-market HD...and lots of it! Personally speaking, I don't like hardtack or scrapple. Unless E*, D* and the Cable add HD to their menu---and lots of it---then I'm just not interested.

P.S. no offense to all you hardtack, scrapple and cold shoulder of beef lovers. ;)
 
I think he's talking about what would you do from an owner's perspective.

And..being honest, I would try to package my exclusive coffees and work out contracts with the other coffee shops to carry them.

With that out of the way, here's what I'd LIKE to do. Start an advertising campaign that informs people that the other coffee shops have rat turds mixed in with the coffee. My coffee has been certified as 100% feces free by the Board of Licensed Official Workers, Managers, and Employees (known as BLOWME).

Get their customers stirred up about the health risk of ingesting rat poop, while working out a deal to either lease one of the other shops or build something brand new. I'd sell my other business that I'm letting my son Jimmy run, and set a tolerance level for how much of a loss I was willing to take in this phase of the overall plan. I'd make sure that there would be enough left so I could retire with the same quality of life I have now, but without all the headaches.
 
The Stone Man said:
I think he's talking about what would you do from an owner's perspective.

And..being honest, I would try to package my exclusive coffees and work out contracts with the other coffee shops to carry them.

With that out of the way, here's what I'd LIKE to do. Start an advertising campaign that informs people that the other coffee shops have rat turds mixed in with the coffee. My coffee has been certified as 100% feces free by the Board of Licensed Official Workers, Managers, and Employees (known as BLOWME).

Get their customers stirred up about the health risk of ingesting rat poop, while working out a deal to either lease one of the other shops or build something brand new. I'd sell my other business that I'm letting my son Jimmy run, and set a tolerance level for how much of a loss I was willing to take in this phase of the overall plan. I'd make sure that there would be enough left so I could retire with the same quality of life I have now, but without all the headaches.
You mean to tell me there is rat poop in my Folgers? :yikes Anyway, I will be the first to admit that a frontal assault on D* and E* is likely to continue to fail. VOOMs best hope of survival is to continue developing their programming and make it available to others (D*, E*...and perhaps even Cable) to some degree. They can then continue to grow their niche HD market by offering additional programming not available elsewhere. It will be interesting to see what happens...
 
And..being honest, I would try to package my exclusive coffees and work out contracts with the other coffee shops to carry them.

This is sort of what is going on around here regionaly with fast food restaurants. The main restaurant takes a franchise for a limited amount of another fast food chain's popular menu. Thus we have around here KFC/Taco Bell, KFC/Pizza Hut, there is even BP/McDonalds and BP/Burger King (may as well get a burger with you fill up).

Could we see the VOOM exclusives as an add on franchise like Comcast/VOOM or Dish Network/VOOM?
 
The Stone Man said:
With that out of the way, here's what I'd LIKE to do. Start an advertising campaign that informs people that the other coffee shops have rat turds mixed in with the coffee. My coffee has been certified as 100% feces free by the Board of Licensed Official Workers, Managers, and Employees (known as BLOWME).
Now that's funny! I just wish I hadn't actually been drinking coffee while reading it.
 
The one thing that doesn't ring true (keeping to your example) The town is growing by over 100% a year. Everyone is wanting the newest coffee. So all coffee shops expand their lineup but one may be first to offer the very latest in tastes. The other coffee shops are slower to change. Don't have the room and are satisfied with their current volume. Except the newest planned for this kind of expansion growth. At over a 100% growth a year, all are doing well but the new guy seems to be getting more attention than the others.

For me I want to see what all the fuss is about at the new coffee shop.
 
The Stone Man And..being honest said:
You are not far from the truth as Starbuck has made their coffee available in Book stores and in Grocery stores as well. Not so outrages as everyone things.
 
I'd have an out-of-town friend come in. I'd spill scaulding hot coffee on him. He'd sue. My insurance company would pay him millions. Then I would close up, sell my exclusive recipes to one of the other coffee houses, and my friend and I would open a shoe shop with the millions he got from the settlement. There are no other shoe shops in town.
 

Looking for small 19" or 20" LCD monitor for bedroom HD

This is a first for me?

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