A little dream cafe - some thought s on the challenges of retailing

I have been dreaming of having a cafe even before I opened my Leonidas chocolate store five years ago. When I opened it, I thought I would eventually be able to serve coffee, tea, hot chocolate, little snacks and my collection of healthy salad ideas with it. But the landlord decided to give an exclusivity to Starbucks and so, I am unable to have a chocolate cafe at my current location. I have been reflecting on this exclusivity thing for a while now. My question is: would companies that require exclusivity, actually be able to survive in the market if they wouldn't have an exclusivity deal? I have my doubts. It would be interesting to see a study done on this. I guess exclusivity is needed in some areas of business, but for a small cafe I cannot really see much benefit other than stiffling the competition. The other thing it creates is uniformity - the same coffee shops everywhere in every mall, on every street corner. This summer I was several evenings in my university city Leuven (Belgium). One narrow street behind the City Hall is lined with restaurants side by side -a few italian, french, greek, etc. All of them with terraces. Each of these restaurants is unique and offers menu items that are available at the other restaurants as well as their own selections. And even tough they are located side by side and across the street from each other, they are succesful and the little terraces are full of people eating with their friends and families. Choice - just being able to walk along the street, reading the menus posted at the entrances to the restaurants, the daily specials and being able to chose the one where the atmosphere seems to be perfect, the food just right for mood you are in that day. That priviliege of choice is not as readily available here in North America. The uniformity of the same stores in all the malls of North America, the same coffeeshops on every street corner, the same fast food restaurants with the same food choices day after day, eventually will only create boredom and a general ill-defined dissatisfaction in the general population, I think. Uniformity of course has its advantages - you can employ cheap labour and you can duplicate your business idea many times over so the world gets inundated with the same idea many times over an you get to be in a position to negotiate exclusivities. And so other people with dreams of having their own business may not have the opportunity to realize them. Like me.
But I can dream of my cafe. I can imagine it - a place where people meet and start talking about current topics, about the things that are going on in their lives and about their pet topics and hobbies. It could be a place where you can people watch or read a good book - a mystery or a romance novel. A place where you could have a cup of coffee or tea or hot chocolate and your favorite pastry without having to worry about the calories. A place where small business owners could get together and exchange ideas for the success of their business over a cup of tea. A place where people love to come and love to be, because the food is good, the atmosphere is great and where quality is strived for in every action, every product.
Well, we're half way there, because we can serve hot chocolate and teas. We now have 12 different kinds of Hot Chocolate and we make all of them with real chocolate, not from powder like most places do. Our hot chocolate is famous world wide, but Calgarians don't know about it yet. It has been written about in magazines and newspapers. It has been mentioned on blogs and in press releases. But Calgarians don't know about it yet.
There are people who come regularly to my store. We have a chat over a cup of Leonidas Original or Leonidas Manon Cafe. Some come from as far away as Nova Scotia and make a point of stopping in for a cup and a chat. I like that. It gives me life. It gives me something to think about. It gives me energy.
If you come to my store before the end of the week because you read this blog, please ask for a hot chocolate in the special BLOG cup. You'll receive a free Leonidas chocolate and I'll try to spend some time chatting with you. It's close to Christmas, so I may have to give you a rain check for the chat part. To find us, go to www.leonidas.ca