Word: retailing
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...Rocks, anyone?) Cereality's first three cafés, in Philadelphia, Tempe, Ariz., and Chicago, are thriving, but as the company tries to move from small-business start-up to national franchise, Roth has had to leave the fun and games aside to face a looming challenge for every new retail concept: once your idea proves itself, competitors flock, knowing that the initial risk has been taken. Roth is now facing serial cereal challengers--he calls them copycats--that have popped up looking for their own bite of this emerging restaurant segment. And like siblings squabbling over the last bowl...
That's another reason Cereality is trying to grow as quickly as possible, through franchising, partnerships with hotels and other retail chains, online sales and catering. The Cereality concept has generated so much buzz that Roth and Bacher say they have received more than 6,000 applications from all over the world. In April, Roth and Bacher began meeting with applicants to select the first operators, and they hope to have 30 new partners by 2008, with each running several restaurants. The Cereal Bowl, for its part, says it has collected 250 e-mail inquiries about franchising...
Expansion won't be easy for either of them, analysts say. "Are there enough cereal eaters nationwide to support a whole cereal chain?" asks Candace Corlett, a principal at WSL Strategic Retail, a consulting firm based in New York City. "I'm not so sure." The cereal cafés say their research shows that millions of Americans, particularly young ones, eat cereal multiple times a week. Knight says after the novelty wears off, Cereality may struggle to convince consumers it offers more than what they can get at home. "Starbucks has unique recipes. Jamba Juice has unique 'boosters...
...goods to billions of people, is transforming a consumer culture based on big hits and best sellers into one that supports more idiosyncratic, specialized niche products. "Hit-driven economics is a creation of an age without enough room to carry everything for everybody," Anderson wrote. "With online distribution and retail, we are entering a world of abundance. And the differences are profound...
...long tail as a theory is most persuasive in explaining how companies selling more products with lower demand can easily compete with (or even surpass) those solely dependent on hits. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos was the first retailer to deploy that new business model online. Amazon's virtual inventory of 3.7 million books dwarfs the typical Barnes & Noble retail store, which carries about 100,000 titles. The vast majority of Amazon's books may sell only a few thousand copies, but the 3.6 million less popular books not carried by its rival account for 25% of Amazon's total book...