Vida e Caffe first hit me when I noticed their coffee shop on Kloof Street in Cape Town. My brother was working for a production company and he was always in town, so he would stop by at Vida for coffee. He was always telling me about it and would always make a mention of the fact that the people who went there were seriously good looking. Because most of them were models.
I always see the Kloof street Vida as the original seed, in what has turned out to be a forest of Vida’s all over the Cape Town. It’s kind of a sad thing, because I always saw the Vida brand as a smaller, more intimate style of coffee shop, where it was worth making the trip to Kloof Street to experience the art of coffee making. I still think Vida are good and it’s the combination of simple decor and enthusiastic staff that make it popular. However, their growth has just gotten out of control and personally, I fell as if they are losing that personal touch.
Currently, there are 14 Vida e Caffe stores in Cape Town, and soon there will be 16. According to the website, they have Vida’s in Greenmarket (I take it this is Greenmarket Square area in Cape Town?), Kloof Street, the V&A Waterfront and Green Point. Geographically, the space between these four stores is extremely small. In fact it’s too close for comfort. Their soon to be added stores are in Sea Point(Once again, close to the others) and Camps Bay. I’m not sure if the Camps Bay one is open yet, but it must be open or very close to opening.
It just seems that the franchises are killing the brand, probably not financially, but to me, in terms of exclusivity. I can now have Vida coffee wherever I want in Cape Town, because there is always a store close by. There was even a Vida in Stellenbosch when I went there last week. And it just seems that too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. I realise other stores such as Nandos and Steers will franchise, but to me coffee shops have always been about the vibe, the conversation and the relaxation. Coffee shops are there so you can stop in, read the paper, check e-mails on the laptop and enjoy the experience.
Now with Vida all over the place, it is not a special experience anymore to go visit the Vida in Kloof Street. It reminds me of the Louis Vuitton craze of bags that people went through not too long ago. Louis Vuitton bags were the hot ticket with girls, but now they are everywhere and you wonder how many of them are real. They have lost that exclusive edge, but this is probably mainly due to loads of them being fake. It’s still exclusive to own a real one, but who is to know if it’s real if you are walking in the street? Vida could have avoided this, because you can’t just open up a fake Vida e Caffe. However, you can make Vida too common(Like the Louis Vuitton bags) by franchising too hectically.
Most people will disagree, and refer me to the Starbucks craze overseas, but the fact is, we are not overseas, we don’t have to copy it’s business model. No doubt all the Vida’s that open will be successful, because there will always be demand for coffee. But for those of us who like exclusivity in our choice of coffee shops, we might feel that the Vida brand has grown too big and too quickly.
I guess as people in a modern world, we are all going to own something, or consume something, that comes out of a place that has been franchised hectically, but I always saw coffee shops in a different league. Obviously Woolworths is everywhere, but that’s more out of necessity. I need food. I don’t need coffee. Also, I don’t necessarily go to Woolworths for the vibe. I do however go to a coffee shop for the atmosphere.
I guess in todays age it’s a simply a process of supply and demand. We as customers make the brand popular, and so the brand supplies their services closer to where we live. I just think that placing stores in Greenmarket, Sea Point, Kloof Street, Greenpoint and the V&A Waterfront is way too close together and that’s my main concern.
I think I will end this here as I could probably go on forever explaining myself. Anyway, it’s something to think about, as to whether Vida are growing too quickly to still be personal. But it’s an interesting brand to discuss nonetheless due to their phenomenal success.
Sean Lloyd
Editor
