Dissatisfied with the Delocator

I have no problems at all with Starbucks coffee and am often glad to see their sign on the horizon, particularly when I travel. Like it or not, Starbucks is a big part of the reason that it is easy to find a decent cup of coffee just about anywhere. Even if you are served a bad brew - for whatever reason - not only will the Starbucks baristas will replace the offending beverage, but it will still beat the burnt, week-old, brown sludge or faintly flavored hot water that was somehow able to pass for coffee in many places only a few short years ago. This is not to say that there are not places that make better coffee, just that Starbucks helped to raise the bar overall.

I have met many people who claim to dislike them "on principle", despite the fact that the majority of them cannot actually verbalize what their "principle" actually is. Some certainly can converse about their desire to see even more social responsibility or ways to further improve employee benefits, but the ubiquity of Starbucks is generally the favored topic of argument. Overhearing these irate rants can be an amusing experience when they occur inside a Starbucks from the mouths of people awaiting their Frappuccino or their extra hot, extra wet, no foam Venti "cappuccino", which they are unaware is actually a latte. Perhaps they are just annoyed with less-than-instantaneous service, though people who expect a decent coffee or espresso beverage should be willing to wait at least a moment or two for it to be prepared.

But I digress.

The Delocator is a website that lists independently owned cafes in an effort to draw people away from companies like Starbucks to non-corporate coffee. Unfortunately, there are a few problems with the site.

The biggest problem is that the search function does not work very well. The site is organized by zip code and the search feature states that it returns all listings within 5 miles of the zip code you input. The first result returned on my search, in Los Angeles, was over 15 miles away. In fact, the Delocator told me that there were over 500 café – both Starbucks and independent – in a 5-mile radius. Though it would logically seem that a search would turn up results from nearest to furthest, a San Francisco Bay Area search first returned a 9 mile distance to the "nearest" cafe, followed by a listing for a cafe a mere 41 feet from my search location, before listing several which were more than 13 miles away. A subset of this problem is that the submission form actually states that "street addresses, though preferred, are not necessary". I know that I certainly enjoy driving aimlessly through an entire zip code looking for a coffee.

The second problem with the search is that there seem to be no controls over the information that is entered. In larger cities, such as New York and Chicago, cafes are listed multiple times and there was a total omission of many cafes in my search areas. Some listings seem to be for non-café establishments that simply happen to serve non-Starbucks coffee. None of this reinforces the reliability of the Delocator, which is at least honest in stating that it hopes for only a "trace of authenticity" in postings.

In the available postings, the cafe descriptions can be simple and helpful, such as "low key" or "they roast their own coffee". Some of the more bizarre ones might describe the cafe as "on same block as Satan who moved in after it was built." I assume that comments like this refer to Starbucks, but it does not make for a useful review. The reviewers who feel they are the most convincing write recommendations along the lines of: "I love that place and I think they should pay me for doing this." Some are clearly written by the owners in an attempt at self promotion.

I find the implication that both the coffee and the experience from an independently owned coffee shop are necessarily superior those from a corporate store – Starbucks or not - to be unfair. Making coffee drinks is a skill and a corporate store will provide training to their employees to meet predetermined standards. Some coffee shops will be better, true, but others will cut corners, violate the health code and have limited or no accountability with regard to the quality of their products. Additionally, the facilities and employees will not necessarily be better nor make for a more pleasurable experience than those at coffee chains. I know that I have had both excellent and horrendous experiences at independent shops.

All businesses live by the loyalty of their regular customers and while the goal of the Delocator is an admirable one, their site is not helping their cause as much as it could. I welcome the opportunity to find and try new coffee houses and applaud the effort to bring some worthy but less visible locations into a more public light, but the Delocator does not help locate them any more than the phone book – and a poorly run one at that. Frankly, I've found more reliable information in restaurant and travel guides at the bookstore and am just as likely to stumble across a decent coffeehouse while conducting my daily routine. Adding any kind of minimal review would give their site more credibility, while a reliable search function would make it easier to find cafes, generating more, as well as potentially more productive, reviews. Until it's useful inside my hometown, I cannot rely on it anywhere else.

Since the Starbucks store locator is reliable, not to mention that I can guarantee I know what I'll be getting when I stop in, it is not hard to guess where I'll be getting coffee the next time I travel.