Competition -- Any Thoughts?

Ok, the word is out. There are a lot of coffee shops here in Bozeman. I have heard the stories and believe that they are right. Here is my take. Is this competition bad? Can we all work together for the good of Fair Trade and the global coffee market? How much is to much? I have been thinking about this quite a bit as you probably have thought and I have come up with some answers to these questions--I think. While I do not believe that competition is stagnate and cannot change and react to the market, I do know that many of the shops in this town carry the same hours which makes people feel like the board has been covered. I have found that people latch on to certain stores and make it their own. It is a sense of comfort to know that you have a place to go each morning and evening (and if you are me, about 3 times in between!) where they feel they know the routine. Lets look at the bar example. There can be 12 bars right next to each other and many will not think twice. Not so with coffee. Yes, I understand that drinking coffee is different than beer and that people will "bar hop" more than "coffee house hop" but you see my point. There are many stores in this town but what makes this market great is that each serves a different person, or smaller community I like to call it. We are all on different sides of town -- minus 1 or 2 shops that are across the street -- and I think that is what opens the doors for more. I have talked with one local coffee shop owner (she owns The Daily Coffee Bar and Bakery near MSU) whom I asked about doing Fair Trade seminars and art walks. She was in for it. We will be having drastically different hours, at least at the start, but we will be working together at times. She also thinks there are other coffee shops in town that would love to be a part of something like that. I think there are answer to the question of competition. I think it is healthy. It keeps us on our toes and makes us be unique and different. Yes, we all want to make money and stay opened but I think there is room for that in this market in Bozeman. ~~be bold