A pedestrian walking around downtown East Lansing could count almost as many coffee shops and cafes as traffic lights.
And with Espresso Royale Caffe moving five doors down to 527 E. Grand River Ave. and Cafe Mania, which opened fewer than two weeks ago, taking its place at 547 E. Grand River Ave., that ratio may have shifted a little.
But according to most MSU students, store owners and city officials, the high number of coffee shops - 15 in the East Lansing area - isn’t overkill.
English and Spanish sophomore Valerie Kaiser is a regular visitor to both Blue Note Coffee Cafe, 623 E. Grand River Ave. and Caffe Latte, 130 Charles St.
Kaiser said the number of cafes isn’t detrimental to the market.
“It offers variety,” she said. “I can get a fresh-made carrot juice at Blue Note and I can’t get that at (Caffe) Latte, but there is stuff I can get at Latte that I can’t get at Blue Note.”
As owner of both Caffe Latte and the newly opened Cafe Mania, Young Oh is relying on those idiosyncrasies to help his new business out.
Oh said Cafe Mania is a bit different than other cafes, offering a sushi bar and a room groups can reserve for meetings, discussions and entertainment nights such as a political debate night, scheduled for Friday nights.
“Someone else has an interest in computers, but she wants to find someone else to talk with, she can talk with someone else in Cafe Mania,” he said.
Most business owners realize they are competing over the same customer base, but the competition isn’t too great, Blue Note Coffee Cafe manager Joey Wang said.
Compared to other markets, Wang said any sort of rivalry is very low-key with each store trying to fill a specialized niche within the market.
“We share customers a lot,” he said.
Apparently the strategy has worked.
East Lansing director of planning and community development Jim van Ravensway said he hasn’t seen any of the cafes in any economic trouble.
He said he has seen the market grow during the past five years and so far it doesn’t seem to be overextended.
“(East Lansing) seems to be a fairly substantial market for that,” he said. “As soon as we see one close that must mean the market is saturated.”
