Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
^ That Second Cup predated pretty well every chain coffee shop downtown except Robin's... when they opened up there wasn't even a Starbucks or Tim's anywhere nearby.
It was a nice shop, too bad they couldn't make it work... the space was probably way too big relative to their sales. Probably a double whammy of increasing rents and declining sales (due to competition).
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I remember not so long ago buying Christmas gifts of good quality coffee beans from that Second Cup location because it was the only place to do that downtown then. This was a time (circa 2001?) when there was one Starbucks in Winnipeg, and the third wave independents located in just about every cool neighbourhood were still a decade or more off.
Although there was also Coffee Time, which was on Graham Avenue where the Hydro HQ is now. But between those two, Second Cup was definitely considered superior by more *serious* coffee drinkers.
I guess the fact that I no longer set foot in there illustrates the way they've fallen off as competition grows around them. (And I've heard that even some of the new wave of independents have seen their POS's decline as the local market saturates.
What I did like about this Second Cup location, even as I stopped going there, was how it stayed open later in to the evening, and acted as a hangout for the neighbourhood (eg, new Canadians living around the corner near Central Park, Transit drivers between routes). Kind of sad to see that disappear.