It's The People Who Work Here And The Training They Receive

(Wednesday, September 01, 2004) - The morning Marty Cox left his money in the pocket of another suit pants following a grueling day at the office might just have been a turning point in the history of coffee in America. As usual, he stopped by his favorite local caffeine hole for a spot of java on the way to work. Because he'd forgotten his coins, the staff spotted him a cup, suggesting that he pay the next day. But when he dragged himself in the next morning an unfortunate thing occurred.
"A woman behind the counter, the owner, kind of shouted out, ‘Hey Marty, did you bring the money for that drink we had to give you the other day?' I can't tell you how humiliated I felt," says Cox. "So I thought, ‘Hey, I can do this better with just a little common sense and some friendliness.'
" Today Cox owns five It's a Grind coffee houses in and around his hometown of Long Beach, California. To date, he has sold franchises for 165 more in nine neighboring states and is watching them open at the dizzying rate of about three a month.
And guess what? One of the first policies he instituted in his new world of coffee grinds was that if customers don't have the money, well, they'll still get their drinks. "If they pay us later, great," Cox says. "We're on the honor system. We trust our customers."
It seems to have paid off in Long Beach, where the first It's a Grind opened to rave reviews in July 1995. "I actually had some other names in mind," Cox recalls, "but a friend said ‘Those names don't really say coffee. Why don't you call it It's a Grind or something?' We developed a look and a feel around that, and the rest is history."
Decorated in rich, warm colors and oversized wingback seating, the stores feature jazz paintings on their walls and an eclectic selection of jazz and blues music in their stereos. "We're after the living room feeling," Cox explains, "kind of an escape from the [everyday] grind. We encourage customers to come in and hang out whether they buy anything or not. We want to make these gathering places for the community. The stores are really just comfortable to be in; you want to be there. We love the music and handpick every song that plays." Some stores, he says, feature live music performed by local musicians whose friends and relatives come in for the show.
In addition to the six home-brewed coffee brands featured daily, It's A Grind also serves bagels that are cut, toasted, and spread with cream cheese while the customer waits. "I made a promise that I would never force the customer to do those things with a plastic knife," Cox says. "We do as much as we can to enhance the experience." As for the coffee, "it has a very smooth profile. Everyone compliments us on how it tastes."
But the thing that really makes It's a Grind stand out from the usual grind, Cox claims, is the people who work there and the training they receive. "We are very particular in who we hire," Cox says. "They go through a six-week training program, and the bulk of it is spent teaching them how to treat customers. If you want to boil it down to one sentence, it's ‘Follow the golden rule.' Our business is not taken for granted; we earn every piece of
At the moment, Cox says, he's earning 40 to 70 new franchisees a year, a number he believes will accelerate incrementally. "Good coffee is here to stay," he says. "It's like good wine. You don't go back to drinking bad coffee." Eventually Cox hopes to take It's a Grind national. "We have the infrastructure to do it," he says. And what of the self-declared rivalry with Starbucks, that great mother-of-all-coffee grinds? "We will certainly never beat out Starbucks," Cox admits. "It's the 800-pound gorilla." What his upstart company really wants, Cox says, is "to be the number-two coffee house in the nation, but the number-one choice." This certainly will take some more time at the grind.

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