I don't know how café has became such a trend in Malaysia. Everyday I open up Facebook, there always be people posting pictures of them with their coffee and often enough a dessert too. I don't know about the real statistics, but in Penang alone, it feels like the number of café is approaching the number of mamak stalls.
A normal café would just be lame. Not only the quality of the café, people in Penang also need the dessert, the ambiance, and most importantly, something worth taking picture. Latte art and extravagant desserts are almost a must. To open a café in Penang, to beat the king of café Starbucks itself, you have to be creative and you need a theme. Bicycle themed café, cat themed café, Parisienne, cardboard themed, etc.. In fact, you can find all these themed café in Penang island alone. I just wonder, there must be people trying very hard to think of a theme nobody did before, because I am wondering about it too. But seriously this is market so saturated that I don't think it is worth thinking about. One of my close friends owns a café too. From his café I can sense the result of highly competitive market.
This café market kinda reminds me of the product life cycle and it is in the mature state right now. This trend also reminds me of the pub/lounge trend. A few years ago in Penang, pubs and lounges were raising like the bamboo shoots after the rain except there was no rain and it all happened all of a sudden. And then the trend hit the peak and died out.
I don't know whether this café craze is just a phase. Part of me, I want it to die out sooner if it is the trend I thought it to be. I am just upset with the herd mentality. Another part of me, I think it is not so bad after all. At least it is way better than the pub/lounge trend with the alcohol it involves. Just like Friends in which they were always hanging out in a café, is better than its successor, How I Met Your Mother, in which a pub is featured heavily. And guess what, coffee also gave birth to the Enlightenment in Europe, says CGP Grey. In the scientific world, coffee has an important role. As I am in that world too, I know it very well. People are joking about how engineers and programmers turn coffee into scientific papers and thousands lines of code. Jokes are good only when there is some truth behind them.
A normal café would just be lame. Not only the quality of the café, people in Penang also need the dessert, the ambiance, and most importantly, something worth taking picture. Latte art and extravagant desserts are almost a must. To open a café in Penang, to beat the king of café Starbucks itself, you have to be creative and you need a theme. Bicycle themed café, cat themed café, Parisienne, cardboard themed, etc.. In fact, you can find all these themed café in Penang island alone. I just wonder, there must be people trying very hard to think of a theme nobody did before, because I am wondering about it too. But seriously this is market so saturated that I don't think it is worth thinking about. One of my close friends owns a café too. From his café I can sense the result of highly competitive market.
This café market kinda reminds me of the product life cycle and it is in the mature state right now. This trend also reminds me of the pub/lounge trend. A few years ago in Penang, pubs and lounges were raising like the bamboo shoots after the rain except there was no rain and it all happened all of a sudden. And then the trend hit the peak and died out.
I don't know whether this café craze is just a phase. Part of me, I want it to die out sooner if it is the trend I thought it to be. I am just upset with the herd mentality. Another part of me, I think it is not so bad after all. At least it is way better than the pub/lounge trend with the alcohol it involves. Just like Friends in which they were always hanging out in a café, is better than its successor, How I Met Your Mother, in which a pub is featured heavily. And guess what, coffee also gave birth to the Enlightenment in Europe, says CGP Grey. In the scientific world, coffee has an important role. As I am in that world too, I know it very well. People are joking about how engineers and programmers turn coffee into scientific papers and thousands lines of code. Jokes are good only when there is some truth behind them.
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