Coffee shop closes Starbucks is one reason why Sierra Mountain store shuts down

By Laura Brown, laurab@theunion.com December 5, 2006

Sierra Mountain Coffee Roasters on Higgins Corner closed its doors for good Saturday, just two months after a Starbucks Coffee Co. store and drive-through moved in their front yard.

“We shut it down. We’re a family of five. We don’t have any partners or investors. It’s just us. We cannot afford to pour money into this location,” Michael Roberts said Monday. He and his wife, Shelley Roberts, own the store and another one in Grass Valley.

The Robertses said they couldn’t compete against an international giant.

Bear River High School student Sarah Dalimonte was saddened by the news that the popular local hangout had gone under. The Sierra Mountain store had a wider variety of both drinks and food, and the prices were lower, she said.

“Everybody knew, when Starbucks comes, it would go out,” Dalimonte said.

The Starbucks Coffee Co. drive-through opened in September, dwarfing the locally owned coffee shop and hiding it from the view of motorists on Highway 49, on whom the Robertses depended for much of their business.

As many as 50,000 cars pass through the four-way intersection of Combie and Wolf roads at Highway 49 each day, Roberts said.

“That capture rate from drive-by traffic has been eliminated,” Roberts said.

No help from landlord

The Roberts opened their cafe almost three years ago when the space now occupied by Starbucks was projected to become a McDonald’s.

In May, they learned the shopping center’s owner, development company J.R. Conkey & Assoc. of Roseville, planned to bring in the Seattle-based coffee giant.

Starbucks pinched their sales almost immediately, as much as 20 percent. “It reeled us back a year,” Michael Roberts said. Customers stayed loyal until the weather turned dreary, then he began to see familiar vehicles waiting in line at the Starbucks drive-through.

Sales dropped another 20 percent.

The Roberts asked their landlord, Longs Drug, for permission to install a drive-through and signs visible on Highway 49, but were denied. The Longs general manager was unavailable for comment on Monday.

“We don’t have the resources to hope and wait it out,” Roberts said.

On Friday, the Robertess decided to close. They reluctantly notified all 15 employees, most of them high school students, on Saturday night not to come back to work. Sunday they hung up the “closed” sign for good and moved everything out.

“It still doesn’t make sense,” said Roberts.

Worries of Roseville sprawl

The Higgins Corner Starbucks is the third to open in western Nevada County. The chain opens 38 new stores each week and operates in 37 countries, according to the company’s Web site.

Michael Roberts said he fears other development at the corner is a portent of Roseville-style sprawl creeping into south County.

A Bel-Air supergrocery store has Mikki Lord worried about the survival of her 15-year business, The Gristmill Bakery and Deli, located adjacent to Holiday Market near Lake of the Pines. “When larger chains go into the corridor, it will probably drive us all out,” said Lord.

Future expansion

Despite their loss, the Robertses said they are optimistic about focusing their energies on their Maltman Drive location in Glenbrook Basin and on the custom roasting they do for local restaurants. The Robertses plan to move the coffee house, also home to Tomes books, to where BriarPatch Market is now on Joerscke Drive. There, they will have triple the space for live music and in-house coffee roasting.

“It felt so good to be home,” said Roberts, speaking from his Maltman Drive location over a shot of espresso.