When Does Access Become Excess?

When is big too big? When does convenience crossover from being pleasing to being annoying? When does ubiquity eclipse scarcity? When does access become excess?

I’ve struggled with this access/excess question for years and am no closer today to finding an answer.

Is having nearly 90 million units in the hands of customers excess access? Is having 170+ million albums in the hands of customers excess access? Is having 44+ million weekly customers visit 14,000+ locations in 39 countries around the world excess access?

I dunno.

When a publicly-traded 41 year-old company with 140 retail locations expands into a new market, does that constitute excess access behavior? John Winsor laments that Peet’s Coffee & Tea has become “just another coffee shop” because it now has opened a location in Boulder, CO.

Did American Apparel become just another clothing retailer when it opened up a store on Pearl Street Mall in Boulder?

When does access become excess?

Comments

[Dan]

I think the Access/Excess formula can be a bit misleading, as I believe that most retail is local. It isn't excessive to have a Peet's available in Denver and Dallas, because, aside from business travel, the vast majority of locals in one town will NEVER visit the other!

How does it help a Seattle Starbucks to NOT have a Starbucks in a SuperTarget in Duluth? How does it hurt? The funny thing is that once I had a Starbucks in my hometown, I was more interested in visiting the original Starbucks in Seattle when I was on vacation.

170+ million albums is incredible for U2 and the record industry, but it still means that there are 5,930,000,000+ people worldwide who have not yet bought a U2 album.

Excess is two Starbucks across the street from one another, one of which that has subpar service or coffee quality. Excess is a poorly planned mall with 10 women's clothing stores and no diversity of shop choices.

A brand can't get excessive by unit sales, but only dilution of product and service. Pepsi isn't excessive because everybody is drinking it, but they were excessive when they went "Clear."

Brand dilution I think is at the core of "excessive access." i.e. Applebees is overexposed not because it is everywhere but because it is everywhere AND serves microwaved teevee dinners for ten bucks.

[Monroe]

I completely agree with this point. Convenience is not excessiveness; it’s a huge selling point in a society of lightening-paced lifestyles. However, when quantity trumps quality, it becomes excessive.

Excess occurs when the quality of a service or product is diminished, and therefore the convenience of the thing is no longer relevant. It becomes an unwanted commodity and customers see ubiquity, no longer seeing quality or specialness, thus tarnishing the brand.

I don’t think I really added anything new to Dan’s comment, but I wholeheartedly agree that dilution is the essence of the excess argument, not access in itself. It’s like a long train of events beginning with access at the engine, followed by convenience, then saturation, then excess, with brand dilution bringing up the caboose.

[Eben Carlson]

Decentralization will hit brands just like it is schools, etc.

Strengths-based solutions will dictate that local managers gussy up their stores/branches however they like. My guess is coffee (and hamburger) joints will eventually go for the idiosynchrasy their ilk first had, but without the inconsistencies.

The best HQs will keep the hot side hot and the cool side cool and some will no doubt splinter, but nothing will ever stop growing. And after you've gotten big, rediscovering your small side, your personal touch is growth.

International standardization of experience isn't much of a rest stop anyway.

Real estate agents themselves are advertising condos here in Chicago as "non-cookie cutter". (And that's not exactly a radical group of shoppers).

Apparently every condo having granite counters, undermount sinks, 42" cabinets and the like isn't only imperative but undesirable. How do you differentiate when everyone has impeccable taste?

Keeps folks on their toes.

Fun stuff.