Ron Shaich

And we began to see in different consumer categories, people waking up

And saying, you know, I don't want to be part of a mass market.

I want to feel special in a world in which I don't.

And you started to see the development of craft breweries and beer.

Good friend of mine in Boston, Jim Cook, did Samuel Adams.

You know, it was an answer to what had happened to the marketplace.

We saw the same thing with coffee, with the growth of specialty coffee.

I mean, back then, if you came to my house for dinner on Friday night, I'd serve you Folgers.

Today, if I don't use an expensive espresso machine or an espresso, I'm somehow insulting you.

That was the deeper trend.

People wanted to feel special.

You saw the same thing with beverages.

Coke and Pepsi morphed into Snapple, into Al Waldo.

And now you walk into a convenience store, you're going to see a couple hundred different beverage brands.

The point of it is we saw the same thing, the same opportunity happening in food.

At one time, all food had been local and had been commoditized into fast food.

And the powerful opportunity was for specialty food, for food that was done the way it had been done, for food that people respected with ingredients.

And we began to see the power of that and saw the same thing happening with bakery.

One time, bakery had all been local.

In the consolidation, the commodification, that had become three loaves for 99 cents.