Keurig Concerns
Based on recent visits to a couple of web sites that sell Keurig K-Cups for home users of Keurig single cup brewers, it would appear that Keurig has pulled the distribution rights from several of these businesses. I have purchased K-Cups from Amazon -- and they appear to still be selling them -- but I am concerned about what this change might mean. If this means less pricing flexibility, I am afraid that Keurig might be making a big mistake market-wise. Especially in a year when existing competing systems like Tassimo expand their offerings and new competitors like the Nescafe Dolce Gusto are right around the corner. (As an aside, the Dolce Gusto looks sweet!)

The Nescafe Dolce Gusto

I realize that all of this is probably unavoidable as Green Mountain/Keurig try to maximize their profits on a proprietary system and no doubt try to protect partner profits in the Office Coffee Service market, but I would encourage them to tear their eyes away from their spreadsheets long enough to consider the potential ramifications of their actions.

Once upon a time Keurig was planning to use a different K-Cup design (confusingly named "Keurig-Cup") for their home brewers to protect the OCS market. Green Mountain (then their largest shareholder), objected and wanted to use the same K-Cup across both the office and home brew markets. Now that they own Keurig outright, they may be trying to prop up profits in the OCS market when they themselves made this very desire more difficult to fulfill.