For local coffee shops, trying to make a go of it on the bean scene can be rough when there’s a Starbucks around to suck in customers with the siren song of its omnipresent green logo. But put Starbucks on wheels and it turns into a rolling Java the Hut, lumbering around and trying to gobble up customers outside a Dallas coffee shop.

All credit for the hilarious Java the Hut idea goes to the Dallas Observer’s City of Ate blog, which reports on the newly arrived free coffee truck located just down the block from a local coffee shop downtown.

The shop’s manager noticed that business was slower than usual, and soon learned the reason for the lag when a customer popped in to inform her that a Starbucks trailer was parked down the block and was giving out free coffee.

When she checked things out, she was told the cart was allowed to go about its freebie business, a low blow of free joe that could lure paying customers from her shop. There’s another full service Starbucks down the street already.

“We are currently working on getting them removed,” the manager said, noting a provision in the city’s mobile vendor ordinance that requires the building’s management to give permission to vendors that wish to operate directly in front of the building.

Starbucks Wars: Chain Sets Up Free Coffee Trailer Close to Downtown Pearl Cup (Let’s Call it Java the Hut) [City of Ate]

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