Ground Floor: I like coffee. I like the slightly scorched aroma of roasting coffee beans and the sound of a gently percolating pot of Java blend; while nothing can beat the wake-you-up whiff of the first cup in the morning.

I don't drink half as much coffee as I used to but there is no way I'd ever sacrifice that morning cup of coffee for anything.

And I'm a sucker for the whole coffee culture craze that has taken over so many corner outlets on Dublin streets.

The prime mover in the coffee culture scene hasn't even made its appearance in Dublin yet. But there are rumours of the possible opening of 30 Starbucks outlets while, at the same time, the newspapers are carrying stories about the possible closure of the iconic Bewley's cafes.

How can this be? How can Starbucks eye up the Irish scene and think that they can squeeze a lot of cash from the latte market while Bewley's, with a turnover of €8 million in the cafes, is making losses?

Starbucks, like many of the global food and drink corporations, inspires devotion and loathing in equal measure. There are Starbuck fan websites on the internet as well as ones like www.ihatestarbucks.com, but despite some I Hate Starbucks campaigns in the US, the chain has been a solid performer over the past 12 months.

In fact it's currently trading close to 52-week highs at around $38.50 (€30.63) from $22 last March. The one-year return as been a nicely roasted 66.24 per cent while net sales for the last quarter of 2003 rose by 29 per cent. Net income was up to $110.8 million which is growth of 41 per cent.

Those revenues reflect the opening of 670 new stores. These guys might want you to think of your nearest corner Starbucks as a warm and convivial place to be, but they're relentlessly pushing out the brand and expanding their retail outlets.

Which means that retail coffee pays. So the question is, if Starbucks can do it, why can't Bewley's?

It used to be the only place that sold decent coffee in Dublin but that was before the competition ensured that there was choice and value for money available elsewhere. Now the company is talking about closing its Grafton Street and Westmoreland Street cafes and, predictably, there are outraged cries from Dubliners who want to keep the lofty clattery café.

But not enough to use it in the quantities that Bewley's needs, it seems. Or is it just the case that the owners have taken their eyes off the beans?

The reality is that the focus of the group has moved from the cafes to its other interests. The Campbell Bewley Group has an annual turnover exceeding €123 million and employs more than 4,500 people. Bewley's export sales have grown by more than 20 per cent over the past year and it has expanded into the US through the Rebecca's Cafes and Java City coffee outlets.

It knows how to make it work over there so why can't it make it work over here? Why is it losing money on it home turf?

Maybe it's the much vaunted tradition that's wrong now. In the days when I worked on St Stephens Green, I regularly called in to Bewley's to pick up a sticky bun and a sandwich for lunch. But then the buns got smaller and the sandwiches a good deal less interesting than the opposition's. It took longer to get served, and the dark and cluttered interior might have had a certain charm but it passed me by.

If I stopped going into Bewley's because it hadn't changed to meet my expectations of how a café should be, how many other people have done the same thing?

Maybe there is a sameness between Starbucks and Café Sol or any of the other coffee outlets that are frequented on a daily basis, but they're obviously providing something that people want.

There may well be a vocal minority who will want to preserve the essence of Bewley's as the "heart and hearth of Dublin" but perhaps this merely reflects our desire to keep things the way they were for other people while actually frequenting somewhere different ourselves.

In reality the premises in Grafton Street and Westmoreland Street are probably too big to make the kind of money they need.

In a prime location like Grafton Street giving over large amounts of space to customers who linger over a single cup of coffee (no matter how expensive it is) and to retail displays of relatively low priced goods, is a mistake. Operating costs are probably too high.

But the building itself is beautiful. The facades are truly magnificent (not to mention the fact that they're probably a tourist attraction) and it would be a shame to see them go. Yet facades can be preserved regardless of what's inside.

Times change, tastes change. Lease the lower floors to a more appropriate retailer and have a smaller and more customer focused lofty clattery café upstairs. Bewley's still has time to wake up and profit from the smell of the coffee.