Starbuck's asks for your advice

quote:

Originally posted by No Talent

Thanks Davydd. Your comment about saturation surprised me. Maybe you're thinking of facelss boulevards and strip centers which I don't care much about.

It's the city centers and small town USAs that concern me. They have less and less personality.
Haven't you ever pulled off the highway onto a leafy main street and thought it was wonderful only to see one chain after another and then see a second Starbucks and Subway. I think it's sad.

On a lighter note since Starbucks is in Barnes & Noble I guess they needed to do something different in Borders Books & Music so they use their Seattle's Best Coffee brand. I actually enjoy seeing different graphics and have had coffee there. It's a little game we play pretending it's not Starbucks!

Well, you can pretend that it's not Starbucks, but since Starbucks bought Seattle's Best in April, 2003, the names may be different, but the product is likely to be very similar.

First, I've always thought that Starbuck's coffee was way too bitter, but still had good freshness. Turns out, milk mitigates bitterness with its milkfat, and the high milk-content beverages there are the most expensive. Go figure.

That said, if you're interested in the phenomenon that may have driven Starbuck's success up to this point, there is a book called The Experience Economy, by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore. It also helps to explain why so many Americans want to buy Bose stereo equipment even thought the actual sound quality is poor for the money. The experience of buying Bose makes you feel special for being smart enough to choose it.

In my case, I will usually get my best cup of coffee by grinding locally roasted beans and drip-brewing at home. I also have no need for the fancy foamy milk coffee drinks. American style coffe with half & half or a good double espresso. Personally, I don't need the experience, I just need some tasty caffeine.

Cheers,

john

quote:

Originally posted by Tedbear

quote:

Originally posted by No Talent

Thanks Davydd. Your comment about saturation surprised me. Maybe you're thinking of facelss boulevards and strip centers which I don't care much about.

It's the city centers and small town USAs that concern me. They have less and less personality.
Haven't you ever pulled off the highway onto a leafy main street and thought it was wonderful only to see one chain after another and then see a second Starbucks and Subway. I think it's sad.

On a lighter note since Starbucks is in Barnes & Noble I guess they needed to do something different in Borders Books & Music so they use their Seattle's Best Coffee brand. I actually enjoy seeing different graphics and have had coffee there. It's a little game we play pretending it's not Starbucks!

Well, you can pretend that it's not Starbucks, but since Starbucks bought Seattle's Best in April, 2003, the names may be different, but the product is likely to be very similar.

Before you make a blanket statement, taste them. I have bought both brands of whole beans of Colombian at the supermarket. They are roasted differently. Ford bought Jaguar but they didn't change the cars to be like Fords.

Davydd,

Beg your pardon, but have you driven a Jag lately? Ford most certainly has infiltrated Jaguar...all kinds of parts are being shared now, and changing the basic qualities of Jaguars. It is an inevitable consequence of globalization. Only a mirror/parallel to the world of food.

Cheers,

john

I only wish I could drive a Jaguar. Splitting hairs.

Maybe they need to install some gas pumps so they can make a killin off of that too! High gas prices to go along with their high coffee prices!

quote:

Originally posted by fischgrape

Davydd,

Beg your pardon, but have you driven a Jag lately? Ford most certainly has infiltrated Jaguar...all kinds of parts are being shared now, and changing the basic qualities of Jaguars. It is an inevitable consequence of globalization. Only a mirror/parallel to the world of food.

Cheers,

john

Lately? Ford bought Jaguar in 1989, and I have driven lots of them since then, they are NOTHING like any Ford.The USA models stopped using Ford parts in 2002 ( Then only the "S" type used them).The XK, XJ, and XF do not use Ford parts. You must have been over in Europe driving a LR2 or x-type if you are driving Jags since then with Ford parts.


FWIW Ford just sold Jaguar to Tata, an Indian company.

quote:

Originally posted by PapaDog

Maybe they need to install some gas pumps so they can make a killin off of that too! High gas prices to go along with their high coffee prices!

I got this in the rounds of e-mail. Starbucks coffee is not listed but I would guess around $15 per gallon.

Compared with Gasoline......

Think a gallon of gas is expensive?

This makes one think, and also puts things in perspective.

Diet Snapple 16 oz $1.29 ... $10.32 per gallon

Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz $1.19 ..........$9.52 per gallon

Gatorade 20 oz $1.59 ..... $10.17 per gallon

Ocean Spray 16 oz $1.25 ......... $10.00 per gallon

Brake Fluid 12 oz $3.15 ...... $33.60 per gallon

Vick's Nyquil 6 oz $8.35 ... $178.13 per gallon

Pepto Bismol 4 oz $3.85 .. $123.20 per gallon

Whiteout 7 oz $1.39 ....... . $25.42 per gallon

Scope 1.5 oz $0.99 .....$84.48 per gallon

And this is the REAL KICKER...

Evian water 9 oz $1.49..$21.19 per gallon! $21.19 for WATER and the buyers don't even know the source

(Evian spelled backwards is Naive.)

Ever wonder why printers are so cheap?

So they have you hooked for the ink.
Someone calculated the cost of the ink at...............
(you won't believe it....but it is true........)
$5,200 a gal. (five thousand two hundred dollars)

So, the next time you're at the pump,be glad your car doesn't run on water, Scope, or Whiteout, Pepto Bismol, Nyquil or God forbid, Printer Ink!

Just a little humor to help ease the pain of your next trip to the pump...

I hate to burst the bubble, but if your car gets 20 mpg, and you drive 40 mph, you go through a gallon in one half-hour. I can't drink Snapple that fast....

jf

It's humor fischgrape.

Ah. Humor.

jf

I never liked Starbucks, the burnt coffee or the fake environment within it walls. I found it all very forced and very trendy. I like good coffee, and I think it can be found in a lot of places, but Starbucks tried taking it in a different direction, Now it’s time for them to pull back a refocus on making good coffee. Perhaps they should market themselves as a beverage store, because the concentration of ‘whipped this’ and ‘soy that’ all drizzled with Carmel and white chocolate flakes is barely coffee, it a sweet hot drink with a few drops of coffee, more like a hot chocolate, and there is nothing wrong with that. But I’m the guy who just wants a cup of coffee but would have to pay $4.50 to help pay for the equipment, barista training just to wait in line while the espresso machine is screaming in my ear, News of the World is on, and the pseudo-intellectuals in berets all discuss politics. It’s early man, I just want some D&%# coffee.

There is another place here by work called Small World Coffee, which is expensive but good. The only problem I have is I want coffee in the morning when the world is supposed to be quiet and not have a kid with an piercing in his brow bellow “One Joe to Go” every 30 seconds, but the coffee is good so I’ll deal.

I started drinking coffee from the local place. Hopefully those little places, with a buttered hard roll, and a lottery machine will always have charm and hopefully good coffee.

I am an American living in China.

Regular coffee can be found here at KFC and McDonalds at about 40 cents USD a cup, with all the free refills you want. On the other side of the spectrum are the coffee houses that charge $3 USD for one cup, with no free refill.

I have no use for Starbucks, simply because I do not drink coffee. Starbucks is also ridiculously expensive.

There are several locations of Starbucks in my Chinese city. They seem to be quite popular, so my suggestion would be to keep opening stores in China and the Pacific rim nations (Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand)

Other ideas

Starbucks could expand to a deli menu.

Starbucks should sell coffee with booze in it.

Starbucks should market a caffinated beer/coffee product.

Senor

quote:

Originally posted by enginecapt

Mr Schultz has himself been brutally honest about where Starbucks has gone wrong, admitting that it now has too many outlets in the US, which is "cannibalising" sales between branches only a short distance from each other.

Apparently it takes firing the old CEO and bringing Schultz back in as the new one to finally realize something I've been saying for years, and I'm just a big dumb fireman. They should have hired me.

God forbid they point the finger at their own shareholders, who ok'ed this massive expansion to the point of over-saturation. These will be the same goons any ideas will have to ultimately go before when these revisions are to be made. Then again, it's not like Sbux is losing money...just margin.

After reading what Icahn suggested about Yahoo and severance packages, I doubt that ideas for keeping good staffers will go very far. I work in an agency that has a Starbucks at the base of the building, and six months ago, it changed managers and staff, and has suffered ever since. Even for a high volume location, when under old control, things were orderly and orders were rarely botched. Now, no matter what they do (this includes having a floating employee with a headset to relay orders to baristas), the service is curt and still erroneous.

Long story short...product is fine, but its delivery isn't. 'Fess up, reward good work, don't think that advertising has to go up, and keep the shareholders at bay.