Archives for 24 March 2008
Starbucks Revamp Plan: Thumbs Down
By Josh Barsch
Last week, Starbucks’s again-CEO Howard Schultz announced quite a little rejuvenation plan for the ailing coffee franchise. I am a huge Starbucks fan myself, so I was frankly pretty disappointed in how toothless the proposal really was. I was expecting some major customer-friendly stuff, but here’s the five-point initiative we got instead (this is straight from a Starbucks press release):
— A proprietary and revolutionary in-store Clover(R) brewing
system that delivers the best cup of brewed coffee available
anywhere;
This is actually the smartest of all the intiatives they put forth, because it actually focuses on the reason that I and most of their millions of customers patronize the place: the coffee. What the press release didn’t say is that the new super-premium coffee will cost $2.50, which is $1 more than their already-spendy coffee costs. Still, though, folks who are rolling through Starbucks every day are spending a lot of discretionary income as it is. Will an extra dollar a day make or break these customers? Probably not. However, the economy is getting rough, and you’ve got to think …
Josh Barsch founded StraightForward Media in 2001 after a brief career in print journalism. He now lives in the sticks of western South Dakota with his wife Christina, daughter Mia, son Ezra, two dogs Velvet & Holly, and cat Chanceux, all of whom he loves dearly. And four nameless hermit crabs, for whom he feels nothing.