Summer Food Fun and Drink 2009 Starbucks in decline - Chapter 5 · Friday July 17, 2009 by colin newell
The Seattle-based gourmet coffee chain said it is changing the name of one of its existing stores in its hometown to a name that reflects the neighborhood location.
The store will be called 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea. It will open next week and will serve coffee and tea as well as wine and beer.
Isn’t that like McDonalds changing its Victoria area outlet names to Madame Elizabeth’s Crumpet and Tea house?
Or GM or Ford changing their name to Henry’s Perfectly Reliable Maker of Motored Carriage?
Someone should have told their marketing people that you can’t buy authenticity.
Many industry pundits feel that the Starbucks brand still “resonates” with those who drink coffee regularly. But with the recession now in its second year, the brand may be struggling more because it is considered “premium,” and therefore an expensive product, by consumers.
No. No. No. It is because (in my opinion), Starbucks coffee is not the Starbucks coffee of, say, 10 years ago. In 1992, I used to delight in an extra large black coffee from Starbucks; rich and hot, filled with body and mysterious flavors.
Now it just tastes like the inferior coffee beans that the real specialty coffee companies are passing on that maybe, just maybe, is not good enough. Dunno. You judge.
The fact is, better coffee has arrived in the form of Victrola or Stumptown or Vivace and Intelligentsia
Nobody is going to be fooled by this. Corporate coffee is corporate coffee however you slice it.
Starbucks needs to move aside and let the real coffee brew.
Summer Food and Drink series - 2011 rant #30 in stickiness
How gullible does Starbucks think we are?
No one can reproduce the charm that cafes like Victrola have in Seattle – and you cannot flip a switch and turn it on. I read a story about crowds of Starbucks senior management and planners overflowing some of the cool cafes in Seattle – for hours at a time – taking notes and such. They are a cut-throat monster of a corporation that has outlived its worthiness for the general public – and have long since forgotten how to matter.
— Jim Stafford Jul 17, 03:19 pm #
Wasn’t it a couple of years ago that, in an interview, Howard Shultz was asked if he “ever checked out the competition…” His reply: “I would, but I know what it would taste like…” He didn’t need the successful home grown coffee places then… and he does now. What an ego!
— Jennifer Jul 17, 10:54 pm #
“Reinvent what’s big and bulky”: Easier said than done, especially when the corporate number crunchers are in charge, and the visionaries on their way out. Best recommendation would be to split the juggernaut into smaller, customized, localized entities. Keep on experimenting with different store executions, even other names, brewing technologies, ads, employee structure, and such. Give them ‘slush funds’ to stir enthusiasm. Hey, I am certain it will benefit their coffee experience again, and maybe, just maybe will get their buzz and share price up again.
— Joachim Jul 18, 02:44 pm #