Monday, August 18, 2008

Starbucks

OK, I need to say this. If Starbucks wanted to find a way to keep their stores open, maybe serving decent coffee at a decent price would go a long way towards helping. Starbucks is closing 600 stores across America and 61 of its 84 stores in Australia.

The coffee served at Starbucks is OK. It is far from great, a fair way from good, and is the main reason the coffee company is going to close so many stores in an attempt to stop going bankrupt. Upping the quality and charging a reasonable price will mean that you do more business. People buy coffee for 2 main reasons - one being that it is there, hot, caffeinated and they will drink it. The other is because they actually like coffee.

I'm (generally) in the second category - I eat and drink what I like to eat and drink, and I don't really like Starbucks coffee. When in the US, I do like their T-Mobile Wi-Fi hotspots, so I put up with their coffee. I don't need their Tel$tra Wi-Fi hotspots in Australia, so I choose to drink better coffee at other locations and therefore Starbucks in Australia will not see any of my money. If their coffee was better, they most likely would.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'd say that Starbucks go to where it was today because of exactly the opposite of what you're saying. They provided custom blends of different coffees at an unreasonable price. People felt good spending more for a "Grande Ehtiopia Sidano" than they did going to McDonalds for a "medium coffee." McDonalds has beaten Starbucks (and many many others) in a blind tasting... but that hasn't really been their market.

I'd suggest they go back to their roots. Interesting blends, higher price, consistency, etc... as opposed to some of the newer things they are doing (chocolate / orange shakes???).

IMHO :)