Starbucks to Close Stores?
January 30, 2008 by daranee
I asked my friend Vaughan who I know likes Starbucks if he wanted the remaining balance on my Starbucks gift card. I got one for Christmas, but as I don’t really like Starbucks coffee and I don’t really approve of their world domination tactics against small business owners I didn’t want to finish the card up because I’d have to add my own money to actually buy a drink.
To my surprise, Vaughan said he’d gone off Starbucks because he couldn’t stand the smell of their breakfast sandwiches. Well good news Vaughan. In addition to closing stores, Starbucks is getting rid of their breakfast sandwiches:
One way to turn back the clock is getting rid of the breakfast sandwiches, even though they bring in significant revenue and were seen as a way to compete for morning sales with McDonald’s Corp., which is going head-to-head with Starbucks on coffee sales.
Starbucks employees had long complained the smell of egg-and-cheese sandwiches overpowered the aroma of coffee and cheapened the store experience, and Schultz agreed. He said input from baristas during the past three weeks influenced his decision.
But closing stores? That’s quite shocking considering it seems like just yesterday they said they were going to open 40,000 additional stores. I guess the empire has fallen.
Yeah, I heard, with some glee, about Starbucks’ plans to close stores. They used to be local heroes. Now they’re like the cafe that ate Tokyo– and Seattle, and Vienna (!), and everyplace else.
It is certainly cool to see the corporate Goliath brought down, but you have to remember who is playing David in this scenario. McDonald’s are the ones taking Starbucks’ market share, and pretty much every way you look at it they are worse. To give one example the effect they have on the meat industry, as documented in Fast Food Nation.
There is so much great independent coffee to choose from on Capitol Hill, I never need to go to a Starbucks. But when I’m in some scorched-earth suburb, I don’t mind stopping at a Starbucks if I have to. They hire really nice people, and the coffee might not be great but at least it isn’t terrible!
So true. I didn’t appreciate Starbucks until I went to Disneyworld for a conference. I spent days drinking this god awful stuff. Then one day, I snuck over to another hotel which had Starbucks and was truly satisfied.
When I’m here, my fav is Pegasus.
is there really a difference between all the coffees?
amazing design ….. i love starbucks
I don’t think starbucks should have breakfast meals. It just doesnt fit in. I like driving thru starbucks each morning to get a cup of coffee, not some bagel with eggs. This is a coffee shop, not McDonalds! I LOVE STARBUCKS! its one of the best coffee shops around. Sure some of the shops are bad, but that is because of the incompitent employees, or because the roast is old.