Claire Cain Miller, New York Times; Now at Starbucks: A Rebound:
"Then, in a one-two punch, consumer spending plummeted, and Starbucks, selling a luxury rather than a necessity, was one of the first to feel the pinch. Meanwhile, competition emerged from a new corner of the market when McDonald’s began serving espresso.
When Mr. Schultz, standing at the bar in one of the new Seattle shops and sampling espressos with whole milk, talks about Starbucks, he uses phrases like “the authenticity of the coffee experience” and “the romance, the theater of bringing that to life.”
But that does not match the reality of many Starbucks customers, who rush through each morning on their way to work, or many of its former customers, who have rejected the chain’s cookie-cutter shops in favor of small local shops that serve more carefully made coffee.
Mr. Schultz’s first job upon returning was to halt the marathon store openings, lay off 1,500 United States store employees and 1,700 global corporate employees and figure out how to get the remaining 150,000 to think like employees of a scrappy little company that just wants to serve a good cup of coffee. Starbucks’ coffee buyers, for example, had chosen only varieties of beans that were produced in large enough quantities to supply all Starbucks stores. They rejected coffees made in small batches, which artisanal coffeehouses specialize in. Mr. Schultz changed that. “We’re not one size fits all.”
Even as Mr. Schultz tries to manage more like a start-up founder, he has given in to traditional big-company ideas that he had previously resisted. Last year, Starbucks embraced customer research surveys and ran its first major advertising campaign...
Mr. Schultz brought Cliff Burrows, who was managing stores abroad, back to Seattle to run American operations. One of the first discoveries he made talking to customers seemed basic, but had been lost in Starbucks’ push to open stores.
Coffee drinkers in the Sun Belt, it turns out, prefer cold drinks, while those in the Northeast generally like drip coffee and those in the Pacific Northwest drink more espresso. Yet the executives in charge of regions of the country were divided along time zones and out of touch with what different customers wanted."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/business/21sbux.html?scp=2&sq=starbucks&st=cse
Just to follow up on my comment from class today about the "End of the Universe," here is video of Lewis Black explaining where the End of the Universe is located (Houston, TX). Possibly not safe for work, parental discretion advised, etc.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=41926&title=lewis-black-end-of-the-universe
I worked at Starbucks for a year, and I always felt like the company cared about creating a good atmosphere for customers and providing a great cup of coffee (or espresso or frappacino). I think a lot of that may have been lost when Howard Shultz let go of the reins for a bit, but once he was back in charge, changes were immediate. I think he has a great sense of what people are looking for in a coffee shop and is passionate about providing that.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I may have drunk the Starbucks cool-aid while I was there. :)