Starbucks Has Some Problems
posted May 24th, 2009 @ 11:34 — 14 comments
I started working on GigaOM mostly at my neighborhood Starbucks store. I would sit there after work, and plan how I would turn GigaOM from “one man and a blog” to a media company. It goes without saying that I have a special fondness for the location and for Starbucks. Of course, I am not as fond of the chain as as Rafael Antonio Lozano Jr. aka Winter who is on a mission to visit almost all Starbucks stores, chronicling his journey on Starbuckseverywhere.net.
Just like me, Starbucks has been home to many wanna-prenuers and web workers. Easy access to the Internet, ample sitting space and coffee (while expensive). When we started the company, I used Starbucks as a place to meet companies. Often I would spend somewhere between $15-and-$25 a day at the Starbucks, so much so they made me “customer of the week” once. However, lately something about Starbucks has not been feeling right. They are making some cuts because of the economy, some of them understandable, others just plain illogical.
For instance, I can’t understand why they shut down all their locations at 6 p.m. in the heart of San Francisco’s financial district. Most places are teaming teeming with people when they start shutting down the stores at six. What that tells me is that the chain has become so big that it doesn’t have the ability to hone in on the needs of stores based on their location. More importantly, the quality of the coffee seems to be off as well. In comparison, Peet’s drinks always taste better and feel less “industrial.”
Having reduced my coffee intake to a couple of decaf espressos, I can’t say I got to Starbucks for coffee. Instead, I continue to use it for a place to write and meet (despite having an office), but the attraction is going down by the day.
I was discussing exactly this very thing (where else but at Starbucks) and he pointed out that Starbucks’ has the Detroit problem. Starbucks, he said, was not focusing on it core competency (good coffee) and unique selling point (a place to gather.)The music level is too loud to have a conversation, thus making it less attractive as a place to hang out with friends, colleagues and acquaintances. This in turn, gives Starbucks more feel of a “chain.”
That is why many of us find joys in patronizing smaller cafes such as Blue Bottle Coffee and Philz in San Francisco. There are countless others dotting the American landscape. The irony is that Starbucks is responsible for making fancy coffee drinks part of the American life.
Photo courtesy of Marcopako via Flickr.
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Here in Canada the stores stay open till 10-11pm. One store near the local university and attached to a Chapters bookstore stayed open till 2am for about three weeks over exam time. The place was packed every night including Sundays. It’s baffling the six pm closing. Hopefully once they sort out their business model and maintain a good number of stores it will get better.
Two chains, William’s Coffee and Coffee Culture, here in town also offer WiFi and good coffee and full meals, booths and more of a welcoming atmosphere. And no need for the cards and pin number access to get online.
And I always meet prospective clients at one of the three. I even had a small photo exhibit in a Starbucks over Christmas and have a much larger one in a Williams right now. The Starbucks was much less successful too.
Needless they are still being studied in major universities as examples of good business management and human resources at it’s best! Recently the one on our campus was closing at 5:30 and was selling only one type of coffee. There was a storm her a few days earlier but curfew had been lifted for 5 days, and the campus was open. Do you think they may have branched globally too soon? Or maybe too much is what happened, as for load music ours doesn’t even have it playing. But too loud would be worse. I like Starbucks and there business management style.
Part of the issue is that the more mature the US coffee drinker becomes, the less they will put up with the Bland tasteless chain coffee that Starbucks sell. Look at Markets like Australia, where Starbucks has had to close half its stores as where Starbuck US will be in 5 years.
hello.. they green tea latte is still the best!
btw in Malaysia, they still open til 10pm..
My favorite drinks at Starbucks are tea, not coffee. Go figure.
The greater Seattle area has a ton of coffee shops. Drive-up shacks are also common in the more rural areas, kinda like the photo huts of old. Will have to try some of the non-Starbucks locations as places to go “work” when I feel the need to get out of the house.
they were slammed for wasting an est. 23 million gallons of water a day…plus a friend who owns his own coffee shop and went to school for it told me that most starbucks (cept the ones in the nw us) don’t even clean the container in which the beans sit before they are grinded…if you look there’s a ton of oil that builds up…he says this oil can make you very sick and he cleans his at least twice a day, and never lets it sit overnight…at starbucks it can sit for long streches
Everyone’s taste is different – for coffee, that is. I find Starbucks about right for me – though I don’t prefer either variation on Chai, locally. Living in New Mexico where bland “cowboy coffee” is the historic standard, most True Locals find Starbucks too strong.
They must be treating their staff well. The Starbucks I visit has the same folks working there over years. Always a good sign.
But, my wife and I both are fans of a local coffee shop called Java Joe’s. One of the first in town with strong free wi-fi. Been through 2 owners and only became bigger and better.
Smart enough to be neighborhood-based. Useful and friendly enough to attract hermits like us when we come to town for work or recreation. Talented baristas – able to tweak whichever beverage of choice we request.
Jave Joe’s – and Starbucks – both seem to have bright enough ownership to identify with people and planet-oriented politics. Which also counts [I believe] with the folks who gravitate to coffee shops as a natural social anchor.
It worked for James Joyce.
Needless they are still being studied in major universities as examples of good business management and human resources at it’s best! Recently the one on our campus was closing at 5:30 and was selling only one type of coffee. There was a storm her a few days earlier but curfew had been lifted for 5 days, and the campus was open. Do you think they may have branched globally too soon? Or maybe too much is what happened, as for load music ours doesn’t even have it playing. But too loud would be worse. I like Starbucks and there business management style.
Om
I’m a regular at GigaOm and like reading your blogs. You write “teaming with people…” like most good writers do but only the very best can discern “teeming with people…”. I wanted to point that out because as a writer you should be held to a higher standard than an average writer.
Srini
[...] seems like only yesterday that I was sitting at the Starbucks near my old office with my friends Nitin Borwankar and Dave McClure, along with ace web designer Mike Rundle (via [...]
I’m sitting at a Starbucks on Norwood Ave in Sacramento, CA. I just four people leave without buying any coffee, pastries because the music is too loud. The were dressed in suits and had two laptops. Probably would have spent about $5-7 per person since it is almost lunch time.
I’m sitting here contemplating leaving too. The damn speakers are right above my head and the music is too freaking loud. The speakers should be where the baristas work. The people could still hear the music from this location.
What in the hell is wrong with Starbucks managers? Don’t they understand if people can’t speak to each other without screaming, there is a problem.
I find myself going to Panera Bread for coffee, lunch and Wi-Fi. What a company that does not give a damn about customers’ experiences.
Rick
916-837-7722
The problem of not being able to fine tune closing times by location is real -I’ve had managers of other large chain stores tell me the same story -their store gets forced to close during peak business hours because “management” decides that across the board the corp will save money.
With the capabilities of today’s enterprise software, there is really no excuse for this. Depending on how their systems are set up, one should be able to see the level of business at each Starbucks, how much product is going out the door at what time, and, which product specifically. Of course, these systems are meant to provide information and not make management decisions, otherwise you end up with debacles such as when Starbucks did their recent cutbacks based on store sales (not realizing -or perhaps just not coming up with an answer for- the fact that when a barista serves 25 cost conscious customers 25 “tall” size drinks, she is doing the same work as when she served 25 flush customers vente drinks.) In that case, the work level stayed the same, staff was cut and subsequently service went down leading to frustrated employees and customers.
And, since you mentioned music, how about the fact that, at least in the South Bay, Starbucks played depressing music from the 1940s (not even the peppy stuff -just songs about breakups and not knowing how one will go on) for a good three months? I remember one customer musing that the chain was playing the loud repetitive music as a way to keep jobless people from “sitting in the store for eight hours nursing their tall house blend while they surf the job sites”. At the time, I laughed it off as a joke…but later, after about three or four more weeks of down-music, I wondered.
So, I guess the real question here is, who’s minding the store?
i do agree on the human resource management issue. they treat their people right. i would say more companies should adopt their best practices especially the medical coverage for employees.
point well taken. my bad on the spelling.