Starbucks Chairman: 'Bucks has lost its soul

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Is Malaise Brewing at Starbucks?
Chairman Laments That Chain Has Lost 'Romance and Theatre'
By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 4, 2007; Page A09

SEATTLE -- Starbucks has lost its soul and does not know where to find it.

Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz lamented as much in a recent internal memo to his executives. He wrote that as the world's largest specialty coffee company has expanded from fewer than 1,000 locations to about 13,000, its stores no longer even smell like coffee because of "flavor locked packaging."

His memo grieved, too, over the loss of "the romance and theatre" of traditional Italian espresso makers, which have been replaced by automatic machines. Shultz wrote that the new machines, while more efficient, block customers from watching as coffee drinks are made and sharing what he called an "intimate experience with the barista."

"One of the results has been stores that no longer have the soul of the past," he wrote. "Some people even call our stores sterile, cookie cutter, no longer reflecting the passion our partners feel about our coffee."

The leak of Schultz's lost-our-soul memo has generated buzz on business pages. But it has occasioned only a shrug from the caffeine cognoscenti in Seattle, which has more coffee shops per capita than any other major U.S. city....

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Starbucks was founded in Seattle, which remains home to its corporate headquarters, as well as to Schultz, whose wealth is estimated by Forbes at $1.1 billion....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/03/AR2007030301100.html?nav=most_emailed

[pscot]

1. Howard Schultz is as phony

as a confederate war bond. He wants to be seen as a caring kind of CEO. All of his employees are referred to as "partners", who supposedly have a share in the company. But some "partners" are considerably more equal than others. Most "partners" are earning somewhere between $10,000 & $35,000 per year. But one "partner" paid himself $450,000,000 last year and flies around in a private jet that costs the company another million a year.

[sneakythomas]

2. starbucks is about marketing not coffee

I can remember when there was the original one in the market, one on capital hill, and maybe one or two more. The coffee kicked like a mule. That was also before people started ordering coffee with fifteen flavors of syrup in it. If I can find an independent place I get my coffee there. Before I changed jobs I used to go to Zeitgeist near pioneer Square every morning. Before that I got my coffee from Monorail, the first stand on the streets.

[LisaM]

3. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

I, too, like to patronize small coffee places. I only go into Starbucks to get Christmas presents for people in other cities, or the occasional coffee date with a coworker who likes to go there. I patronize small local businesses as much as possible.

Agree on the syrup, too.

[geniph]

4. Charbucks has NEVER been about cafes

NEVER. Cafe culture means a homey, friendly, small place where patrons are encouraged to linger, people-watch, read the paper, etc., in a comfortable seat while sipping their espresso. From the very beginning, Charbucks deliberately designed their "stores" to get people in and out as quickly as possible. The chairs are uncomfortable - by design. The soundproofing and lighting are poor - by design. the stores were always designed to be high-volume retail, NOT cafes.

For Shultz, who more or less invented the idea of selling heavily-sugared burnt coffee confections at high volume, to now be lamenting the loss of cafe culture, is disingenuous at best.

I think a later statement in the same memo, about how independent cafes need to be "eradicated," is far more characteristic of Charbucks' corporate mentality.

For myself, I will continue to visit the independent cafe near my house, the one with the comfy couches, good reading lights, soft pleasant music, fresh baked goods from a local baker, friendly baristas who remember my name and know my regular order, and who do NOT charge $4 for a latte.

Charbucks never had soul, and that asshat knows it. They are the Wal-Mart of coffee purveyors, deliberately driving any and all competitors ruthlessly out of business.