Starbucks 13 March, 2011

Interesting article in today's NYTimes ( A Changed Starbucks. A Changed C.E.O.) about Starbucks continual struggle to survive after the most recent financial meltdown.

As much of a coffee and tea snob as I am, I really don't mind Starbuck's coffee. It's the first coffee I remember actually having and it suits my caffeine need when I am still bleary eyed and walking from 8th ave to 11th ave.

I will acknowledge that they have a lot of room to improve and they should. For instance I think they should adopt Chick-fil-a's community strategy. Every Chick-fil-a store is such an integral part of the community that it's in, why can't a coffee shop be the same thing? It's a way to make the store feel like a part of the community and not an unstoppable force of growth for growth's sake. With 11,131 stores domestically it's hard not to compare it to McDonald's, which has 13, 918 stores in the US.

Why not make Starbuck's shops even more of a Third Place? This would be difficult in a large city, but it would help to take away the corporate feel of every shop, much like Chick-fil-a feels like an independent chain.

Carla had the great idea that the store should also roast bean's in the store. I would whole heartily suppor this and been in line every day for this. It's like Think Coffee around NYU. You can get your quick to go cup, or sit and enjoy a higher quality single origin coffee made by the cup.

Now to just get rid of all those laptops like Cafe Grumpy....