Starbucks Coffee

That is great, that he came out to be with then customers. I hope he comes to Atlanta, I will be there. I work at a Starbucks in Loganville, about 35 minutes from Atlanta. Howard can come here if he wants!! Store 9981 Hwy 78 and 20.

Interesting. I hope that Howard walks away from these types of gatherings realizing that cutting your store labor means eclipsing the ability to create a third place environment.

Customers, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if you happen to be a part of this meeting, stress to Howard the lack of help in the stores. It's up to you.

Please also stress to Howard the need for healthy options, sugar-free flavors we like (gingerbread latte).  New is good, but sometimes tradition is a good thing to keep as well.

Hope some of the ideas mentioned on these pages will be implemented soon. Was there discussion about the difference between licensed stores and corporate stores and being able to get the rewards, etc. at the licensed stores?

I'm ready for more Starbucks clothing!  Great sweatshirts, PAJAMAS, long-sleeved tees for the season . . .  they would make great Christmas gifts.  I know I would spend a small fortune just on myself!!!  Any chance these things might be coming???

Hmm, so  let me see if I've got this right:

We, the MSI users, have been raising the same dozen or so key points in thousands of posts and THOUSANDS of votes for 9 months. We have discussed them endlessly and used our collective brain to offer dozens of solutions, suggestions and ways to improve..

But it takes a face to face where Howard chats with a small number of cherry picked local customers before these ideas carry any weight?

AND THAT leads you to believe we're "onto to something here at MSI"

It would be funny if it wasn't such a tragic commentary on Starbucks.

So essentially, this site is a complete - and I do mean TOTAL and COLLOSSAL - waste of time.  If it isn't said face to face to Howard, it doesn't matter.

I'm glad we cleared that up. I never believed this site mattered much too the top management. Now I have no doubt.

If the in-person, casual comments from a few dozen customers for an hour or two in Seattle carry the same weight as tens of *thousands* of customers engaging in a dialog for the nearly a year, then Starbucks has problems this site can't address.

Starbucks tried the "coffee klatch" listening for years and it didn’t work; the organization did absolutely nothing new, and very few things right. This site was supposed to be a new direction.

Starbucks is not ready for this site and is not ready to participate in 21st century communities.

If Howard has to hear it in person, and I suspect, watered down, for him to believe it, then there's an ego problem as well.

But if Howard is the agent and arbiter and change and the thing he really pays attention to is an hour or so with handpicked friendly faces a mile or so from home, then this is in fact the best you can do.

This is not how I think a company of Starbucks size should respond to the considerable challenges it faces.

mguiste said:

"There is a level of emotion and passion that can sometimes be communicated better in person."

I take it Howard doesn't read this site much?

mguiste said:

"... the ideas and themes at that discussion were very similar to the ideas and themes on MSI."

No, really?

Perhaps Starbucks thought we made all this stuff up? That it was part of some vast conspiracy to mislead and misdirect Starbucks away from how its customers truly felt.

I respect you mguiste/sbx_bean, but I don't think your company has a clue about what this site really means or what we are trying to tell you.

Check out my posting "Comics and Coffe for the Economy" that I just submitted!  Howard should utilize Starbucks to support new industry possibilities in these tough economic times!    

If this article is anything quite like the rest of this site I believe I have stumble onto something interesting.

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"Starbucks is more than a cup of coffee - it is an experience"

I believe this is one of the root problems that management at Starbucks does not get. Maybe in Seattle but everywhere I go in the world (around the US, UK, Singapore, Australia, etc) I notice that people do not come in to Starbucks because of the "experience, they come in for a quick coffee (well maybe not in the UK. They seem to come in to chat a lot while drinking their coffee).

I run ~$200 month through my Starbucks cards. I come in, grab a cup of coffee, etc and I leave for the most part. I do sit down and read the Washington Post on occasion and watch the people. I would say 90% or better are like me; come in, pay a lot of money, and leave. I love dopio espresso ever since I lived in Italy many moons a go and no ones else’s espresso seem to match Starbucks for me so I stay with it. My wife loves hot chocolate but likes Caribou a bit better but not so much that she does not come to Starbucks with me.

People are not going to McDonalds or Dunkin Dounuts for the "experience" and if you all in Seattle really believe that, there is a serious problem that a 'face-to-face' session with Howard is not going to fix. They go to these other chains because they get an 'as good' or 'near as good' product for their money. Since I can’t get either for espresso’s I keep coming back.

Talk about experience, look at all the junk you sell in your stores. It sits on the shelf and then gets dropped in price by 50% since it does not sell.  Looks nice but does not seem to move and all that inventory costs money (upfront and backside).

I vote for less experience, less clutter, more bold coffee, less Pike Place, and lower prices. Your are getting like some of the older regional airlines that went too big too fast. Can you name them? Nope, no one remembers their names as they went to way of many extinct animals.

Be like Dunkin Donuts; re-invent yourself like they have over the last few years.

I am not totally convinced that the ideas and comments shared on this website have an impact on corporate SB. I have not seen many of the constant and early ideas implemented and still wonder how long some of these ideas will take to put into place. I see bits and pieces of movement forward but given the number of comments not enough. There has to be a way of streamlining the process so if new ideas are to be implemented they do not have to spend time between several depts to receive action.

mguiste

You right, I don't see the inside, so my measure of impact is somewhat crude: public actions.

A couple of questions:

When all of Starbucks communication channels with the public say the same thing, when does Starbucks stop asking for more data and start acting on the top concerns?

If after pending hours and hours of  time organizing and attending small customer discussions around the country, Strarbucks end up with the exact same findings that have been on the MSI site for nearly a year, what have you gained?

I can tell you what you've lost: the opportunity to act sooner and hundreds of hours of labor that could have been spent on the solutions rather than the questions.

If the data already exists and the wolves are at the door, I can think of better uses for a CEO's time, particularly since he already sees and talk to customers on a daily basis in the Seattle stores.

But again, you're right, mguiste, we may have to disagree on this one.

Interesting that there were no negative comments about Pike Place from the group assembled. More bold would be good but at one of my local stores the Manager is having difficulty getting House even though it is the regular bill of fare at the nearby Target Starbucks. I've been loving Christmas blend for the past few weeks. Don't know what we will have available after Christmas. I don't like Pike Place but seems like I am beating a dead horse.

This "forum" is a waste of time & resources.  Starbucks would be better served listening to its own employees, as they KNOW what customers are saying.  If your CEO is so out of touch that it takes him a face-to-face meeting with 50 cherry picked customers to figure out what they want, it's probably time to get a new CEO.  I wonder if he ever stopped at a store that ran out of peppermint, pastries, or yes, even ESPRESSO.  A visit like this would be more relevant if it were unannounced, and involved locations throughout the country, busy locations and slower locations.

Let's shine a bit of light on how well, or not MSI Partner side works to aid in partner experience and work environment.

Case in point

Partners have been asking, begging, pleading, for years about a change in the dress code, the allowance of visible tattoos and piercings and things like metal rods to hold lids in place.

What has been the response from corporate?

NOTHING. ZERO. NADA. SILENCE.

Many of these issues, including the hottest topic, 'partner compensation', are 'under review' in an apparent way to sate anxious partners like me, but so far it's been all glitz and no glamour. Aside from the announcement of new POS systems at the Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Corporate hasn't done sh*t for the field store partner.

I'm beyond euphoria at this stage. I'm diving head first into my job, and am still loving what I do, but, I've lost all hope for corporate to make some lasting difference in the lives of their employees.

If I were to sit down and have a chat with Howard Schultz I would hope to finally get an answer to a question I and many of my friends asked over

and over again a few years back and never received the answer to.

Here we go:.... I am a life long New Yorker, I enjoy having Starbucks

in my city in so many places because it means no matter what I am doing I

have a place to go and recharge,   catch up on my thoughts about

my day  and enjoy a soothing or energizing drink.  I feel this way 3 out of 4 seasons a year.  During the 4th season - Winter, I

feel like a neglected and unappreciated patron of a very exclusive club.

The club belongs to the CHristmas people and I don't.  So, Mr. Schultz,

my fellow Tribe member here comes my question- why is it that we can't have a Hanukkah Coffee  and blue

cups with a menorah design.  How about a few dreidels for fun too!  WHile your attention is still mine, how about considering  Jelly

Donuts along side the many variations of gingerbread treats.  True

these requests may not find much support in Omaha but heck, New

York is a REALLY BIG SHOW!!!!

Lewandow - I agree with you. It's not about an "experience" - certainly not here in the UK - it's about getting a decent cup of coffee. When Starbucks first opened in the UK it was great. Decent coffee in comfy surroundings at last. I didn't even mind paying a premium price, because the quality was so superior to anything else at the time. However, now there's competition. The last coffee I had in Starbucks was weak - despite the extra shot - and served at room temperature. Hardly a hot steaming cup of Java. This is a depressingly familiar experience now in Starbucks. So I usually go to Coffee Republic across the road, where I can get a decently strong coffee, without having to pay for an extra shot, at the right temperature.

There was an article written about Howard Schultz in the Financial Times at the weekend, in which he claims to want to turn Starbucks around. Doesn't he ever visit any stores outside of the US (or Seattle)? I invite him or any Starbucks execs to London where they can have the full Starbucks experience London-style. I suspect they'd be rather depressed afterwards!

Howard Schultz needs to make good on his American stores before he goes anywhere else.

Schultz has lost all employee loyalty, and at this point, he has no beans to grind, so instead, he signs off on the grinding of his work force.

Ian G,

I think a lot of us, including you have just given up trying the get Starbucks to admit they made a mistake with Pike Place and move on to Plan B (which would appear to be go back to Plan A; the way it was pre-Pike Place). They have to know by now it was a mistake but there is something about admitting mistake and doing something about it we humans have a very hard time doing.

I personally cannot stand Pike Place (worse than Starbucks Guatemalan). I used to grab a coffee or two a day but have not had a cup of coffee since the one time I tasted Pike Place. The Thanksgiving and Christmas roasts were good though.

BUT, I don’t see McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts replacing Starbucks in the long term. I believe that Starbucks will continue not adapting to the market and they will close many more stores over the next few years but stay in business. There will be a new CEO in the next few years when the board of directors wake up who will get new staff and new ideas. They will look at how organizations such as Dunkin Donuts re-invited their image & products and Starbucks will in time gain back some market share but will never be as big as they were.

Starbucks main issue as a company at the moment is that they have a Dreamer / Visionary as their CEO. There are specific roles for Dreamers and Visionaries the role is called........drum roll...........Visionary.

Fancy that.

"Starbucks Corp. SBUX will not guarantee a matching company contribution for employee 401(k) plans in 2009 as a cost savings measure, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site Tuesday, citing a letter to employees. Starbucks told employees it will switch to a "fully discretionary match" from a "fixed employer match" starting Jan. 1, meaning the company can decide whether or not to match contributions into the retirement plan, according to the Journal."

Very Visionary...

Someone actually likes Pikes Peak?  Would they send me an email and admit it?  

I want to congratulate Starbucks for allowing citizens their right to carry personal protection firearms into the stores as permitted by state law.  The Brady Campaign recently attacked Starbucks for this and were promptly ignored.