Starbucks Coffee

"While traveling with my family to a very popular Southern California destination, we decided to stop at a restaurant for breakfast. "

Disneyland?

"No matter how hard I try, hot brown water just doesn’t do it for me. :)"

That's exactly how I feel about PIKE PLACE ROAST!!!

Lessons Learned

It looks like they learned some lessons from the Pike experience:

for example, do a modest regional rollout, and check reactions, before going nationwide.

My memory is that Pike was rolled out nationwide all at once, and further,  bold coffees were eliminated universally (at first) after noon, and variety (weekly rotation) vanished at the same time.   The anger and difficulty getting a bold drip in the afternoon resonate to this day.

Also they are setting expectations with Via:   in effect bragging that it is an excellent INSTANT coffee, which it is IMHO.  Let people discover, on their own, that Via is probably better than a LOT of competitors brewed coffee!

Compare: with Pike they set the expectation that everyone will love this so much that they don't need to offer bold in the afternoon and they don't need variety.  Argh!

Finally, notice that they are offering a dark roast Via AND a lighter roast Via.  Again, compare this to the Pike rollout.

Art

Via is delicious.  Thank you!

Still waiting for my samples to arrive :(

Sure would like to try this new product....

"Hot brown water" were  you at $tarbucks getting Pike Puke? But never the less what a heartwarming Via story!

I bought 4 large boxes VIA at the starbuckstore.  Thanks for the free shipping!

The shipping cost was expensive!  7.99?  I recommend you to lower your prices and provide free shipping if customer buy momre than 50 dollars!  thanks!

BTW, I really enjoyed the instant coffee.  I am not going to brew coffee anymore when I want to have coffee at home or traveling.

I serve most two people coffee daily and no reason to brew a whole pot of coffee, so it's really cost effective!  It's $1.6 for two of us daily!

Bought VIA for my son who is a college student so he can fill his travel mug before heading out the door to class. He is always running late and never has time to brew a pot.

BTW, have you thought of bringing out a Decaf version? I think it would be a good idea.

I answered the free sample e-mail that was sent to me because of my gold card membership and still havent received it.  Sounds good but ... havent seen it in the stores in my area and havent received my sample.