A Coffee Conundrum by: J-lo

Although Cicero nor I are advocates of Starbucks and the coffee they produce, I felt I should share this piece from another blog that discusses Howard Schultz's, chairman of Starbucks, own personal conundrum. When Schultz began Starbucks back in '87 he had a vision of a coffee shop similar to those found in Italy and meant to broaden social experiences and the feeling of community. Unfortunately, as most of us are aware, that is no longer the case for Starbucks.

In a February 14 internal corporate memo,“The Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience,” Schultz laments how the company’s fierce expansion and efficiency measures “have lead to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand.”

Interesting how a vision to strengthen community and share the experience of coffee with customers has become a parable of the tragedy of the commons. My simple suggestion for poor Mr. Schultz is that he spends an hour in one of his metropolitan stores, "experiences" the coffee, and lastly judges for himself if the environment and the customers are truly "communal". Maybe then he will realize his vision is a failure and his coffee cannot even compare to something offered in Italy.

Unfortunately for his company, Starbucks is doomed to become a disgraced coffee empire (40,000 stores) that colonizes even those countries where coffee is produced - but then again I could be wrong considering the growing number of Starbucks loyalists. In my opinion though, it is truly a tragedy.

UPDATE (from Cicero): For those who are interested in this, I have some good YouTube viewing. Bryant Simon, a professor of history at Temple University, has spent several years visiting Starbucks all over the world and studying how they draw people back for more and more. You can read more about his work in The Guardian. This is his presentation to the recent Taste3 Conference in San Francisco:

Labels: bad coffee, Starbucks

  ¶ 10:09 AM