Starbucks Disappearing?
- Not only products are being eliminated at Starbucks, stores too. 600 of them. The company has recently <a href="http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/pressdesc.asp?id=880">published the list of stores to be closed</a>, and this Starbucks store at 18th and Hawthorne in Portland, Oregon is on the close list.
- Will <a href="http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/07/14/starbucks-moves-into-the-protein-smoothie-market-to-increase-sal/">Starbucks' foray into protein smoothies be a success</a> like the vanilla cream frappuccino? Here's hoping it isn't a failure like some of these products...
- Look at the image. How do you market music and children's products alongside coffee beans? No wonder <a href="http://www.nypost.com/seven/06262008/business/losing_a_latte_music_117237.htm">music </a>and children's products are going away.
- "If I wanted to smell hot breakfast sandwiches, I'd go to McDonald's," not one, but many customers have complained. Along with announcing store closures, <a href="http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/01/31/starbucks-to-close-stores-and-discontinue-breakfast-sandwiches/">eliminating breakfast sandwiches</a> was one of the first changes Howard Schultz has made when returning to the role of CEO as he attempts to focus the company back to its main business.
- I tried the iced orange mocha last summer at a grand opening of a Starbucks in my neighborhood (wonder if it's on the closures list??). I thought it was *interesting* but... not a huge winner. Evidently corporate thought so too, the orange mocha isn't on the menu any more.
- Who would have thunk it? The blackberry green tea frappuccino was saddled with too many flavors, and by 2007 was off the menu at Starbucks everywhere.
- While you may easily find Christmas merchandise at your local Starbucks, most seasonal merchandise is going to be reduced greatly.
- After the company has completed its switch to hormone-free milk, it also stopped offering organic milk. The official explanation was its strategy to <a href="http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/01/16/starbucks-to-cut-organic-milk-from-its-menu/">cut down on the number of items on the menu</a>, but mostly it just never caught on. Kids, however, can still get their Horizon organic milk boxes.
- While Starbucks continues to sell most cold sandwiches and prepared salads, some, like the Asian noodle salad, are gone.
