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15 Things You Might Not Know About Starbucks
By Dian L. Chu, EconMatters
Since Starbucks is the first brand to have 10 million fans on Facebook, here are some news crossed my email inbox that Starbucks fans might find hard to believe.
Although Starbucks started a community website in early 2008, My Starbucks Idea, designed to collect suggestions and feedback from customers, there's actually another web site--Starbucked.com--founded almost a decade earlier dedicated to oppose Starbucks and help Starbucks' would-be rivals--independent coffee houses. Starbucked.com was founded in 1999 by a frustrated customer supposedly received very poor customer service at a Starbucks in Berkeley, California.
Now here comes the more unexpected or shocking news--McDonald's customers are more loyal than customers at Starbucks. Based on a recent consumer study by CustomersDNA, LLC, McDonald’s out-scored Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts with the most loyal coffee customers--62% of the visits by those that did not visit either Starbuck’s or Dunkin’ Donuts during the average month.
The same study found that ‘Die Hard Loyals’ account for less than half (41%) of Starbuck’s customer, while Starbucks' fast-food-turned-coffee-chain rival Dunkin’ Donuts’ did not fare that much better either -- about 42% of Dunkin' customers were 'Die Hard Loyals'.
Despite these interesting tip bits, it is still quite a feat for a single store coffee house started out in Seattle, WA to have evolved into the largest coffeehouse company in the world in the past 30 years, and this cool infographic below should lead you down the memory lane to find out more that you might not know about Starbucks.
By the way, don't forget to stop by Starbucks with a reusable mug or tumbler on Earth Day April 22 for a free cup of coffee, and find some best credit cards deals to earn some rewards while shopping and sipping grande lattes at Starbucks.
[Source: Online MBA]
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Mickey's cheapest and best. Gulp!
I like to brew my own from bustelo, yuban, pilon.
This is what I brew it in
http://www.wholelattelove.com/Bialetti/bialetti_3cupmoka.cfm
I'm so rich I don't know how to count. I only drink special Arabica percolated coffee and now some of the Nespresso capsulated stuff. If it's not expensive, pure grained, I don't drink it. As for US made coffee it is like hot water in Chad; when I was building a refinery to refine sludge from the lake nearby and make it into lake Baikal not lake Aral. I got kicked out by Shell and a guy called Hissen Habre then. But I loved the coffee that my black-is-beautiful slave-master woman made from Ivory coast Arabica delivered to my hotel by DHL! Best taken after a night of shallalong wally wong dong of siren song in voodoo hullabaloo...Cat Balou!
You know what I mean...Long live brush songs of Miriam Makeba's sister and local brown-black beans of voodou magic!
I worked there a few years. I totally understand the vitriol, and I'm no big fan by any stretch, but a few things I'd mention in the interest of informed perspective...
1) The "default" brewed coffee you get at Starbucks is what's called a "bold" blend. It's a dark roast--basically burnt to charcoal. Thus far, every person I've personally known who's said "Starbucks coffee tastes terrible" never knew they made more than one roast. The "mild" blend, in my opinion, has *always* been the better choice, because you can actually detect some "coffee" flavor. The oils haven't all been vaporized.
2) The "fast service" mantra is pushed so hard to the staff that service quality suffers seriously. People who are paying $4-7 for a fucking beverage have every reasonable expectation of getting it quickly, but FAR more important is getting it *right* from people who don't act like each customer is just a delay to be endured before the next customer. This is a systemic problem with the way the business grades store performance, which determines manager bonus, etc etc. Epic fail on the management model.
3) The idea of seriously overcharging for a cup of hot milk with some espresso was great 10 years ago when the country was flooded with money in the hands of the dumb. Those days are over--chances are Starbucks' successful run is too.
4) The Starbucks customer base has a tendency to behave in ways which aggravate the structural problems with the business. Aside from a few select "rush" periods, it's a minority of customers there to get a quick cup of something and get out. Many folks can't be bothered to even consider that they've been standing in front of a register for 5 minutes with a line behind them wondering out loud whether they want a white or regular mocha. Obviously this is a problem which can't be addressed if the business clings to both "luxury" and "speed" models.
5) Finally, a peeve: in the store I worked, we saw primarily affluent customers in a touristy mood. Folks on vacation to NYC to see Broadway shows and shop at overpriced boutiques came to Starbucks and complained frequently to the staff about the price of a cup of coffee. Taking such complaints gracefully is a bit much to ask--the employees dealing with the snide comments about a $2 or $5 beverage were grossing about $18K/year in full-time jobs, and this was somewhat higher than the national average Starbucks wage.
For certain a good way to ensure the quality of your service suffers is to piss off the server.
you can get 50 cent refills at the drive through. i mean , after all, what is the plan?
just say yes.............
asia, I always make it a point to read your stuff. Please tell me the reason you posted this. I dont get it.
It is Good Friday. It is the traditional day that Jesus Christ was killed on the cross. Respect for the Holy Day, even if you are not a Christian or christian, would seem to be called for. Even by pagan earth worshippers.
Some made up Watermelon holiday like Earth Day being celebrated by $tarbucks on the same day? Fail.
I will never purchase anything from Starbucks again. They make McDonald's look good.
Here is a free recipe for a great , inexpensive, coffee late' better than Starbucks or McDonalds and equel to Dunkin Doughnuts:
Brew anykind of coffee you prefer, just half as much--pour into cup
Add 25% milk
One heaping teaspoon of Swissmix cocoa [Walmart sells a box for$1.25 which will last a month]
After adding ingredients in cup, stir vigorously--add sugar if desired&enjoy
I mainline coffee but no 4BUX for me, too expensive, tastes horrible.
For me, it's either home-made or a 16 oz. refill at 7-11 for $0.99. 7-11 coffee is good stuff.
Prediction Number 10 (adjunct to my "Nine 2011 Predictions") written and published today 4/22/2011 here on Zerohedge.com only:
10. When the U.S.S. Titanic goes down for the second time [viz., the stern of the R.M.S. Titanic breaking apart from the bow, then rising straight into the air, and then finally straight into the bottom of the freezing Atlantic Ocean], possibly starting in October 2011 if not sooner, Starbucks will also start closing its stores in the following quarter, i.e., by early 2012. And if the Second Crash happens by this July, look to early October for Starbucks' demise.
Instead of opening 2 to 3 new stores a day, it will be closing 2 to 3 stores every week until the entire Starbucks empire goes down into the freezing Coffee Hell.
How do we know this? Well, history has a way with rhymes as Mark Twain once famously said*:
On July 1, 2008, the worlds largest coffee chain announced that it will be closing 600 stores in the United States and laying off more than 12,000 employees, or about 7 percent of Starbucks entire workforce worldwide: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/02/business/worldbusiness/02iht-02starbuc...
*Mark Twain: "History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes."
some say the logo is esther, queen of jewish ritual murder ceremony of purim. just a coincidence that the libyan war kicked off on the same day.
"I know well that they deny everything, but it all agrees with the judgment of Christ, that they are poisonous, bitter, vengeful, spiteful serpents, assassins, and devil's children, who secretly stab and do injury because they are not able to do it publicly Purim Murder: The ritual murder at Purim is committed against adult Christians. Fresh strong men and women are preferred. The Purim festival is celebrated annually by the jews in February or March. It is in commemoration of the 75,000 Persians murdered by the Jews. This massacre occurred under the Persian king Ahasuers (Xerxes). He had a minister (Haman) who recognized the Jewish danger and wanted to expel the Jews. The king's Jewish whore Esther persuaded him instead to hang Haman and his ten sons. After that came the murdering of the 75,000 Persians under the leadership of the Jew Mordecai. The following day the Jews celebrated with joyous festivities which are observed as the "Feast of Purim" even today."
The History of Jewish Human Sacrifice
http://www.thewatcherfiles.com/jewish_sacrifice.htm
I logged in just to junk your bigoted propaganda.
Yet when I'm downtown Seattle I go to Vivace or Monorail Espresso.
ME was Seattle's original espresso cart, started in 1980. Bike messangers get 25 cents off every day. They pull an awesome shot and are super nice folks.
David Schomer of Vivace pushed the boundaries of how good a ristretto shot can be by developing more precise (with respect to temperature and pressure) equipment. His writings also helped me learn how to make a perfect shot on my E61 home machine.
Starbucks is great when I'm in Bumfuck, Where-ever and the alternative is truck stop coffee, but in the home of Starbucks, I go to local shops for better coffee and more soulful atmosphere.
That said I am glad to see another (albeit much bigger) local business succeeding on the global stage.
I don't know, there's something strange listening to Americans talk about coffee. When I was growing up in NYC, drank catpiss swill at the diner until 4 in the AM. That kind of experience seems to inform all subsequent US-centric coffee talk that I've read since. For completely coffee-unrelated reasons I expatted to Europe long ago, discovered the 2-3 evolutionary notches higher on the coffee appreciation scale that impermeates Europe.
That Starbucks even exists has always struck me as weird. That it is a major force in 'some' cultures is even weirder. When I walk by the Starbucks at Odeon in Paris 6e (always the same thought - "WTF is That doing There") I guilty-glance in, see the American tourists huddling against the strangeness of foreign lands, all with their laptops/Ipads open, furiously blogging away, and I think to myself, I got out of Dodge in time.
Starbucks is the opposite of Class. That, like so much else, is America's legacy to world culture.
LOL, know exactly which sbux youre talking about. Spot-on commentary about it.
VERY well said, Sneeve.
Now that you've described it as "catpiss swill" I at long last have a way to justly describe american diner coffee (this include breakfast houses such as Waffle House, IHOP, etc). It really does have an aroma of cat piss, and it is swill. Good job and thank you.
went to the local starbucks with the girlfriend(loves starbucks) and well the name fits well cause you have to reach for the stars to pay for 2 mokackoka latte fattes like 13 bucks something or other and yes as an outsider not really give a shi... about starbucks I can honestly say the atmosphere is a little SNOOTY in there from the workers to the clientele. The whole place reeks of I'm richer than you YUPPYTARDISM. As far as I am concerned people that regular starbucks are getting ripped off and the sooner they go broke buying that crap the better for me and one day they will be living under a bridge and taking a deuce at starbucks and dumpster diving.
Pretty much. But then there's the people who just walk in, get their drink, and leave. I did that myself the times I went there about 10 years ago, before the place went full retard.
Wellllll....I wouldn't go quite that far. But yer right that peoples' idea of value is badly distorted, their priorities upside down, and their waste of money mystifying.
I only buy coffee that I can afford. I don't go to McDonalds or any other store. Instead, I just make my own coffee at the house & then carry around a thermos bottle all day. I save about $6+ a day. It's all I can afford.
I drink tea, not coffee, but I use a Starbucks (TM) Mug. Does that make me a bad person?
Maybe. Do you drink your tea white, dark, sweet or neat?
Dash of milk, no sugar.
Then no, you're not.
Starbucks, like AAPL, proves that marketing has always been more important than the product. Yes, Starbucks may make good coffee, but for an insanely high price that people are willing to pay more for status than coffee.
It's like Juicy Couture: people buy these T-shirts for status and class, not anything else.
You want to make money?
Purchase some cheap raw materials from China, place a pretty logo on it, pretend it is high quality, and try to make of it a "classy" thing for the enlightened middle class.
The problem is that it will work no more than 5 years: all fashions end up dying when the low classes begin to embrace them. It is the eternal cycle of status.
Rolex, for example, was the reference in luxury in the 1980s. After rappers and low-class people embraced them, it became Breitling, and then Omega/Hublot.
Theres that, but also they provide a "3rd place" to do work where you are just distracted the perfect amount by girls with "Juicy" written on their ass filtering in and out.
I dont like their coffee, but I am one of those douche bags who will roll up in their store and camp for 2 hours with a book or a laptop and get work done.
The corporate logo tells you all you need to know. Same cult behind Starbucks that runs wallstreet and many other large corps. People need to wake up to who really runs this world.
"The corporate logo tells you all you need to know. Same cult behind Starbucks that runs wallstreet and many other large corps. People need to wake up to who really runs this world."
I would say you need to start with Dr. Evil. After all, he did use the Starbucks headquarters as one of his lairs.
Starbucks?
HALF OF THE TIME THEY CAN'T EVEN HANDLE THE ORDERS RIGHT! And you're saying they control the world?
I don't know....
john39 was pointing out that every logo of a very big company, from WalMart to Fidelity Funds, incorporated either a star, or a pyramid.
It's quite frightening, and you don't need to be a conspiracist to notice it.
Logos are designed to communicate certain things. Perhaps stars and pyramids are generally recognized as desirable? When children do well at school do they get a square? No, they get a star. It's universal.
"When children do well at school do they get a square? No, they get a star. It's universal."
Universal? In China, when the kids do "well", they are told to do BETTER! A star? Please..........
Students can always earn 2 stars. Even in the USA. I believe a USA general can earn as many as 5 stars. The Chinese flag has only 4 stars. So there you go.
stars are ancient symbols denoting angels.... in this context, fallen angels...
Kind of tautologous there.
Redundant, too.
I'm a tea drinker hardcore for about the past 3 years. However, I have sampled Starbucks regular and cappucinno, along with similar coffees in worldwide and can honestly say Starbucks is complete shit in comparison. Recent case in point:
Australian troubles
They didn’t cut over two-thirds of their American stores, so why is it that their struggles have been exacerbated here in Australia?
Primarily it is due to the fact that a firmly entrenched café culture was already present in Australia when they set up shop in Australia eight years ago.
Associate Professor Nick Wailes, expert in strategic management in the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Sydney, believes that organisations such as Starbucks, who lose sight of what initially made the business successful and fail to recognise the importance of local culture, will always fail in the Australian market.
“There are a number of important business lessons that can be learned from this situation,” advised Wailes. “Unfortunately, Starbucks failed to truly understand Australia’s cafe culture and has become an example of the big corporate machine it originally tried to differentiate itself from.”
“Part of the problem is that Starbucks original business model just doesn’t translate across markets. Starbucks original success had a lot to do with the fact that it introduced European coffee culture to a market that didn’t have this tradition. Australia has a fantastic and rich coffee culture and companies like Starbucks really struggle to compete with that,” Wailes concluded.
Starbucks is for Gays. If I am paying 5 bucks for coffee I want a lap dance dammit. F SBUX. What a bunch of Gay USA and their fucking gay drinks.Next bring back Zima.
Zima is back...it's called Coors Light.
Great for Starbucks
I will now go drink my cheap no name coffee and start my morning.
Have a pleasant day ZH'ers!
I've never been in a Starbucks, but have gone by many. Guess I haven't missed much.
A large McD coffee with cream costs $1 in the US. It's not great, but never bad.
I've had exactly 3 SB coffees -- 2 of them were free because I met clients there at their request. The other was in Vancouver. It was a block from the hotel that I found 3 (count 'em, 3) on 1 street intersection. Went in, bought one, left. Can't even remember what it tasted like. With all this worldly experience I don't see a reason to go back.
Like McD's coffees when I'm on the run but had a crazy conversation with the checkout girl one day about 'real sugar'. She asked if I wanted real sugar and I said what else is there? I said like sugar in packets? She said like what?(She was probably 17). I said like white crystals in a paper packet? She said I don't know about that but we have syrup too... Apparently they prefer to use liquid sugar in the coffees so they mix better/are easier to add...I always ask for sugar in packets and add them myself now.
What the hell -- how much did Starbuck's pay for this fawning fluff? Starbucks is the coffee that's chock coffee full of fail. They buy cheap beans and try to disguise the poor quality by over roasting them until they are burnt black and bitter. I would say Starbuck's coffee tastes like double venti ass, but this comparison would be a disservice to all asses everywhere, excluding possibly our elected ones.
Let's not exclude all of them, please:
http://www.girlbutts.com/
NICE........
I TRULY believe they do something to their coffee that makes its more potent/addictive - I used to drink their espresso 2x a day and finally got disgusted with the cost and bought a nice espresso machine for a couple of grand. Huge withdrawal just from SWITCHING to Lavazza and that shit makes you tired when you drink too much.
Tyler hasnt posted yet.
Hey Dude
WAKE THE FUCK UP!
Starbucks crap coffee is too damned bitter.
Thank you! Yes, it is!