02-14-2008, 04:07 PM
This move has Howard Schultz's signature on it. Since stepping back in as CEO to revive the company's lagging image, expect to see more moves like this. For one, Baristas are undertrained. Starbucks once had a rigorous training program, and high standards for the quality of their roasted beans and brewing methods. They've fallen a long way, gradually, over a long period. Not unexpected to see Starbucks not only initiate a training booster shot, but make a public show of it, going as far to issue a press release, and make a stunt out of it by closing stores down during business hours--hardly necessary, except to draw public attention--in an effort to restore faith in their product and their methods. They'll have to do a lot better than this, to get closer to their origins (many here are too young to remember when people would drive long distances to get access to Starbucks coffee, it was that good) a few hours of training will hardly fix years of overgrowth, lost focus, and neglect of the fundamentals, but it's a start.