All Starbucks closing nationwide Feb 26

[Chupa Chupa]

[quote guitarist]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.
It also probably more cost effective doing it this way. They close at off-peak hours so the loss of sales probably pales in comparison to paying the entire barista staff overtime or having to bring in extra staff to train baristas gradually.

[M A V I C]

Plus it's also free publicity. Very easy way to show that they are doing some changing.

[guitarist]

[quote RonT]IMO, people who drink Starbucks coffee are just begging for a huge
problem with reflux in their middle years and beyond. The acid
in that nasty stuff has gotta be damn near terminal over time.

Yuk!
Interesting medical amateur theory!

I think you're talking about "coffee". Starbucks is just a brand.

A lot of people enjoy multiple daily cups of well-brewed coffee---or even badly-brewed coffee---for half a century, their whole adult lives, with no coffee-related medical problems.

Sure, you can have sleep problems, behavior problems, neurological problems, marriage problems, increased heartbeat, or any number of things, if you drink 12 or 16 cups of coffee a day. But even if you drink 8 cups a day of the worst coffee on earth, reflux is not caused by coffee drinking. If a person is suffering from "reflux", its more likely due to factors completely unrelated to food or beverages they consume.

Example: when a person gets obese, the weight of the enlarged stomach pulls on the esophagus, and in some cases, straightens it out. Gravity. An unnaturally large stomach is heavy. That pipe is supposed to be curved. That's what prevents our body's natural digestive chemistry from escaping and ever getting as far up as the throat, increasing risk of inflaming or damaging those tissues. When the pipe is straight, it can no longer prevent reflux. Liquids that belong only in the digestive tract (acid, bile) are free to squirt straight up your pipes. One good way to prevent acid reflux is to avoid getting an unnaturally heavy stomach. Don't get fat.

Weight gain is not the only cause. But coffee consumption certainly doesn't cause acid reflux. If you already have it, it may irritate it. But that's a side-effect, not a cause.

We can drink all the coffee we want, and enjoy or suffer the consequences of caffeine abuse! But I doubt it has any direct bearing on whether or not we ever suffer from acid reflux. In old age, or in those "middle years", down the road, coffee tastes even better! Mmmm....

[Paul F.]

A lot of people enjoy multiple daily cups of well-brewed coffee---or even badly-brewed coffee---for half a century, their whole adult lives, with no coffee-related medical problems.

You DO realize, don't you, that everyone who has ever had coffee has died!

So much for your "no coffee-related medical problems" mr smarty pants!
That stuff is LETHAL!

[Fritz]

I was working a job at MSG here in NYC. Doing nothing for a time, the tech manager asked me (excuse me, aksed me) to get him a Starbucks.
He aksed for a quatro vente frappiccino.
My jaw dropped.
I ain't gonna aks for that in NYC, you must be goofing me.
Sure enough, the "barista" spewed one out - the nastiest burnt smelling coffee I ever did smell. Makes truckstop coffee smell like fresh homemade brownies.
Then the price for that nasty looking and smelling mess!

But it's everywhere and quite popular, even in places I'd never expected. I think if someone named Starbucks ran for president - they'd win. Feh!
What nasty 5h1t!

To each their own. But they have helped to kill the m&p coffee shop in major cities. Thankfully, NYC downtown still thrives. But try to find a decent cuppa in DC, LA or MIA and you'll be walking a while.

[guitarist]

[quote mrbigstuff]Yeah, the coffee brewing is done automatically, so their beans are to blame, not the baristas. The people who work there are only working with the raw ingredients they are given.
Probably both are to blame. Any equipment they use that's on auto-pilot, or 'automatic", is still handled and managed by trained or under-trained staff. A computer, for example, is only as good as the person using it. I was sad to see the process get THAT automated to begin with. Probably a reflection of the mass hiring they had to do, and realistic expectations about training all of them--with high turnover, too--the craft of making espresso beverages and consistently well-brewed coffee, day after day, in thousands of locations.

And yeah, the beans are to blame. I think they do still import and roast quality beans. But by the time they get to the retail end of the chain, they're too stale. They're improperly stored and handled somewhere along way, in the giant commercial pipeline. They're not nearly as fresh as they were when Starbucks was smaller, more competitive, more uncompromising about quality.

I hate to sound like the "old guy" (and a former employee of the local, once very modest collection of individual Starbucks stores in Seattle, I know, I know, I do this nostalgia thing here from time to time) but I swear, ten or fifteen years ago, Starbucks coffee tasted GOOD! It was the premium source of quality coffee, with a bright future.

That's now a distant memory. Even five years ago, it tasted pretty good! Before they became a Three-Ring-Circus Retail Giant, and serving decent coffee (not just the sugary frothy nonsense beverages that makes them more like a yuppie ice-cream parlor, but actual good black coffee) was fast becoming secondary, an undervalued, neglected side-business.

I'll be interested to see if Schultz takes this competitive approach to other areas besides training, to reclaim the fundamentals they lost along the road to mega-corporate success. If they just focus on improving their original mission, their main product, coffee---improving how the coffee they serve to customers actually tastes---that would be the right place to begin.

They still have a competitive position. Improvement is within easy reach. I predict by the end of 2008, his efforts to recapture the fundamentals will show some positive results, and their stock will be up.

Wall Street thinks so, too, the analysis is that coffee is an "affordable luxury", people tend to linger in coffee shops longer and consume more when the economy is bad than when it is good.

Fritz, that was funny...your tech manager asking for that dessert beverage...what did you expect him to ask for, Chock-Full-of-Nuts? At some steam plant in New Jersey? Or Maxwell House "Special Blend"? Heck boy, I remember when the only place in Manhattan you could get an actual espresso was Little Italy, or Greenwich Village! ...and that was in THE 1990s!

He ordered a...what? a "quatro vente frappiccino?" What difference does it make what kind of "coffee" you put in a beverage like that anyway? It's all foam and ice and sugar and syrup and milk and candy, with a fake Italian name. He could just as easily sent you to Baskin and Robbins!

[Dick Moore]

Note that only the Starbucks Retail Stores are closing -- the insaide-the-store Starbucks outlets in stores like Safeway and Barnes & Noble, will be open as usual. Good to know, eh?

[guitarist]

[quote Dick Moore]Note that only the Starbucks Retail Stores are closing -- the insaide-the-store Starbucks outlets in stores like Safeway and Barnes & Noble, will be open as usual. Good to know, eh?
I bet it's because, unlike Starbucks retail locations, those "within-store" Starbucks mini-locations aren't actually operated or staffed by Starbucks. They're limited Franchises, like Starbucks at Airports. They're licensed to use the brand, and Starbucks supplies them with beans, paper cups, and hardware, but they aren't owned by Starbucks.

[Mr645]

I really have never been to Starbucks much. I just remember like $3 for a cup of regular coffee? Same thing was 75¢ at a local bagel joint and taste the same to me

[M A V I C]

[quote Mr645]I really have never been to Starbucks much. I just remember like $3 for a cup of regular coffee? Same thing was 75¢ at a local bagel joint and taste the same to me
Must have been an airport one? They're usually around $1.50