Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) breakfast buzz, for what it's worth, seems to have died down for the moment, -- at least I'm no longer getting four or five news alerts daily in my email inbox. Like Portland, this offerings are not new in my hometown of Seattle, and I failed to credit the interest their introduction would generate in the mainstream media. Online, some customers posted their pictures and comments of the breakfast purchase on Flickr. Warning: these are not professional, studio produced advertising shots, but actual representations of breakfast sandwiches in all their greasy glory -- not for the faint hearted. Although outside the breakfast area, a Tokyo lunch-goer called this Starbucks tuna melt yummy, and it doesn't look quite so bad.The Starbucks Gossip blog solicited barista reactions to the NYC rollout of warm breakfast which has turned up a responses from Starbucks employees. "NycBearista" noting that he or she was the "warming partner" (I will not be surprised if that is an actual job title) on roll out day, noted that the new task made opening duties go much slower, and since it's now store policy to "warm anything."
I can attest witnessing crowds forming on both sides of the counter, customers waiting for the orders on one side, and employees crawling over each other, slicing bagels, warming egg sandwiches, blender-ing frappuccinos, emptying drip filters, steaming milk, and actually pulling some espresso shots in there as well. A barista signed "Aloha" wonders whether Starbucks has gone too far in diversify its menu.
Still it seems to me customers demand these choices, and it becomes the company's burden to somehow accommodate variety while maintaining its identity. Some years ago I was in London and stopped in a location of the U.K.'s "Seattle Coffee Co." as I think it was called. That chain of (again, if I recall correctly) around twenty shops has since been purchased by Starbucks and absorbed into the main brand. But it the time this particular location was remarkably bare compared to similar stores in the States. They sold coffee. They sold, as I recall, one or two scone-like things. They didn't sell t-shirts. They didn't sell CD's, DVD's, sausage sandwiches, salads with brie, apple slices and walnuts, board games, loyalties cards, or anything at all covered in chocolate. It was pleasantly simple. But I'm not kidding myself, if they'd have had say, a nice chocolate croissant on offer I would have snapped it up.
Still it seems to me customers demand these choices, and it becomes the company's burden to somehow accommodate variety while maintaining its identity. Some years ago I was in London and stopped in a location of the U.K.'s "Seattle Coffee Co." as I think it was called. That chain of (again, if I recall correctly) around twenty shops has since been purchased by Starbucks and absorbed into the main brand. But it the time this particular location was remarkably bare compared to similar stores in the States. They sold coffee. They sold, as I recall, one or two scone-like things. They didn't sell t-shirts. They didn't sell CD's, DVD's, sausage sandwiches, salads with brie, apple slices and walnuts, board games, loyalties cards, or anything at all covered in chocolate. It was pleasantly simple. But I'm not kidding myself, if they'd have had say, a nice chocolate croissant on offer I would have snapped it up.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-07-2006 @ 11:34AM
Seattle-London partner said...
I work in London and the comment regarding the product lineup in the UK is inaccurate. We sell CD's and fuzzy bearista stuffed toys just like the US. In fact the UK Starbucks offer a full line of breakfast and Lunch Sandwiches that require just as much preparation/wait time to be heated on the Panini Grill. Sausage sandwiches? yes also Cheese and Marmite panini.
10-07-2006 @ 3:31PM
Michael Canfield said...
Read my post more carefully, London partner, and you will see that I was relating an experience I had in London years ago, and furthermore wasn't even to a Starbucks but a company the was at that time being bought by Starbucks.
10-13-2006 @ 11:14AM
Lurker37 said...
SBUX adding warm offerings is certainly in line with the progression of expansion into new lines. And it certainly does well for those holding positions in TurboChef (OVEN), however, as noted by one of the barista's comments, it's certainly going to be a drag on employee efficiency and most importantly customer time efficiency. Go into any SBUX in the morning and what do you see? People on their way to work, in a hurry, just wanting to get their coffee and get on their way. Adding warm meals that require even a modicum of additional prepration and handling by staff during the customer order and fulfillment process is not good. And, the delays are cumulative, like airport and doctor appointmen delays. And extra 15 seconds for every third customer adds up when there at 10-20 people in line. And that's on top of baristas already making complicated drinks.
Let me give you one example of a company that didn't do this right: Dunkin Donuts. Until about a year ago there was a DD down the street from me. I occaisionally stopped in for coffee and to pick up a few donuts (I have kids, they love donuts). Generally a pretty straightforward easy task: coffee is in one spot, just get correct size cup and fill; donuts grouped in another spot, just bag what the customer wants. Bring everything to the counter, ring it up, take money, and move to the next customer.
Then...then...then they decided they must offer warm food. And BTW, take custom orders on that food. But, no additional staff. Wait time for my coffee and donuts tripled on any given day, and was worse on weekend mornings. I stopped going there. That DD is shuttered. Many DD's in my area are gone.
They went from providing customers what they wanted: relatively decent coffee and donuts and fast service (this was the key) to offering what they thought they needed to offer to keep up.
I think SBUX can probably pull this off better then DD, but they have to remember that the majority of their customers are not there to hang out and are certainly not going to continuing going there if they lose 5 - 10 minutes on their commute for a cup of coffee.