In the wake of last week's public offering of Dollar General, more IPOs are expected to be coming down the pipeline as private equity firms seek a monetary return on investments made during the boom years. Speculation is that Toys "R" Us and Dunkin' Donuts could be next.

Toys "R" Us Inc. is owned by Bain Capital, KKR, and Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE: VNO). The world's leading dedicated toy and baby products retailer was a public company from 1978 until its acquisition by the private equity consortium in July 2005 for $6.6 billion. It has more than 1,500 stores in 33 countries, and its businesses include Babies "R" Us, eToys.com, and FAO Schwarz, the latter two acquired earlier this year. Main competitors include privately owned KB Toys, as well as big-box retailers Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT).

If it's Wednesday, that means another change at Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), right? Reuters is reporting that SBUX is "reworking 90 percent of its baked goods." The latest move by the caffeine king is to start selling baked goods without high-fructose corn syrup or artificial flavors and dyes. The company will also introduce salads and other items -- nothing like a coffee and some salad, right?

According to Michelle Gass, SBUX's executive vice president of marketing, "Food has been the Achilles' heel of the company. [...] That statement will be long buried after we launch this program." The new campaign from SBUX will be promoted as "Real Food. Simply Delicious." and is an extension of last year's healthy campaign.

Well, what took them so long? Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) is going to start offering instant coffee for $1 a cup next week. Apparently, the new instant product has been in the development pipeline for roughly 20 years. Yes, 20 years ladies and gents. Old Howard Schultz and his java minions have been sitting on this earth-shattering release for 20 years. Trust them, this $1 cup of coffee has nothing to do with challenges from the likes of McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) or Dunkin' Donuts. Nor does this new product have anything to do with the company's financial struggles.

Of course, you can't saunter into one of your five local Starbucks emporiums and order up a $1 cup of coffee, you have to buy three packs of the instant coffee for $2.95 (according to The Wall Street Journal) or $9.95 for a pack of 12. At that price, I would be willing to try this new coffee creation named Via.
The caffeine king contends that the instant coffee market remains a $17 billion global market, and it is now trying to find its niche in that world.

In a climate of disappearing disposable income on one hand, and a contingent of consumers that are always seeking out better and more sustainably-grown and traded coffee beans on the other hand, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) is losing in all fronts. Today, Dunkin Donuts announced that its coffee had beaten Starbucks' brew in independent taste tests across the country; 476 adults in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, and Seattle participated in a double-blind taste test, comparing Dunkin Donuts Original Blend against Starbucks House Blend. Exact numbers were not released, but the research firm said the customers "clearly indicated a preference" for the Dunkin.

This isn't the only blow against Starbucks in the media this week; last week, a story about the new Juan Valdez Cafe chain highlighted the pressure from the other end of the competition spectrum: quality and sustainability. Coffee sold at the 101 stores across Colombia and in New York, Seattle, Philadelphia, Spain, and Santiago, Chile is grown by 22,000 shareholders who are looking to market their beans; according to this article, they're not hoping to profit from the cafe enterprise, even though the collective plans to open 500 more stores across the U.S., Latin America and Europe in the next two years. What's more, coffee is slightly cheaper at Juan Valdez Cafe than at Starbucks in New York City.

Starbucks is being squeezed into an uncomfortable middle ground between the low-price, blue collar product on one end (Dunkin Donuts) and the eco-friendly, high-quality product on the other end (Juan Valdez). The only thing it has going to keep its profits from splattering all over the wall is customer loyalty ... and oatmeal. Will it survive?

In the face of a tough economy, a weak stock price, and formidable competition from lower cost coffee sellers like Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) is taking steps to bring down its labor costs.

The idea is to have fewer workers working more hours, with an eye toward making more of the baristas full-time, working 32 hours or more per week.

The Industrial Workers of the World, a labor union that has been trying to make inroads at the chain, complains that the new system does not guarantee that workers will actually receive those hours. The idea is that cost savings will come from lower employee turnover and reduced training expenses. Because Starbucks already offers generous benefits packages to its part-time workers, the cost increases on that side will likely be minimal.

More importantly though, the move will deliver a more consistent experience for customers, with more knowledge full-time, familiar faces serving coffee.

Dunkin' Donuts seems to believe that if McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) can take business from Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) that it has a chance to as well.

According to Reuters, "Dunkin' Donuts -- the East Coast coffee shop chain called by some the "anti-Starbucks," because of its core blue collar customer base, still plans to more than double its U.S. stores to 15,000 by 2020."

Pretty arrogant. The plan by Dunkin' Donuts sounds like comments from Starbucks more than two years ago. It said it would eventually have 40,000 stores worldwide. At the time, it had well under half that many. Wall Street bought into the plan and when Starbucks began to see slowing in its business, investors punished it by selling its shares down by 60%.

Starbucks has been damaged by its own expansion. That does not mean that it makes sense for a competitor to say it can increase its business by 100%. With McDonald's in the market, no other company may be able to ramp up its coffee business by any meaningful amount.

Better for Dunkin' Donuts to keep its mouth shut and impress people with its performance than to set a goal that it may not reach.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor from 247wallst.com

Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX), reeling from declining consumer spending, is betting that healthier breakfast items such as a hard boiled egg platter will lure new customers. I wonder whether this gamble will pay off.

First of all, anyone who has eaten in a Starbucks can testify that food is not its forte. I just don't see people craving their morning Starbucks muffin. Plus, in places such as New York City, people have tons of breakfast options ranging from fast-food joints to delis to food trucks. They view Starbucks as a mid-afternoon indulgence. At least, that's how I thought of Starbucks when I worked in New York.

Getting people to change their breakfast habits will be difficult. In tight economic times, people will gulp down their morning meal at home. If they do eat out, they will look for cheaper alternatives than Starbucks. McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD) has made serious inroads in the breakfast market, as has Dunkin' Donuts. Sorry, Starbucks lovers, but I found their coffee far less biter than Starbucks. I even have two bags of Dunkin' java (regular and decaffeinated) in my house.

The world of conservative punditry is in a tizzy after Michelle Malkin wondered if Dunkin' Donuts spokescheerleader Rachael Ray wasn't wearing a keffiyeh in a recent television ad. Just to be safe, Dunkin' Donuts pulled the ad.

I won't launch into any ad hominem attacks of Michelle Malkin, much as I'd like to right now. But I will offer up a few facts:

• The keffiyeh is an ancient traditional headdress worn by men, and is most connected to the Bedouins. While the keffiyeh was worn by both Yasser Arafat and Che Guevara, it was also worn by bohemian American girls in the 1980s.
• Critics of the keffiyeh's symbolism point to its connection with Palestinians and Fatah. However, Palestinians themselves wear the headdresses no matter what their party affiliation or political leanings.
• Arabs are not all terrorists. In fact, most Arabs are not terrorists. Connecting an ancient traditional garment worn by millions across dozens of countries to a tiny (no matter how awful) faction of criminals seems racist.
• Rachael Ray is not wearing a keffiyeh in this picture. She is wearing a paisley scarf with a fringe, selected by her stylist. Honestly, I don't think it looks great on her, but what do I know.

For Dunkin' Donuts to pull an ad based on the rantings of an ultra-conservative columnist? Far more worthy of boycott than being accused of having a spokeswoman who might wear a paisley scarf while drinking a Cool Latte. One liberal pundit says she's sticking with Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX until the ad comes back. What do you think?

This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you prefer, and check out other Battle of the Brands posts.

Oh, how the sugary have fallen. Ten years ago, even five, you and I both know how this would have come out. In the standoff between longtime national fried-dough pusher Dunkin' Donuts and upstart sweet freak Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (NYSE: KKD), Krispy reigned supreme. The chain was rolling out new franchises as fast as dough circles could parade around its restaurants on shiny metal racks, and each time it did local police stations did overtime directing traffic.

Somehow, the mighty fell after the considerable sugar high, largely connected to poorly-managed finances, badly-handled expansion, and a sudden national fear of carbohydrates. All the while, Dunkin' Donut managers everywhere continued to plod along, making the doughnuts, and quietly stirring a blue-collar breakfast revolution. One day America woke up and realized, hey, Dunkin' Donuts' coffee is good! Someone named it "Better than Starbucks" and it soon became clear that the product guys had realized something: we make a lotta money off of coffee. Actually, more than half of the company's revenue.

Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) shares have left a taste in the mouth of shareholders almost as bitter as some of its brews as investors fretted about looming competition with McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD) for the caffeinated consumer. Finally, the coffee chain, whose shares have plunged 48% over the past year, has woken up and smelled the over-priced Java.

The Seattle-based company ousted Chief Executive Jim Donald and replaced him with Chairman Howard Schultz, really the company's heart and soul.

In a letter released by the company, Schultz uses business school buzzwords such as "customer-facing" "customer-focused" and my favorite "re-igniting our emotional attachment with our customers" to discuss the mess in which Starbucks has found itself.

Rachael Ray went from scraping together the rent as a candy counter girl to a multi-millionaire with her own talk show, cooking show(s), magazine, and books that have sold more than 4 million copies. She's also spawned a lingo all her own. (EVOO for Extra Virgin Olive Oil has entered the popular vernacular). All this in a little under ten years.

How cool is that?

Love her or hate her, Rachael Ray, she of the perky smile and Girl-next-door demeanor, gets major points for translating her love of cooking into a multi-million media empire. People can't seem to get enough of her "regular gal" persona. But her bubbly personality masks some serious business savvy.

Using her mentor Oprah Winfrey as a blueprint, Ray has expanded out of the kitchen this year into many other avenues. Her one-hour daytime talk show, The Rachel Ray Show, is patterned after the perennially popular Oprah Winfrey Show, and was the only syndicated daytime talk show launched in 2007 to be renewed. Her Food Network shows continue to be among the most popular on the channel.

She also cooked up some lucrative endorsement deals with name brands such as Dunkin Donuts and Nabisco -- now owned by Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT). These media venues help feed her magazine (Every Day with Rachel Ray) and cookbook sales.

These are like the cherry on top of the $16 million Ray took home this year, according to Forbes magazine. By some estimates, Ray's net worth is touching $100 million, but that's hard to verify. One thing's for sure, this gal doesn't need to get out of the kitchen; she's proving that she can stand the heat.

Be sure to check out more Money Winners of 2007.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) highlighted the possibility of a merger between XM Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: XMSR) and Sirius Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI).
• XM Satellite Radio has softened its stance about a possible deal with Sirius Satellite Radio, but any deal between the companies would face obstacles from the FCC.
• Starbucks Corp (NASDAQ: SBUX) rival Dunkin' Donuts plans to open its first store in Taiwan today as part of a regional push into mainland China. Starbucks also has expansion plans for China.
• Commerce Bancorp (NYSE: CBH) is under federal investigation by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, in conjunction with the Federal Reserve, due to the company's transactions with bank insiders.
  
• The Financial Times (subscription required) wrote that handset maker Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE, NASDAQ: ERIC) moved closed to pushing aside Samsung for third place in market share behind Nokia Corp (NYSE: NOK) and Motorola, Inc (NYSE: MOT); last year it overtook LG Electronics.
  

OTHER PAPERS:

• The New York Times reported that the Chief Independent Investigator has found that a top Interior Department official was told nearly three years ago of a "legal blunder" that allowed drilling companies to avoid billions of dollars in payments for oil and gas pumped from publicly owned waters.
• The Toronto Sun reported rumors that Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) is working to get the Beatles catalog onto its iTunes service.
  
• Investor's Business Daily mentioned Varian Semiconductor (NASDAQ: VSEA) positively in the "New America" column.

At one time Starbucks (SBUX) and Dunkin' Donuts would have hardly seemed likely to be going after the same consumer dollar. But that is exactly the situation today, as
Dunkin` Donuts aims to triple in size -- expanding to an astounding 15,000 stores in North America. This move, which would give it more stores than SBUX, is designed to directly compete with the Seattle coffee giant.

Evidently an upscaling of Dunkin' Donuts, in addition to the expansion, is the plan. But could this also be an indicator that Starbucks -- with its seeming strategy of a store on every corner -- is just another chain, the "McDonald's of coffee" that espresso purists have always claimed it is?