Comments on: Starbucks. Too much, too fast?

By: Clay

Clay — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:11:45 +0000

They grew too fast.

Just from a customer perspective:
Going to starbucks was not an experience anymore. The culture was too driven by selling sandwiches, smoothies, DVDs (alkeelah and the bee anyone?) and CDs.

Since I am blessed to live a rather large city, I’d rather spend my money at an original coffee shop with its own blend of coffee.

By: Tim Walker

Tim Walker — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:26:54 +0000

I do believe they grew too fast. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that too STEADILY grew too fast. For some years in the 1990s and 2000s, they could sustain that sort of growth. But they KEPT trying to hit go-go growth numbers year after year . . . and, yes, apparently they got ahead of themselves.

I think they made other mistakes, too. If you’re not familiar with it, you might check out John Moore’s Brand Autopsy blog, which has *much* more to say on the subject of the Starbucks brand:

http://brandautopsy.typepad.com

By: Erin

Erin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:11:38 +0000

Actually, there are no franchise owners. Starbucks is fully corporate owned (at least in the US and Canada)…so the issue is one that will only really hurt the company. All employees will just get moved around. I worked for them for a couple years, and even then I felt that they were growing faster than demand could sustain. Oh well, I guess it’s a good lesson for everyone to keep from getting too proud of themselves.

By: B-Dub

B-Dub — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:54:16 +0000

So, I want to know what happens to all of the franchise owners that bought into the franchise, but had corporate pull the plug on them? Are they left high and dry or is there some kind of pay out?

The one at Slaughter and Mopac is one of the Austin stores closing by the way. It is brand spankin’ new too!

Yes, I think they grew too fast just like a lot of things in the market.