McStarbucks?

Starbucks big wig Howard Schultz recently penned a memo titled “The Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience”. The memo decried the massive expansion and dilution of the original mission of the corporate coffee house behemoth. I think ‘bucks crossed the tipping point from coffee shop to a virtual McDonalds some time ago. Just last week, I sat in the drive through, sandwiched in among a fleet of Nissan Armadas and Chevy Suburbans (the most aware suburban moms get the flexfuel model to make up for the 12 mpg guilt), when I finally made it up to the box that you shout your order into. I ordered a regular brewed coffee and then had to wait for the “barista” to try to upsell me into any number of different pastries and breakfast sandwiches, and I thought to myself, “is this really any different than the 'barista' at McDonalds asking if I ‘want fries with that’”? And the much lauded Starbucks experience has almost completely morphed into what I would classify as faux upscale fast food. Heck, McDonald’s coffee defeated Starbucks in a recent comparison completed by Consumer Reports. Schultzie does make a good point: Starbucks has diluted their brand by continuing to offer more and more products that aren’t coffee, and there is no turning back. It’s only a matter of time until you can walk into a Starbucks and hear a grill sizzling while the “baristas” are feverishly working the fryer. And trust me, running the fryer correctly requires the same amount of craftsmanship and skill as the automated espresso machine.