Just this weekend, Heather was making a comment on how much coffee cost at Starbucks. She has been in LA for the last week for training with the new job, and every morning she has been getting a Iced mocca from a local coffee store in the area for like 2.50 a cup, while SB wants almost 4 dollars for. Well, it looks like SB is finally starting to feel the pain of charging these prices for their coffee. Along with this and the fact that several fast food companies have started getting into the coffee business, SB has seen a decline in their traffic for the first time since the company's founding days. Due to this, they have started closing stores and firing employees. In an effort to bring Starbucks back "to its roots", the company has announced a new blend, "Pikes Place Roast", named after the original store, and to help with the announcement, they will be giving away a free cup of the new blend to customers at stores around the country between 9 - 9:30 am PST tomorrow (April 8, 2008).
I how ever think that this is just a last ditch effort from a company that just needs to learn that they have good coffee, but not good enough to charge 4 dollars for a glass. So until they realize this and lower their prices, they are going to lose customers to the fast food companies even though their coffee might not taste as good. Especially in this economy where things are costing more and people are making less.
