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VIDEOStarbucks to Rip Off More Than Just Its Customers
By
Scott Reeves Jul 17, 2009 12:20 pm
New stores masquerade as your friendly neighborhood cafe.
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The first new store, to be called 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea, takes its name from the street address and is scheduled to open next week in Seattle. If successful, the model will be extended to other areas of Seattle and then rolled out nationwide.
Each new store will have a different name and will sell merchandise without the Starbucks logo. This is a smart move. Keep in mind that Colgate-Palmolive (CL) bought Tom’s of Maine -- a niche seller of natural products -- to extend its market reach.
Starbucks’ decision to peg stores to individual neighborhoods follows last year’s decision to close about 600 stores nationwide. It also suggests that what works fine for McDonald’s (MCD) has its limits for a purveyor of image and snob appeal like Starbucks.
The latest iteration of Starbucks will include beer and wine, a no-no at current stores. The new outlets will stay open late and offer music and poetry readings.
This could be a problem. Think back to your undergraduate days and ask yourself if you really want to endure bad poetry all over again. The upside: There’s no shortage of untalented poets, and rounding up semi-literates who want to share their blather with the world won’t cost Starbucks a dime.
But will dreary poetry readings pack ‘em in?
One possible spin-off: Seattle Has No Talent. The show could offer prizes for mixed metaphors, pomposity, and nonsensical titles. Who knows, maybe Starbucks could make a few bucks selling bound copies of the wretched poetry to folks who live off the grid and need to light a fire in the stove each morning.
But the real money for Starbucks may be in peddling booze at night and selling coffee the next morning as folks stumble off to work after sucking up all that culture the night before.
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