This is not necessarily a coffee related debate. My morning visit to both of these well known coffee purveyors raised many items up for debate in my mind. Among the topics or analogies which can spin from this topic is the economy, what makes companies successful, the two-party system and many more.
Business news of late is one dire forecast or report after another and most if not all place the blame for their poor performance in large part on the state of the economy and in some cases that is appropriate in many others I think it is the easy or even lazy conclusion to draw. In my opinion, Starbucks is one of those cases. All businesses, but in particular retail and service businesses suffer from cycles of up and down service levels. Starbucks has been, at least at the locations I have visited, on a long down cycle. The locations are increasingly unkempt, the employees decreasingly motivated or pleasant. The product selection offered is wider but the product delivered over the counter is less consistently excellent.
We are a split family - I am a DD guy and my wife is a SB supporter. I visited both today and had my usual quick in and out experience at DD, then stood in line nearly 10 minutes to get my wife's drink at SB. Half the people in line in front of me at SB left before ordering. I noted that about half of those appeared to head straight across the street to DD. The others made a beeline for the Metro. Starbucks may be struggling, locations may be closing, unfortunately many will lose jobs - but I would not be so quick to blame the economy. Be skeptical of any company, or state, local or federal government that reduces services, raises fees, or threatens the same based on the economy.
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