Starbucks Closes 600 Stores
Since time immemorial, Starbucks has earned the awe of Wall Street pundits. It has roasted, so to speak, the competition in the designer coffee industry.
Nowadays it’s descended from near-imperviousness to utter doom.
Last July 1, the retail coffee shop titan declared that it will slash its over 7,257 stores in the US by 600. The closures should begin this month through mid-2009, affecting about 12,000 employees.
An ailing US economy’s responsibility is decidedly negligible. In fact, Starbucks’ market segment began to dwindle as early last year.
Rather it’s the increasing demystification of an experience once esteemed by many American coffee lovers.
Analysts say that Starbucks’ expansion was too zippy for its own good, compromising a loyal fanbase for shortsighted growth. The ubiquity of Starbucks stores could only usher in cannibalization and saturation.
This nosedive may also partly be due to overly glossed innovations and introduction of comparatively needless products into the menu. Starbucks has even sold its own music.
Coffee snobs, once the staunchest demographic of the store, are also fleeing from Starbucks’ newfound grab-and-go culture. That makes Starbucks no different from fast-food outlets like McDonald’s, which, incidentally, offer coffee at lower price tags.
This fallen dame should be in a mad scramble to redeem its exclusivity at a price that people can still afford, what with inflation. It may be that Starbucks needs a “grande” enlightenment as much as its customers.
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