Ubiquity = Starbucks

I've never been a fan of Starbucks because i gave up drinking coffee over 10 years ago. You really don't want to see me caffeinated.

So Starbucks never really did it for me. Until Wifi and a partner who likes to go twice a day. Since my partner and i have been travelling a lot, we generally hit Starbucks first thing in the morning so he can get his double latte and i can blog and do some email. I love Starbucks, which is really saying something for a non-coffee drinker.

Well as Starbucks fans probably realize, the stores are everywhere, even at the base of the mountain at Beaver Creek. Here's a picture of Jessica going to get a mocha before the first run. The only problem with this store is there's no HotSpot there.

Comments

[Tom Watson]

Fred - what do you think of the fee/revenue model for Starbucks? A bit much if you're not a caffeine junkie, no?

[Matt Harrigan]

Starbuck's SWOT

-Strengths
* Starbucks is available in practically every country, on every corner. It's convenient.

* They use alot of earth tones in their internal
color scheme. It makes for a very non-threatening
coffee drinking experience.

-Weaknesses
* Starbucks is available in practically every country, on every corner. It's smothering.

* While I am a capitalist, squashing some poor mom and pop coffee shop just so u can squeeze a
few more dollars out of the nameless consumer sheep who will inevitably flock to your door just doesn't seem right. Starbucks lacks soul.

* Plain coffee should not cost $3.00.

* Even good plain coffee should not cost $3.00, and there is no good coffee at Starbucks.

* When i'm ordering something, I don't want to say things like "biggie size it", or "venti."
I want to say "small", "medium", or "large."

--Opportunities

* Sell overpriced, bad coffee to average joe while squeezing him @ ~$10p hr for wireless access to a network that costs you next to nothing to operate. BYOL (bring your own laptop)

* Laugh heartily while cheering on Ray Croc,
and toasting him for making it acceptable to
sell massive quantities of inferior product at totally blown out prices.

--Threats

* None. Consumers are too lazy to walk the
extra block to a place where decent coffee
is served, and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

[Max]

that's a pretty terrible swot analysis, sir...

[Matt Blumberg]

Talk about ubiquity...my wife and I were just travelling in Asia and saw many Starbucks there, which was not a surprise. The one that WAS a surprise, however, which completely blew me away, was the Starbucks located in the middle of the Forbidden City/Imperial Palace in Beijing, the 600+ year old home of China's emperors from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. To be fair, it was tastefully done (no big green awning), and if it weren't in its particular location, some other refreshment stand would be in its place, but still, I couldn't help but feel like the conspicuous American in the crowd as I walked past it.

[Joerg]

Fred, I want to point you to an interesting discussion on Starbucks' entrance in the music business (since you are both a music and Starbucks fan) on the blog "Brand Autopsy" based on a recent article in Fast Company.

http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/brandautopsy/
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/84/starbucks_1.html

Hope you enjoy the read!

[Jan-Niklas]

great joy being here..

[Lina Marie]

heard of your site and just wanted to see what´s up here. Really nice place. See you again sometime.I

[riya]

i dont think that was a swot analysis at all, it was more of ur oppinion of what you think of starbucks, u need some tips on how to do proper swot analysis then again cant stop u 4rm wot u think abt starbucks.ppl just like wasting time and posting garbage on da net.

[Steve]

Actually, Starbucks doesn't always crush the little mom and pop coffeeshops down the street. They only hasten the demise of BAD mom and pop shops. There was a lot of anger when Starbucks first came to the coffee-friendly city of Austin, and much was written about how Starbucks would hurt the favorite neighborhood hangouts like Spider House and Ruta Maya. But soon after Starbucks arrived people noticed that the most popular independent places did as brisk of a business as ever - in fact, often even BETTER because of the new people who were introduced to gourmet coffee drinking by Starbucks and then decided to branch out. It's the places which didn't offer anything special in terms of character, coffee quality and experience that died out - but perhaps they would have closed their doors anyway. What Starbucks did was make the independent shops honest and ensured that they provided a differentiated experience, if they did so, they prospered even more and even with a Starbucks next door! Just ask the folks at Little City - 2 Starbucks opened within 3 blocks of them and it didn't even faze them, their loyal crowd STAYED loyal.

[leon]

Starbucks has to be an outlit of the CIA...
It is by far the best way to tap/bug other countries. It has and can infiltrate to all corners of this planet not posing any threat.

I live here in Seoul and I see damn too many Starbucks. They are in the buildings of top companies and government districts.

Government officials to business leaders, you name it they're all there. It has to be best way to collect info. about other nations.

Its just a stupid thought.

[Carrie]

I completed a real SWOT on St*rbucks. I concluded that the higher prices are due to the quality of the beans. So if you are looking for quality St*rbucks is the place to go. The company is really committed to sustainability. Did you know that they actually provide loans to farmers who supply the beans to St*rbucks? Revenue for farmers is a long-term deal so St*rbucks made it possible for farmers to have income while harvesting the beans. Very interesting.