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(Marketwatch)   Want to get free coffee at Starbucks? WELL, TOO DAMN BAD   (marketwatch.com) divider line
16
    More: Obvious, Starbucks, Trade, Restaurant, Drink, United States, Coffee, Packaging and labeling, Corporation  
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758 clicks; posted to Business » on 08 Feb 2023 at 8:55 AM (5 weeks ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



16 Comments     (+0 »)
View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest
 
beezeltown [TotalFark]
2023-02-08 8:54:51 AM  
Are you threatening me with Starbucks?

That was my regular place, like 20 years ago. So many great locally owned places with better coffee and nice employees/owners that I'd much rather support.

Although the talk of beverage modification and food offering attachment to increase average spend really does make me want to hit up a Starbucks so I can feel the exhilaration of being manipulated into spending more money on mediocre (at best) product.
 
NewportBarGuy [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-02-08 8:58:19 AM  
Just remember, for every cup of coffee you buy, money is going into Kenny G's pocket.

Friend's don't let friends subsidize bad elevator musicians.
 
DecemberNitro
2023-02-08 9:39:26 AM  
I can't believe I spent $30k on these Starbucks Metaverse NFT Virtual Dynamic Customer Engagement 4D Experience Points. I was supposed to get a free cup of coffee.
 
Tr0mBoNe [TotalFark]
2023-02-08 9:52:35 AM  
Most of the walk-up only starbucks around here have gone out of business because the local chains undercut them and provide better quality. The only ones that make money are the ones with drive-thrus.
 
TTFK
2023-02-08 9:59:32 AM  
When DD pulled the same crap changes Starshmucks did, I just stopped going there altogether.

Now if I don't make it at home, I just hit up Cumbys for my large $.99 cup-o-goodness.
 
Another Government Employee
2023-02-08 10:12:23 AM  
I don't do Starbucks for coffee. It's a place to kill time.

QT is much better and half the price.
 
natazha [BareFark]
2023-02-08 10:47:15 AM  
Kroger changed their Rewards program and I just stopped shopping there.

/not on topic, because I don't buy starbucks.
//had one cup, Americano black
///did not go back
////not what the meme intended
 
Rapmaster2000 [TotalFark]
2023-02-08 11:02:27 AM  

beezeltown: Are you threatening me with Starbucks?

That was my regular place, like 20 years ago. So many great locally owned places with better coffee and nice employees/owners that I'd much rather support.

Although the talk of beverage modification and food offering attachment to increase average spend really does make me want to hit up a Starbucks so I can feel the exhilaration of being manipulated into spending more money on mediocre (at best) product.


Starbucks is fine with that.  They've transitioned to a place that sells coffee flavored milkshakes.  They make huge profits charging big margins for whipped cream and caramel drizzle.  The reason they burn the coffee is so you can barely taste it over the sugar.

I read an interesting analysis about their customers.  The younger the customer, the more likely they are to order a cold item from Starbucks.  Geezers like me like hot coffee drinks.  Young people want this:
Fark user imageView Full Size
 
lostsatellite
2023-02-08 12:13:23 PM  
i worked there in college & a few years after. i never drank coffee until after, as I had just assumed it all tasted like their burnt bilge water. i always had to laugh at the old curmudgeons who would come in daily but refuse to use the foofy size names. i'd always tell them 'they already got your money, call it whatever you want!'
 
Jclark666
2023-02-08 12:29:45 PM  

Tr0mBoNe: Most of the walk-up only starbucks around here have gone out of business because the local chains undercut them and provide better quality. The only ones that make money are the ones with drive-thrus.

COVID restrictions and work-at-home devastated food-service businesses dependent on foot traffic, especially those in commercial areas.

Starbucks has deliberately over-saturated urban commerical areas for decades.  (Especially west of the Mississippi) They're big enough they can reduce or abandon their footprint in underperforming regions and remain alive (and even more profitable). Your local small businesses don't have that flexibility, they're stuck. Starbucks is currently abandoning those markets, and local businesses are picking up the scraps, but it's not consumers driving Starbucks out of business because the local places are better, it's Starbucks leaving what are shiat locations for any coffee shop. The local chains might be able to fill the shiat-location void and scratch out a profit as long as Starbucks is ceding it, but the entire market is contracting so it's a tiny slice of a shrinking pie, and the minute market dynamics change, Starbucks will come right back in.  There's opportunity there to establish a foothold, but I wouldn't bet on the little guys in the long run.
 
Zik-Zak
2023-02-08 12:49:39 PM  

Bovine Diarrhea Virus: I like Starbucks dark roast coffee. For some reason, my local Starbucks stops brewing it after 3PM which is incredibly annoying.
The light and medium roasts are too bitter to me.


I like their Cafe Verona, also they have pretty good blends with Sumatra. Everything else tastes...I don't know, burned?

/which is why Starbucks is where people go to get a 'coffee drink' rather than coffee
 
InfoFreako
2023-02-08 1:40:46 PM  
Starbucks makes it harder to get free coffee, but changes to rewards program should boost profit and sales

Why is there a 'but' in that sentence?
 
valkore
2023-02-08 2:43:22 PM  
Back in the day, like starting in the 00's, Starbucks did a good thing.  They forced every other chain to up their brewed coffee game over time.  I thank them for that.  Now I can go to a McD's and get a decent cup of coffee.  Not mind blowing, but not the hot watery swill they used to serve up.  Thank you, Starbucks.

I used to go to Starbucks when the rewards system was one star per beverage ordered, and once you got 10 (I think?) stars, they'd make you any drink you wanted on the house.  So after my 10 regular coffees, I'd get a free quad caramel macchiato.  Nice!  Then I saw attention whores posting videos of their TOTALLY FREE 90 SHOT 180 PUMP EXTRA WHIP LOLZ whatever, and I knew those days were over.  And then they were.  And I stopped going.

But still, thank you.
 
valkore
2023-02-08 2:45:27 PM  

InfoFreako: Starbucks makes it harder to get free coffee, pissing some people off enough to not order there any longer,but changes to rewards program should offset the loss of those customers andboost profit and sales

Why is there a 'but' in that sentence?


There ya go, sport.
 
valkore
2023-02-08 2:54:40 PM  

Jclark666: COVID restrictions and work-at-home devastated food-service businesses dependent on foot traffic, especially those in commercial areas.

Starbucks has deliberately over-saturated urban commerical areas for decades.  (Especially west of the Mississippi) They're big enough they can reduce or abandon their footprint in underperforming regions and remain alive (and even more profitable). Your local small businesses don't have that flexibility, they're stuck. Starbucks is currently abandoning those markets, and local businesses are picking up the scraps, but it's not consumers driving Starbucks out of business because the local places are better, it's Starbucks leaving what are shiat locations for any coffee shop. The local chains might be able to fill the shiat-location void and scratch out a profit as long as Starbucks is ceding it, but the entire market is contracting so it's a tiny slice of a shrinking pie, and the minute market dynamics change, Starbucks will come right back in.  There's opportunity there to establish a foothold, but I wouldn't bet on the little guys in the long run.


Owning a coffee shop seems like of the most stressful commitments out there.  Between grumpy undercaffeinated clientele barking orders, laptop leeches sipping their melted ice cubes after taking up a table for three hours, staffing woes, and greedy suppliers, it seems like a great way to fast track hating everyone and everything.
 
dobro
2023-02-09 1:58:37 AM  
Worst coffee of them all. I wouldn't take it even for free.
 
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