a place for commentary on the brand
The stores that I frequent have been talking about how if you register your Starbucks card you get free add-ons (like Soy or Syrup). Last week a few news outlets reported that customers who were using the pre-paid cards were not getting this discount.
I haven’t had this experience at all. I get asked all the time if my card is registered and then I get my (much) discounted drink. Has anyone else had this issue?
Has anyone ever had one of these? Apparently they are available in Starbucks Japan. What a cool concept!
AT&T is slowly rolling out free wifi to iPhone customers at Starbucks locations across the country and people are happy about it. When this was first announced a few months back, I was really excited because I knew that it was the first step in throwing T-Mobile under the bus and finding a provider that would provide free wifi to Starbucks customers.
At the end of the day Starbucks needed to partner with companies like Apple and AT&T to regain their technological relevance. It wasn’t long ago that Starbucks rolled out nationwide wifi and was celebrated as one of the forces that moved wifi from the niche market to something standard on all laptops. Starbucks is in a different position now but without a doubt their current partners will help them return to their past success.
Starbucks is going to launch a new line of fruit smoothies later this year. The drinks are set to launch sometime during the summer. The drinks will be made with fresh frut and whey powder. I’m really excited about this offering. I wonder what Jamba Juice is thinking?
This summer, the Seattle coffee company will add a line of smoothie-like drinks made with fresh fruit and whey powder throughout its U.S. locations. Starbucks says they’re the first stage of a broader push into healthier drink and food offerings. - Wall Street Journal
AT&T WiFi is rolling out. I believe the goal is to have most of the roll out done by the end of the Summer. I’ve asked around the stores in my area and none have a definite date told me they should know soon. All I know is that I can’t wait to be able to sit and check my email in a Starbucks again.
As someone who is on their computer almost every waking hour of my day, I can tell you that not having free internet at Starbucks impacted the frequency of my visits and turned me into a drive-thru customer. It will be really nice to be able to once again find my way into the lobby of a Starbucks and enjoy a cup-for-here.
I came across a really interesting story this morning and just had to share it with you guys. Researchers at Rutgers University had 1000 undergraduates taste coffee blind folded and found that an individuals perception of how good a beverage tastes seems to be centered around the firmness of the cup you drink it out of.
I’ve tried Dunkin Donuts coffee and they do in fact serve their product in a flimsy cup where I find Starbucks cups to be nice and firm. So interesting!!!
There is a developing story around Starbucks and the potential of the Sonics moving to Oklahoma. I’m not much of a basketball fan so I might get some of it wrong but it sounds like people are mad that the Sonics might move and are blaming Howard Schultz because he sold the team a few years ago. Did I miss something? Because I think I pretty much got all of it and it doesn’t make any sense at all.
I can appreciate that fans are upset but I’m really unsure how Howard or Starbucks fits into this. Can anyone clear this up for me?
The Daily Princetonian has a great article about a student working their way through college at Starbucks. I was in a similar situation when I wnet through college. Starbucks now offers some tuition assistance, which just goes to show Starbucks puts a premium on higher education.
Check out the article.
This is a bit off the topic but I came across this really interesting graph and thought I would share it with you.
Click to enlarge
As you can see from the graph coffee comsumption was down across the board in 2004. Anyone care to offer an explanation?
People still love when Starbucks comes to their neighborhood
Google News has this great feature that lets you set up a little thing called a “news alert”. Once you’ve set one up you get an email every time a story hits Google News that references the subject of your “news alert”. I’ve got one set up for Starbucks and if I’ve noticed one thing its that no matter where in the country a Starbucks is opening, people are excited. It seems like every time a new store opens there is at least one (and often more) stories about that particular Starbucks opening. Here are a few of the store opening stories I’ve seen this week.
Virgina Beach Starbucks
Brighton Michigan
Edmond Oklahoma
Springdale, Arkansas
Salt Lake City, Utah
Knoxville, Tenn
Chicago, Il
Okay… that only covers the stories back to Thursday morning. Needless to say… people still dig Starbucks.