Via: Chicago Tribune
In the continued flailings of the Starbucks chain, here’s a new one: the stealth Starbucks store.
A Seattle outlet of the 16,000-store coffee behemoth is being rebranded without visible Starbucks identifiers, as 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea.
Two other stores in Starbucks’ native Seattle will follow suit, each getting its own name to make it sound more like a neighborhood hangout, less like Big Coffee, a Starbucks official told The Seattle Times on Thursday.
As a business ploy, it isn’t a bad idea. The big beef some people have with the chain is that they’re (a) the Wal-Mart of coffee, and (b) you can’t walk down a block without seeing three of them. This “stealth” approach aims to solve both issues.
My concern, their coffee tasting like shit, has yet to be addressed.
However, despite the aims of what I like to call “Operation Main Street”, it has one simple flaw: it hinges on consumer ignorance. Now, granted – lots of business plans do. From diet pills to fast food, big money is made by either omitting facts like calorie counts, or by making fairly radical false claims. The claim Starbucks is trying to make, that these stores are just like a mom and pop shop, is just as radical and false as the claim Acai Berries will help you lose weight.
As a side note to Starbucks – when consumers find out you’re actively trying to trick them into believing something that isn’t true, they tend to get really pissed about it.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
it’ll be amazing when new yorkers notice that every s-bux disappears and get’s replaced by a randomly branded coffee store. I give it 3 weeks until people start boycotting.
StarBucks coffee sucks anyway. I like my Dunkin d coffee black (just like my ladies…..oh yeaaaa) I realize that’s low-brow attempt at humor, but it’s funny to me and screw everyone else.
I read a few topics. I respect your work and added blog to favorites.
Is it just me, or is corporate America getting dumber and dumber? They really think that the kind of person that would normally go to a local coffee shop instead of Starfucks will fall for this crap? They’ are completely delusional. They’re also not being very stealthy, especially since I already heard about this on NPR a couple weeks ago. Destined To FAIL!
America is getting dumb and dumber. The idea of coffee costing $5.00 a cup? Coffee should be $1.00 with free refills, I don’t care if it was grown on the belly of a slave.
Their hot chocolate is terrible too. It has way too much sugar and way too little chocolate.