Doomed to fail? Starbucks instant coffee
I have a lot of coffee machines here at home including a Nespresso (for great espresso) and a Keurig capsule coffee maker. I drink at least 2-3 cups a day because I like coffee and it has become part of my routine with reading the morning papers. When I lived in the Midwest I used to go to my local Starbucks with my papers and sit on their oversized chairs and relax with a nice Latte and enjoy my brew. It was so relaxing that once in a while we would have business meetings there and I even received a performance review at my bosses local Starbucks.
Now the stores are
antiseptic and null of personality. Rather than
relax you feel the need to get your coffee and
leave. As someone who is always willing to try new
coffee products I ordered some of Starbucks instant
coffee via their website some time ago and to say
that I was disappointed would be an understatement;
it was plain horrible and made me yearn for a cup
of Maxwell House.
In case Starbucks missed it sales of pod/capsule
coffee makers are up sharply this year with some
brands promoting "brew at home" as a way to save
money which is now in vogue. McDonalds has taken
market share away from Starbucks with it's McCaffee
and in a recent news stories the author noted, at
Boston's Logan airport, that the Starbucks counter
had 2 people in line while the Dunkin Donuts
counter had about a dozen people in line.
Why Starbucks would make the move to really bad
instant coffee is beyond me when there is an open
market in capsule coffee brewers. (Starbucks does
make pods for the Tassimo coffee brewer). More
importantly why Starbucks has not developed their
own capsule/pod machine and sold it nationwide is,
to me, a huge mistake. I have no doubt that if
Starbucks coffee was available for Keurig coffee
makers that they would quickly take a huge slice of
market share in the capsule market.
Instead people will be exposed to really bad
instant coffee which will make them yearn for store
brand instant coffee. Starbucks continues to make
huge mistakes and is a brand that is in
trouble.