A hijack no doubt, but three years of living in New Orleans has really twisted my brain on this. We’ve gotten so used to “oh our meal is done but we have some drink left / we are ready to move on to the next bar” that it’s just second nature at this point. I really don’t know why the rest of the US doesn’t allow it.
The coffee is actually still good. It’s those massively overpriced “specially crafted” espresso drinks to avoid. $7? Really?!?
John,
sure it is … they were talking a multi billion dollar business out of thin air… without that dream, the epic failure reigns true to shareholders who were banking on the project, this now shaves billions in theoretical value that was to increase the value of the brand to a Titan with billions more in value as the business grew… epic failure when billions are involved … you obviously were not thinking along the economic impact that this causes, fatal, no, but still a quake … as for trying new things , sure you have to take risks and as long as the mistakes are less than 10% you will be just fine … so back to the regular scheduled program… I stand by Epic … to lose the potential of Billions is an Epic Failure to me, from my perspective…
Shalom and Salute !!!
what in God’s green goodness are you rambling about? Put down the peace pipe, Cheech.
Market cap is $84 billion. Stock is more or less where it was a year ago, but up about 40% on two years ago. While operating and net income growth has slowed, revenue was up about 10% in FY 2016, so this is a drop in the bucket.
Get off the weed, JZ.
Haven’t experienced Winebucks so this is speculatI’ve, but I wonder if the strategy was to even out traffic and increase revenue in quieter periods in terms of demand for java. Not to fuel winos morning tipple but to get more evening revenue, etc. Indeed some cafes are licensed and do well. I imagine the problem was the execution and marketing.
I’m not sure anyone was banking on this generating billions based on the analyst reports I just quickly scanned. Stock is up post-announcement so I don’t think a ton of coffee-booze was baked into the price.
I was thinking of writing a long answer, but it all boiled down to “It felt wrong”. It is sometimes unpredictable in determining whether Americans will change their habits. If you remember, Howard Schultz left Starbucks for a while and started a small chain of Italian style espresso shops, stainless steel counters, drink standing up. Turned out that Americans (Seattleites to be precise) like lattes, not straight espresso, and like to drink it slowly while doing something else. The environment that Starbucks eventually created that satisfies the masses need for a small relaxing indulgence evidently does not provide the desired ambiance for drinking.
All the same, if liquor laws permitted the take out model, as mentioned above, it would be a smash hit.
P Hickner
There was a period in the late 90s when Schultz hoped to transform the company into a “lifestyles” brand. They launched a magazine (“Joe,” as I recall) and started selling a lot of CDs and books. Ultimately it didn’t work, but you have to admire him for trying different things, since you’d think the potential for growth selling coffee is limited. (In fact, 10% annual revenue growth for a retailer that size is a huge achievement.)
I don’t know that the wine thing was doomed to fail in principle. But it was obviously a stretch.
A couple of years ago, Starbucks bought Panera, saying they hoped that would help them improve their own food offering. So far that part of the strategy doesn’t seem to have succeeded. I’ve never seen a sandwich that I liked at a Starbucks. Fixing the food offerings would seem like a no-brainer way to speed up growth in sales.
I actually get what Sbux was thinking. They were already paying rent and probably had few late night visitors other than students who wanted to study late/cheap and use the free wi-fi. It was a shot at bringing in substantially more revenue during non-peak hours for little marginal cost.
Now writing on coffee cups to spark conversations about race…THAT was stupid.
That’s what Dunkin Brands tried. They owned Dunkin Donuts and Baskin Robbins. Not surprisingly, they don’t sell a lot of ice cream in the morning and coffee and donut sales taper off in the afternoon. That’s why they started issuing dual franchises, and both brands and products were offered. That didn’t work so well, either, as I recall. I haven’t seen one of those shops in a while. It’s straight coffee/donuts or ice cream now, I think.
John-FYI there are three dunkin/baskins combo stores within 3 to 4 miles from me. About a mileaway is a one of a chain called “ZU” which offers alcoholic drinks starting at 4:00pm. Not sure how it is working for them.
Cheers,
Curt
Behold the Dunkin Donuts/Baskin-Robbins donut ice cream sandwich:
Even though Baskin-Robbins stores and Dunkin’ Donuts locations often exist side by side under the same roof, there has been very little melding of the two brands. Dunkin’ has had iced coffee with flavors borrowed from the ice cream brand, but the two chains have otherwise been kept separate.
That changed on Sept. 1, when the ice cream chain began selling Donut Ice Cream Sandwiches. Customers get to pick any flavor of ice cream they want, have it topped with fudge and sandwiched in a split Powdered Donut from Dunkin’ Donuts.
“With our new Donut Ice Cream Sandwiches, we’ve brought together two of the most delicious sweet treats from our brands, cool ice cream from Baskin-Robbins and classic Powdered Donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts, into one amazing dessert,” said Dunkin’ Brands Executive Chef Jeff Miller. “The best part is that guests can customize their Donut Ice Cream Sandwich with any ice cream flavor, including our September Flavor of the Month, Pumpkin Cheesecake.”
I stand corrected.
Actually I believe it was La Boulangerie out of San Francisco that they purchased. But the point about the food not being great stands.
Oops! You’re right. My bad. That’s two booboos in one thread for me.
Correct. There’s no Starbucks on this half of the continent. The Internet tells me there are 22 Starbucks in Australia and they’re all located on the East Coast. That also makes sense to me as it seems most American tourists visiting Australia only visit the east coast. I can’t think of any wine bars out here that open up in the morning to serve coffee but I can think of numerous cafes that have liquor licenses. A good example in Fremantle would be Gino’s Cafe. They open at 7am for breakfast and if you’re eating you’re more than welcome to order a bottle of wine with your meal. They’re also amenable to a shot or two of Baileys, grappa, or Frangelico in your take away coffee.
That probably is a good point but I still like Nick’s idea of coffee with a shot of xxx, caffè corretto, as it’s called in Italy. Maybe Starbucks could have restricted it to in-store sales, maybe serving it in a ceramic cup and saucer rather than paper cups so customers wouldn’t take them out and drive drinking. I’ve never bought anything but a short, plain coffee from Starbucks, but I could see doing a nice espresso with a shot of grappa. Outside of Italian restaurants and maybe a few coffee bars in big cities, where else is that available in the U.S.?
Oh yeah, limit it to ceramic cups in house, that’s kind of an easy solution! Oh and I love caffe corretto. I actually made a couple gallons of grappa this season and I brought a bottle to work (where we have a nice espresso setup). I showed the team how to make a caffe corretto…bottle was gone within a week. ![[oops.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/1/1f129ddad071ffe5db6c99817c3cab666035a70a.gif "oops"){kind=small}
I’m curious. Pretty sure whatever company owns BR also owns Quuzno’s. They sold dual franchises on that model. My wife refuses to even go in because the smells of sandwich making ruin the ice cream experience for her. I’m not that sensitive to whatever her odor issue might be, but I DO pick up a lot of strong ‘kitchens’ odors the few times I’ve gone in. On paper it’s no different from any restaurant that serves sandwiches and dessert. But, then, you’re not sitting in the kitchen of those places, so…