Starbuck's blames it on housing...
Starbucks Corp said on Wednesday it was the latest victim of the U.S. mortgage meltdown.
Blaming hard-hit housing markets of California and Florida for slowing sales, the coffee shop chain slashed its quarterly and 2008 profit forecast below Wall Street targets and said it faced the "weakest economic environment" in its history.
The company's shares tumbled 12 percent on the news, which came four months after company founder Howard Schultz returned as chief executive with a mandate to turn around the struggling U.S. business.
"The wheels have really come off of this train," RBC Capital Markets analyst Larry Miller told Reuters, noting his surprise at the warning. "It's amazing how fast business has derailed. If sales are down mid-single digits, that is a rapid erosion."
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/id ... 9920080423
Comments
McDonalds. Has anyone else tried it? I stopped by the Enum-tucky store out of desperation on my way up to Crystal one day. I am an admitted coffee snob (ok, I roast my own beans) - but Starbuck's coffee merely sucks. McDonald's is abhorrent.
of course, when you look at McD's breakfast menu - with most of the items ringing up for less than $2 - you can see how appealing selling a cup of coffee for $3 must be for them. Average ticket is what it's all about
I especially enjoyed making the picture that went with it:
Soon to follow Sharper Image into the history books.
Next up...the "can of soup" culture.
So now Starbucks is pushing their one dollar cup of coffee and they've lowered prices on some coffee items..that can't be good for profit margins..
Me? I've discovered home coffee roasting and can't go back to stale, overroasted, overpriced crap, whether from Starbucks or Mcdonald's.
I'm with you Ira. Amazing the difference you get with beans roasted in the last week. My espresso shots pour like guiness!
When I enter a Starbucks, it feels very relaxing. Assuming the line isn't too long, I feel like I can get a drink, sit down and chat or read a book or something. Compared to most retail outlets, it's just a couple notches up.
When I enter a McDonalds, I have no such feelings. The restaurants usually feel kind of chintzy. The yellow and red coloring is garish. The strong smell of fried food is overwhelming. It's just not a nice experience.
That said, of course a luxury item ($3 coffee) marketed at the middle class will suffer during recessions. Starbucks can survive and do well, they just need to use this opportunity to reposition themselves a little bit.
Just my 2 cents.
It seems that very recently, in their effort to regain customers, Starbucks is actually trying to get employees to be nice.
I'm a coffee snob too. I've been on a mini-mission to find a good cappuccino in Seattle. Here we are, supposedly the coffee capital, yet after many years of casual searching I've found no place in Seattle that can make a decent brew. I visit Portland, I get 3 great cappuccinos 3 days in a row (from Stumptown Roasters). I visit San Francisco, I get a great cappuccino the first place I try. I've even had great cappuccinos from a non-Seattle chain, The Coffee Bean. I've tried many of the supposedly best places in Seattle; the quality of all were well below the best IMO.
Anyone have a recommendation? If I resort to making it at home, do I need a fancy machine, or is it mainly the beans that make a great cup?
Oh, we could have a whole thread on coffee. Tim might need to move it the off-topic section though!
Couple thoughts:
1) stumptown is in seattle now. They have a couple of locations
2) For local stores, I like Caffe d'Arte (downtown), Ladro (though not the issaquah one) and Victrola (couple locations). I don't know of any decent places on the eastside. not saying they don't exist, but I don't know them.
As for the beans, yeah they're key. Generally, they only stay fresh for about 2 weeks after roasting. to compensate, most places totally overroast ("vienna" roast) their beans to make the coffee taste stronger. As a rule, if you see that oily/glossy sheen on the beans - they've been overroasted - and all you can taste is the roast profile, not the quality of the bean. more often it means you are basically drinking charcoal slurry! When I roast my beans, I go to "full city" or "city +" and it is much smoother espresso
If you really want to get into it - check out coffeegeek.com and the rest of sweetmarias.com (linked above)
One (more) problem with the falling dollar is that good espresso machines are getting insanely expensive. Most of the good ones are italian. They were ~$1000 2 years ago, now they're pushing $2k
edit: corrected the link to sweet marias
Good other advice, thanks! I'll check out those sites. I'd pay $$$ for a machine if I were confident that the coffee quality would be worth the investment, and I could get replacement parts for the machine without too much hassle.
I don't get why places can't use freshly roasted beans. That shouldn't be that big of a problem when there are multiple roasting facilities around here, including independents. One place that's better than most is the espresso stand on the front of the Red Apple Market in Issaquah. They are picky about their beans and take the time to make drinks (it seems that if I get the drink fast, it's almost always bad).
It's the reincarnation of Torrefazione, which Starbucks bought and killed. They didn't even replace them with Starbucks. Just bought and boarded them up. Sick.
I get their coffee at some local shops (60th St. Bakery mostly) as well as the Honey Bear at 3rd Place. I've seen their beans sold at Met Mart. Maybe the high-end QFCs. I think they may be roasting in Pioneer Square, but haven't had a chance to get down there.
But I'm really spoiled. I roast my own beans to just past second crack, so it's a nice medium roast, perfect for espresso...Most places burn the crap out of the coffee during the roasting process, so you're tasting burnt coffee rather than the more delicate flavors. Starbucks popularized this burnt coffee stuff, calling it " Northern European" roast, and a lot of people prefer it here nowadays, but the Italians drink a much lighter roasted bean than that, and i think hey know a little bit about coffee.
Just into 2nd crack - I do the same. From what I've read, that's "full city".
Where do you buy your beans? And what are you using to roast? I got an I-Roast for christmas. Works great. Before that I was using an old air popper.
On my scale of 1 to 5:
McDonalds: N/A (yuck!)
Most places: 1-2
Starbucks: 1
Seattle's Best: 2 (apparently they do something different than their owner, Starbucks)
Caffe Ladro: 3
Caffe Vita: 3
Tully's: 3
Victrola: 3
Vivace: 3
The defunct Torrefazione: 4
Stumptown: 5