Starbucks: Cool or a commodity?

Jasmin Aline Persch • E-mail

Starbucks brought us the Italian coffee experience, teaching us to sip fancy espresso drinks in quaint cafes. Now the trendsetter is falling out of vogue — and some question whether the ubiquitous coffee chain can be cool again or will sink to a commodity.

That’s the conundrum facing Howard Schultz who’s returning as head of Seattle-based Starbucks, which for years was hailed by customers, investors and business professors, alike. That changed recently: The company’s stock price was slashed almost in half this past year. And store traffic slipped last quarter for the first time since the company went public.

Many trust, though, that Schultz can do something to help Starbucks — but what? He’s expected to spill further details about the turnaround agenda Wednesday, when the company reports first-quarter earnings. So far, Shultz’ plan involves closing some slacking stores, retarding growth here and amplifying it abroad.

“They have a big challenge in front of them,” said Marian Salzman, a trendspotter at advertising firm JWT Worldwide. “And I think they’ve lost their way.”

United States of Starbucks
But Starbucks clearly knows its way around America. Its coffeehouses dot each of our 50 states and our nation’s capitol. (The most Starbucksized — street speak for containing coffee shops operated by the chain — include California, Texas, New York, Washington and Florida, in descending order.) A few years ago, Starbucks die-hards got their fix 18 times a month, on average.

“You loved it for its ubiquity and newness,” Salzman said. “And today we hate it just for that.”

Schultz raised concerns a year ago that the company’s hasty growth hurt the global giant’s authenticity in a famous leaked memo addressed to employees. “We have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have lead to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand.”

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images file About 80 percent of orders at Starbucks are consumed outside the coffee chain. This woman takes hers to go from a shop in San Francisco.

At first, the company was anything but. Now the world’s largest coffee chain, the company started in the '70s as a lone Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice store in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Schultz joined in 1982 — and after a trip to Milan, Italy, enchanted him with bustling coffee bars, he prodded the company to sell espresso drinks, besides beans. The strategy seemed risky at first because — by golly — coffee was to be brewed and guzzled at home.

Trendsetter falls behind
Eventually, Starbucks conceived the “third place,” after home and work, where one could indulge hot coffee in a soothing setting, including cozy chairs and eclectic music. Today, about 80 percent of purchases, though, are consumed elsewhere.

“They’re not the only third place,” Salzman said. “They’re kind of a generic third place.”

Starbucks laid the foundation for a burgeoning industry of specialty coffee shops. Local chains, which initially feared the behemoth, now can actually benefit from its presence. Independents might even offer superior coffee, vibe — and even free Wi-Fi.

“We’ve helped create and spawn an industry and a way of life,” said Howard Behar, the former president of Starbucks International and current board director, in a phone interview.

“Now, you can go in. You can sit,” he said. “You don’t buy anything — and nobody cares.”

Author Alex Frankel, who worked undercover at Starbucks while writing “Punching In,” explains how the trendsetter fell behind.

“That authenticity had been imitated and copied to a point where it was sadly lost and replaced with a new faux authenticity,” he wrote.

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