Starbucks Tries to Reconnect With Its Roots: Will It Work?

Just the previous week, I read from a Newsweek issue about how Starbucks sales have decreased, ever since it tried to introduce new fangled breakfast sandwiches and other non-coffee products. Supposedly it was because people saw that Starbucks was losing its focus on coffee and, because of that, the chain was becoming more "low-grade" in their eyes. So, in short, I guess Starbucks started to appeal less to everyone's inner snob.

As a result, Starbucks has recently made an effort to "reinvent" itself back into its retro-roots, focusing more on coffee and less on accessory.

And, after walking into a Starbucks the previous weekend, I've experienced this new campaign first hand. First off, I noticed the new/old logo (as seen above). Basically, Starbucks went back to their original logo (minus the exposed breasts) and, for those of you who are curious about this craze, here’s an interesting article that summarizes all this.

Starbucks' Retro Logo (Business Week)

Additionally, Starbucks introduced its new Starbucks Card, which, as mentioned in one of my previous entries, was quite a boon for coffee drinkers as a whole.

So, ultimately, is this retro effort by Starbucks a good thing?

Personally, I think so. For longest time, I was getting sick of this mega-corporation trying to monopolize the coffee industry by flaunting that pseudo-intellectual "coffee culture" image that so many people secretely hate. I was also really starting to tire of how Starbucks contributed to yuppy-cizing a resource that nearly all of us depend on, whether we're yuppies or not.

For a giant of that size to try to go back to their humble beginnings in some way, shape, or form is almost inspiring. But will this help Starbucks in the long run to get their profits back? Only time will tell. But if something like this is enough to convince a coffee-drinking curmudgeon, like me, to spend money on their new fangled card, this must mean that they're doing something right. Who knows? I might even someday consider preferring them over Dunkin Donuts. But, then again, how long did it take the Red Sox to finally beat the Yankees?

The Starbucks Card: An Opportunity to Mooch Off an Over-Priced Corporation

I’m not here to purposely endorse Starbucks, but just to inform all you coffee-drinkers out there that they have this new gimmick that you should all take advantage of.

This new frill is their recently toted “Starbucks Card” (as seen above) and it functions kinda like a debit card, where you could charge it up with money and spend it at any Starbucks franchise.

The few things that make this card appealing are some of its additional benefits:

- As long as you use your card to pay for their fresh brewed coffee (iced or hot) you can get free unlimited refills as long as you stay in the store (i.e. I assume you can’t just get the coffee, walk out, and come back an hour later and ask for a free refill).

- All flavored shots or milk additions are on the house if you purchase a drink with your card.

- With any purchase of Starbucks whole beans, you can get a tall drink (any you like) for free.

So, in short, this is your one chance to enjoy Starbucks’ products on the corporation’s tab. I got one just the other weekend (as seen above, once again). The design’s pretty nifty and, if you get one online, you can actually customize the art to your liking.

I found this new Starbucks’ frill to be pretty useful, since just the other day, I spent a whole hour at one of their stores and I just kept filling up on vanilla ice-coffee over and over again. And, boy, was I buzzed. So, I would recommend it.

To learn more about it and to get one online, visit: http://www.starbucks.com/card/buyacard_style.asp

Please, note, this is NOT an official promotion. It’s just me telling you guys that if you want to mooch off a multi-billion dollar corporation, now’s your chance to do it.

Interesting Facts About Caffeine and Its Products

A few years ago, I bought this National Geographic issue devoted to caffeine. Found out some interesting stuff about it. Today, as I sit here drinking a large cup of French Roast, I couldn't help but think about the impact caffeine has over our daily lives (namely mine). Below are just some of the interesting facts about it from the January 2005 National Geographic article. To say the least, it was a real eyebrow raiser when I first read it and continues to be even when I flip through it, today.

- Studies suggest that extroverted people are less sensitive to caffeine's effects than introverts.

- Pain relievers fortified with caffeine have proven more effective than the analgesics used alone.

- The robusta coffee beans used in less expensive brands contain almost twice as much caffeine as the arabica beans favored by coffee connoisseurs.

- Military studies of subjects who hadn't slept for 48 hours showed that 600 mg of caffeine improved alertness and mood as much as 20 mg of amphetamine.

- Going without caffeine for a day and a half increases blood flow in the brain, which may explain why people get headaches when they first give it up.

- Caffeine is so acrid that it's used as a standard for "bitter" in training professional food tasters.

- The caffeine extracted from coffee beans to make decaf is sold to drug and soft drink manufaturers.

- Caffeine is being developed as a pesticide for slugs and snails.

- A university student in Wales committed suicide in 2002 when he deliberately swallowed caffeine pills equivalent to 100 cups of coffee.

- Black tea, green tea, and oolong are all made from the same plant; the differences in taste and color come from their processing.

- One of the newest products to wich the stimulant has been added: "Coffee tights" are panty hose with caffeine woven into their threads to supposedly help shrink thighs.

- Vietnam is now the second largest producer of coffee worldwide, but it's largely a nation of tea drinkers.

- Cigarette smoking nearly doubles the rate at which the body metabolizes caffeine.

A Meditation on Coffee

Coffee seems to have adapted a certain image over the years. It’s been used to represent studiousness and a strong work ethic. It’s been used to represent addiction and, ironically, even a healthy lifestyle (especially when someone orders a coffee with a shot of soy and a touch of skim milk). And, at times, its been used as a symbol of status and sophistication, depending on where the coffee is bought (e.g. Starbucks) and how it’s made (“I’ll have a Venti Macchiato with a dash of Madagascar cinnamon and some soy milk gently stirred in.”). If people were approached with this matter, there’s no doubt that some would try to deny this to varying degrees. But, the truth is, everyone’s familiar with this trend and, by now, it’s a basic given that America’s most popular drug has become one of America’s most popular means for people to wordlessly “communicate” with each other.

Who would have known that coffee, out all things, would have become such a measure of comparison or a means of classifying other people?

Every time I visit my local Starbucks, in the afternoon, I always see a group of young high school kids in line to pick up their “Tall Vanilla Lattes” or “Grande Frappucino’s”. With their hip clothing and their cutting edge cell-phones glued to their ears, they carry their cups with a certain non-chalant, yet extremely peacocking, manner. Not only are they way too young for coffee, but something tells me that at least one of the reasons why they’re there is for the style as opposed to basic necessity. Because, as crazy at it may seem, something tells me that they’re not struggling with a 40-60 hour work week and are in a desperate need of a caffeine fix to get them through the rest of the day.

Of course, many other things have been and continue to be used by people as a way classifying and dividing each other (cloths, cars, jewelry, etc.). That would never change. But coffee? Come on!

Feel free to call me a bitter old man or a narrow minded philistine. Heck, don’t even be afraid to call me a hypocrite (because I probably am to a certain degree with this subject--feel free, hipsters, to laugh at the irony of that). But there’s just something repulsive about making such a common thing as coffee into a status symbol. But that’s just me. Now, where did I put my Starbucks™ Grande Café Mocha?