Creative thinking inspires ideas. Ideas inspire change.
Barbara Januszkiewicz
Hey Starbucks, you got it all wrong.
Don’t ever believe that people come to your establishments just for a lousy cup of coffee.
They come to escape work-induced stress (or home monotony) and to momentarily forget about their problems.
The cup of coffee is just an excuse.
Patrons certainly don’t come to you for an overpriced cup of java, stale pastries and unsmiling “baristas”.
People end up there because there have practically no other alternatives.
Starbucks snuffed out its threatening competition by first buying them out and then dumping them like a bag of dirty laundry.
What people really want (often without knowing it) is not a dull, charmless coffee shop but a French or Italian style café where you can leisurely watch the world go by while maybe munching on a French pastry.
A café should be a home away from home not a homeless shelter.
Howard Schultz supposedly got his business epiphany while travelling in Italy but what he brought back was just a weak ersatz of a European café.
He seems to be more interested in making money than pleasing its hapless customers.
I think that the time is ripe for somebody to start a competing business that would truly appeal to people instead on concentrating on making money.
I suggest that pleasing customers should be their primary goal and making money a derivative of that goal.
You need to keep in mind that Big is the enemy of Good. The larger the outfit, the likelier it is going to screw you.
Personally, I don’t give a flying fig about coffee, but I still want to have a friendly place where I can laze around while seeking inspiration for future stories.
Starbucks, don’t look back. Somebody might be gaining on you.
I fervently hope so.
Alain