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Bye Bye Starbucks

they did say that they were going to try and relocate as many people as possible. the problem that starbucks has is that they expanded too quickly without looking into the markets. as a result they over-saturated rather than have stores placed in key areas they had many stores in one general area. its just bad planning. and i'm surprised that there are so few in chicago that are closing actually, but then again they're not "everywhere" unless you're downtown
 
That's good, although I'll really believe it when I see it -- granted they can backfill displaced employees instead of hiring to replace attrition, but I wonder that they have space for so many extra employees without making the locations they keep into failboats. Also, aside from the situations where they're closing one of two Starbucks that're across the street from each other, a lot of the kind of people who work at Starbucks might have a lot of hardship from having to travel to another part of their city to keep working for them. I guess it's inevitable, though.

As for Chicago, yeah, I'm kind of surprised they're not rationalizing in the city... although presumably they must be basing this on same store sales trends and so on. Hyde Park only has two, and they're spaced by about eight blocks, in pretty different parts of town.
 
Two of the St. Louis stores that are closing have been open less than three months. At least two others are in areas where people have batter things to do with their money than to buy grossly overpriced coffee.
 
And who didn't see this coming?

Note to future MBA students: When the business plan becomes a joke on the Simpsons, rethink the business plan.

This bit of consulting work should get me a couple grand ... or at least a Tall, no cream, no sugar.
 
mkrishnan said:
unfortunately this means a lot of jobs lost by relatively low wage earners, too....
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IMO, it's the lost health care that's really going to hurt people leaving Starbucks because of the closing stores.

It was reasonably priced, and to be eligible, you only had to work an average of 20 hours a week during the quarter.

That combination is next to impossible to find. :(

Was surprised to only see 4 locations total closed in my state (VA).
 
I have about 12 closing in my area, though none I go to often are closing.
its over saturation and poor economy outlook.
 
Yes simply a case of getting too wild with the business model and not recognizing when factors like declining rate of return and the slower economy were colliding.

In my town of just 50K people there must be 9 Starbuck's if you count the ones in the supermarkets and even here in the Pacific Northwest where people swill coffee like water, that is a lot. There are about 20 other competing independents and franchises.

Interestingly though none of these are the list for closure.
 
robanga said:
Yes simply a case of getting too wild with the business model and not recognizing when factors like declining rate of return and the slower economy were colliding.

In my town of just 50K people there must be 9 Starbuck's if you count the ones in the supermarkets and even here in the Pacific Northwest where people swill coffee like water, that is a lot. There are about 20 other competing independents and franchises.

Interestingly though none of these are the list for closure.
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50k and 9 Starbucks? A good exmple of what we are talking about.
 
QCassidy352 said:
I'd say that the problem is that $4 coffee is a tough sell in a recession.
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Actually, although they did take some actions to provide lower cost items on their menu, I've rarely heard this stated as a big part of the problem, compared to things like... not catering well enough to coffee afficionados (have you ever heard of light roast???), getting distracted with ancillary sales (like the music CDs and housewares) that didn't appeal to their core market, and setting up their stores to compete more with each other than with other stores. From everything I've heard, it was their growth and not their core product (the $4 coffees) that was the problem.

Sure, the coffee products I get when I go to a coffee shop cost about $4 at Starbucks. But if they're cheaper at a local place, it's cheaper by $0.30 or $0.40... and I leave it in the tip anyway, and effectively to me it costs basically the same amount....
 
kymac said:
i dont get whats so bad about starbucks.. whats the reason for peoples deep hatred?
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They burn their coffee most of the time.
The only thing I ever get at SB is a mocha frap when it's really hot out, maybe 2=3 times during the summer.
 
I was quite shocked to find them all over Paris whilst I was there on business last week. I can understand them opening in Barcelona, what with Spanish coffee being so traditionally bad, but Paris? Come on, what next? Milan? :eek:
 
I personally really like Starbucks. I think this is a good thing too. I am hoping it will help recover some of the stock prices drop also.

None of the stores in my area are going to be hit.

I agree with what others have said, to quick and two many in one general area.

As I sip on my ice cold caramel frappuccino....mmmmmmm
 
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