Starbucks Closing Stores Today

For three hours on Tuesday, Starbucks will shut down every single one of its 7,100 stores so that baristas can receive a refresher course on how best to improve the coffee customer experience.

Among the various lessons that will be re-taught include how to wipe the steamer wands and remembering to rinse the pitchers and shot glasses every time.

As a spokeswoman tells the Seattle Times:

"We will have all new standards for how we create the drinks...[Employees] will be trained in creating the perfect shot, steaming the milk and all the pieces that come together in a drink."

As requested by CEO Howard Schultz, the unprecedented training session will take place between 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. and affect approximately 135,000 employees.

To compete, rival Dunkin' Donuts will drop its price for a small coffee down to $0.99 from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. as "to ensure that no coffee lover is denied a delicious espresso-based beverage."

Schultz is calling for the re-education to combat a recent series of setbacks. As reported in the Guardian:

The company's shares dived 42% last year on signs that consumers were falling out of love with Starbucks. Investors were alarmed by figures showing a 1% fall in the average number of transactions per store.

In a raft of changes aimed at restoring momentum, Starbucks is cutting 600 jobs, introducing free wireless internet connection and axing hot breakfast sandwiches, which were criticised for interfering with the aroma of coffee.

Comments

[NeverRepublican]

Char-bucks­...Star-ch­ar...Burnt­-bucks...I­f anyone has tasted their coffee...you know it pretty much all tastes the same...burnt. It's like they use one roast and one roast only of beans...burnt.

Just try a cup of the "brewed" coffee...any flavor...they all taste the same...why do you think they just love dumping all the "flavors" into each order...BECAUSE ALL THE COFFEE TASTES THE SAME.

[TheOtherMaven]

In my opinion Starbucks deserves whatever is coming to it. They had the colossal nerve to try to horn in on the home grounds of Daily Grind, who have become a major rival in the last few years.
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Big Bidness is like a shark, it must keep moving or die. And eventually it reaches a point where it can't keep going, and it dies anyway.

[BeamMeUpScotty]

Starbucks will shut down every single one of its 7,100 stores so that baristas can receive a refresher course on how best to improve the coffee customer experience.

It's a frigging cup of coffee, people. If you pay over a buck, you're being fleeced.

My advice is to stay away from French Roast because it tastes like burnt coffee. If you must buy Starbucks brand, Breakfast Blend is good. I go to my grocery and get a 12 ounce bag of whole bean, regular roast, any brand Arabica ($3.79), grind up the beans fresh and make it myself. Black or with half and half, it's excellent.

If the bag doesn't say 100% Arabica, you're getting the inferior Robusta beans used in the majority of coffee sold. There is a HUGE difference in flavor and richness. Premium coffees are made using the Arabica bean.

Buy a good stainless steel bullet thermos and enjoy your coffee all day long.

[mlaiuppa]

Well, that was certainly disappointing.

I thought all of the stores were closing permanently.

Talk about a misleading bait and switch title.

Bummer.

[edsel]

Screw them and there 5.00 cup of coffee. People have more money than brains

[Irons]

I guess they're gonna start turning Starbucks into gas stations.

[PrincessAnnie]

Starbucks is massively disgusting. Not OK, not passable, but disgusting. My friends like to go there and I cannot figure out why. I like stuff like iced mochas, etc., and I have not had a drink once at Starbucks that was remotely delicious. Every now and then, I'll find something drinkable, but most of the time, their drinks are not fit for consumption. I cannot understand what the big deal is about the place. They cannot even get the store-bought Frappucinos to taste good. The last one I had several years ago was undrinkable, and I have not had one since. And every single one I have been in has acoustics so bad you have to yell to hear yourself, so you cannot tell me it's the environment that's the draw. They need to quit focusing on building stores on every damn block and make the ones they have work, first. When I was in Barcelona, Spain a couple of months ago, it was the same...they were all over the place. I wish them ruin so my friends don't drag me back. On the other hand, every single drink I have had at Seattle's Best or at local shops here in Austin have been very good. Starbucks just grew too fast for the taste to keep up.

[sklfcats]

Quit watching 'Friends' and brew your own dam coffee..

[bushmocker]

Why would I buy a Starbucks when I can buy my favorite beans,put them in my cuisinart grinder/holder and grind them just the way I like them and run it through a Bunn coffeemaker which brews faster than any I've seen.The whole process takes 3 minutes and I have my perfect cup w/o stopping and killing 10 minutes in line and getting that bitter crap Starbucks sell.

[NicoleAnonymous]

My machine broke and I haven't replaced it yet. So I've had to make instant every morning. I have to say it's really bad but I try to drink it.

On the weekends when I buy a cup it's $2 and then a tip and I usually have a few cups and then multiply that by four weeks in a month and I can't afford to do that anymore. But every time I get a cup it tastes so good compared to what I have to drink during the week.

[AnnArky]

Thank God! Every time I walked into one I didn't know if I was in a Safeway or a Walgreen's.

[NicoleAnonymous]

This might not be relevant but if anyone hasn't read "how Starbucks saved my life" you should get it.

The story was so inspiring and so sad yet also about someone who doesn't give up on life or himself after losing his career. His entire identity was his job and after losing that many other men would have become bitter or angry and refused to work there. Please read this book if you haven't already.

[Perdurabo]

Puhleeez...

[NicoleAnonymous]

Just read the book. It's not just about working for Starbucks although that is an important part of it.

[Perdurabo]

I make it a point to patronize local (mom and pop) businesses as much as possible.

Corporate America has not given anything back to us Americans. They contribute NOTHING to your local communities.

With their tactics of low wages and high profits, they are sapping your communities of all it wealth, and transferring it into their greedy pockets.

Do the patriotic thing and stop patronizing monopolistic businesses such as Starbucks and McDonalds.

[nomoredead]

My same thoughts as I just returned from Puerto Vallarta and what is across the street from the Marina where the huge cruise ships dock at, you guessed it, Wal-Mart. With all the little street vendors trying to survive, this doesn't seem fair. Now there is a Costco and a Home Depot. Support the little guy.

[Shaddup]

Perdurabo is right. Mom & Pops rock, and buying locally helps locally. Lord only knows where it's going to go when it's part of some massive chain.

[PopeRatzo]

If I had to work at Starbucks, I would have to kill myself. It's that bad.

Can you imagine an empire-wide three-hour "training session" on how to make a freaking coffee? I used to get a twinge of sadness every time I walked into a McDonalds, looking into the eyes of the people who are working there, desperate, miserable. But that's nothing compared to the nihilistic soul-killing horror of calling yourself a "barista".

Jesus.

[mlaiuppa]

Starbucks put in a store across the street from a historic and popular "mom and pop" coffee place in a historic residential area of my city. No reason. It's not like that area needs it. I'm sure the revenue isn't that great. Starbucks just had to try to drive them bankrupt. I guess Starbucks didn't count on the resistance and affront of the locals that Starbucks would dare to do such a thing to an iconic local business.

Personally, I don't drink coffee. And if I did, I wouldn't go to Starbucks. I understand Dunkin' Donuts makes much better coffee and is a lot cheaper.

When I'm in Kensington I patronize Kensington Coffee just to give the finger to Starbucks. I'll get a muffin and juice and enjoy the ambience.

[Chuckwheat]

All I want is a goddamn cup of coffee and don't want to have to learn a foreign language to order it.

[chumleypotts]

Last time I went into a Starbucks I was behind some yuppie doofus who was ordering a mocha double latte with a hint of madagascar cinnamon and a touch of nutmeg with non-fat creamer and non-sugar sweetener, blah-blah-blah. All I wanted was a simple black coffee!
I finally got my cup, and it wasn't all that.
Ever since that incident, I either get my morning cup at Mickey D's or Dunkin' Donuts.

[isis]

Dunkin Donuts is for people who find latte and grande too hard to pronounce and consider those words a foreign language. I mean really, just buy yourself a jar of instant coffee and take a spoonful now and then and spare the rest of us your low life complaining.

[hellinabucket]

Sorry all you Starbucks haters but Starbucks House Blend is my favorite. I buy a big bag there have them grind it & drink it at home as a treat on weekends. During the week I like regular, plain ole Maxwell House. Its funny w/coffee-I've tried all the different kinds, but my favorite is just a plain ole cup of REGULAR coffee (black). Nothing better than that!

[Perdurabo]

Yeah... so you're a idiot. So what?

[NicoleAnonymous]

So all you can do in insult people? Your elitist attitude is really nauseating.

They have a right to their own choices so stop trying to be a bully and insult everyone who doesn't feel the same as you.

[chronic]

hellinabucket,


Lay off the caffeine!

[nuttincowboy]

What most people don't realize about the coffee business is the most expensive component of most drinks is the cup. This is just another example of how Wall St. can ruin a perfectly good business.
The real reason Starbucks sales are down is the ever rising cost of oil. Faced with a choice between getting to work or coffee, folks are still going to work. Eventually the unmitigated greed of the oil consortium will bring the rest of the economy crashing down around their ears.