Coffee and Starbucks

Starbucks is a premium coffee wholesaler which has strayed from its original service of coffee. The advent of newer technology has diminished the Starbucks experience. Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairmen, sent a memo on February 14, 2007 addressing this problem to the president and chief executive officer of Starbucks, Jim Donald. In the memo, Schultz voiced his opinion on how the rapid expansion of Starbucks is causing him to revaluate the company’s values between how it operated when it began and where it is heading in the future. Starbucks isn’t the same neighborhood store as it was when it was established and no longer shows the passion for coffee that they had in the beginning. “I have said for 20 years that our success is not an entitlement and now it's proving to be a reality. Let's be smarter about how we are spending our time, money and resources. Let's get back to the core” (Schultz).

Along with its expansion, Starbucks has been trying to utilize new technologies to improve the product they sell to consumers. Starbucks changed their espresso machines from manual to automatic to speed up service and efficiency. These machines “blocked the visual sight line the customer previously had to watch the drink being made, and for the intimate experience with the barista” (Schultz). People no longer have that intimate connection with the people making their coffee, or to the finished product. The employees are also more disassociated from their work because of these new machines that speed up production.
Starbucks also incorporated flavor-locked packaging to supply the demand for fresh roasted coffee. This is a great service to the customer because it keeps coffee grounds or beans fresher longer, yet the effectiveness of the flavor-locked bags contributed to the loss of aroma, “perhaps the most powerful non-verbal signal”, in Starbucks (Schultz). The romance of Starbucks is lost with these improvements and the unforgettable scent is lessened along