Wake Up and Smell the Proverbial

I have so many opinions and theories about Starbucks that if time were not a precious issue, I could start a whole new blog about it. But alas, I am very time poor so my Starbucks wisdom will have to contain itself, at least to the contents of this Starbucks post.

When Starbucks first came to the UK they noticed that when the average Brit wanted coffee, they'd simply go to the nearest coffee shop. That's why they opened hundreds of little outlets on street corners up and down our British Isle. In America, coffee drinkers do it differently.

My friends in the US don't talk about going for coffee, they talk about going for Starbucks. The brand, it appeared, had reached Cellotape and Hoover levels. In marketing speak, Starbucks owns coffee across the pond. Or does it?

Today the news is peppered with talk of Starbucks making pretty big cuts across its US workforce. Reuters reported today that 600 jobs have gone at Starbucks. We knew they were in a bit of doodoo when they started talking about $2.50 coffee, now they're actually trialling the much-discussed brew in Seattle and Boston.

This article in the The Arizona Republic will tell you all about it. Please note the bit about Starbucks being undercut by McDonalds - tells you all you need to know about the average coffee-drinking Josie.