Good article from the New York Times.
Summary
Starbucks China is losing customers at a very rapid pace. Starbucks corporate executives are angry. Brian Niccol, the new $100 million CEO of Starbucks, sounded the alarm in October, calling the competition “extreme”. For the Chinese Lunar year, Starbucks released a pork flavor latte. It cost more than $9 and was widely seen as a disaster.
Billionaire Howard Schultz, Starbucks’s former CEO, insisted that Starbucks would not enter a price war in China. He claimed “as chinese customers become more knowledgeable about coffee, they will want to upgrade from lower-end or discounted products”
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I can make much better coffee at home, and I can take one with me to work in a flask.
But lots of people don’t want to, dont have time to, or can’t make fresh coffee at home and therefore buy it out.
But even if i make it at home, if I want a second coffee during the work day, I’d have to either have instant coffee from work or buy one.
FWIW: My take on Starbucks is that their coffee is a) usually quite average at best, b) variable quality depending upon where you buy it.
Where I live there are lots of alternatives which serve better coffee for about the same price, so I don’t really see any need to use Starbucks.
Last time I had a Starbucks was on a road trip at a motorway service station. It wasn’t very good coffee at all, and afterwards I resented having paid service station prices for a coffee I didn’t enjoy. But in that scenario they have a captive audience.
Fastfoods marketing themselves as luxury brand is a relatively recent trend. A decade or so ago starbacks, mcd’s, etc. really were “cheap, fast, tasty”. Fast food used to be a convenience for when you were on road trips and couldn’t make your own food.
All these different fastfood brands built up such a large reputation around themselves that they practically became a part of our collective conscious. At some point they realised that instead of selling food, they could sell their brand. And that’s when it stopped being cheap, stopped being tasty, and generally became a “rich people” thing.
I can’t believe you literally think this is a legit question
Do you carry your home with you in your pocket when you go out? Then maybe write me a three paragraph mini paper on convenience and why gas stations charge ten bucks for a small carton of coffee creamer if you don’t want to be blocked
People like you are the reason the internet is shit nowadays
The fuck are you smoking? Never heard of a thermos can? Small carry bags to fit it and some lunch (sandwich, piece of fruit)?
Or has that become so foreign and alien to you that you just can’t fathom how any of that is possible?
Convenience? The fuck are you talking about?? Have you never heard of soluble coffee? I carry a jar of soluble coffee in my backpack when I go to uni. They have those instant water boiling taps on every floor in my faculty building, I can make myself a mug just like that. Is it good? No. But certainly better than starbucks.
But whatever, I’m not going to argue with someone who’s trying to convince me that the thing I do almost every day with no issues is actually impossible.
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Peak .world behavior right there
I think they’re referring to their username, not just escalating to 100 out of nowhere.
Saying that, I have “idiot” in some of my usernames and am always surprised when people use it as a comeback. Like, I’m calling myself an idiot, do you think it has any effect when someone else does?
Back on subject, my view for what it’s worth is this shows how different we are - some people want a coffee out, some are prepared to take a ready made one. I don’t really crave coffee out of the house so wouldn’t do either
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And you sound like a blocked and reported neurotypical asshat
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