Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz admits the java giant's market share has been sipped away by the competition and the company has gotten too big for its britches latte cups. Hearkening back to its origins, when you could smell coffee being roasted and ground in the stores, Pike Place Roast is being introduced nationwide as the new daily brew, to win you back. On CBS this morning, Shultz says he wants his stores to serve "the best cup of coffee in America."
Baristas have been told to throw out any brew that hasn't been served within 30 minutes."We'll be pouring out more coffee than most people serve," Schultz said.
(There's a coupon in today's NY Times for free Wednesday coffee throughout the month of May.) In what sounds like a Grande Mea Culpa, Starbucks has copped to a litany of sins against the consumer:
over-priced joe, baristas who don't know coffee, over-proliferation (16,000 stores and counting...), and their way too racy original logo showing a mermaid with bare breasts....(Yeah, that one was definitely a deal breaker....)
Java-junkies, are you going to give the repentant Starbucks another try?






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"..Pike Place Roast is being introduced nationwide as the new daily brew..."
Ah, the fresh-ground coffee redolent of Seattle's Fish Market. Incoming!