Starbucks: What are they doing out there?

This one is priceless.....

This week Starbucks Corporation (Public, NASDAQ:SBUX) announced its "transformational ideas" to bring life back to the company. Rather than recite them in detail, here they are in brief, new machines, ground coffee, rewards card, social site. Yea, I though the same thing, "you kidding me?"

Now I read this little nugget in the USA Today:
"Consumers will be encouraged to submit ideas, to comment and vote on ideas from others, and even to follow along as ideas evolve into real products (on the new "social site"). Some 48 Starbucks employees will respond to comments on the site, and Schultz will have a blog. Alas, consumers will not be compensated for ideas that Starbucks adopts, says spokesman Brandon Borrman."

Is this what Schultz $ Co. have been reduced to? Having employees pilfer ideas from customers? Guys, you sell coffee, you are not splicing DNA out there in Seattle. Go back to what you do best and stop all this ancillary garbage that clearly has taken your mind off the game. CD sales, not working, end it. Breakfast and lunch, done. If I want a book, I'll go to Borders (BGP), not the local coffee shop. Just because you have empty floor and counter space, you do not need to put crap there to sell.

Howard, rather than blogging away the day, figure out how to get me a coffee in under ten minutes when there are more than 5 people in line. How about a location I can actually sit in? This is getting out of control.

The question is now this. What is Starbucks? Is it a coffee house chain? I mean, wasn't that the genesis of the whole thing? Wasn't Starbucks modeled after Italian style coffee houses Schultz visited in Europe? They are so far away from that now, getting back may just require a complete "do over". They have now unequivocally lost their soul. No question.

Trolling the web for ideas........sad.

Alas shareholders, Schultz, far from being the company's savior, may just be its largest hurdle...

Disclosure ("none" means no position):None (thank god)

Todd Sullivan writes the ValuePlays Newsletter on sale at WallStNewsletters.com for only $45 a year, it's published every month and its also available as part of the Full Monte - 6 Newsletters for only $99 a year (MARCH MADNESS SALE).  The FULL MONTE newsletters are done by The Stockmasters, (Todd Sullivan) ValuePlays, the Peridot Capitalist (Chad Brand), Jelly Roll Capital Stock Reports (James Cullen), and Steve Reeves.

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