Starbucks Takes a 3-Hour Coffee Break
In its campaign to revive the intimate, friendly feel of a neighborhood coffee shop, Starbucks orchestrated the closing of 7,100 of its American stores at precisely 5:30 p.m. for a three-hour retraining session for employees.
It’s a nice gesture, but I wouldn’t expect this to do much for Starbucks.
I think a large part of what has made Starbucks Starbucks is that it’s a familiar place (regardless of which Starbucks you walk into) where you can get middle-of-the-road coffee quickly. No matter how hard they try, Starbucks will always be a chain, and their status as such will put them in a different category from the little mom-and-pop shops.
If I want that intimate “coffee experience”, I’ll go to the independent shop, but if I don’t care about the experience and just want decent-enough coffee quickly, I’ll hit up a Starbucks. And I don’t think a 3-hour “coffee break” will change that.
