Comment

Comment by Conrad on March 19, 2008 at 1:41pm

Unless Starbucks is going to be selling coffee at 5 bucks a cup of drip, they arent going to make any money... and we all know that theyre losing enough as it is. People go there for 1 buck coffee (if you can call it that). If they raise their prices any more, more people will be converting to McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts; their main competitors.

They cant buy themselves back into the honorable coffee industry, as far as I'm concerned, they're still "Starbucks: coffee mug and music emporium."

Comment by Jason Dominy on March 19, 2008 at 1:33pm

True! ;-)

Comment by Justin Mills on March 19, 2008 at 1:31pm

You never know, maybe Sbux got their shoes with the name. limh

Comment by Jason Dominy on March 19, 2008 at 1:30pm

For the record, I am only agreeing that it may teach more people about different coffee varietals. The quality of their coffee still sucks, and will certainly not do us any favors, even on a Clover.

Comment by Owen O'Neill on March 19, 2008 at 1:27pm

Dale and Jason - I agree in principle. Ands in many cases Starbucks buys better beans than people give them credit for. But they have to change their fundamental roast style to highlight the bean flavor rather than have the taste of their coffee dominated by the flavor profile of the roast profile. I don't see how Clover machines can do much to bring out the nuances of a coffee whose dominant flavor is from the roast.

Comment by Jason Dominy on March 19, 2008 at 1:13pm

Dale, that may end up being true.

Comment by Dale Harris on March 19, 2008 at 1:11pm

this could be really good though - not supporting Sbx but they did open the market for espresso in many areas and if with the clover they can raise awareness of brewed speciality coffee indy cafes can then improve upon that by serving finer varieties, with better service - sbux are to big to make a great single estate coffee available in every store whereas indy's can?

Comment by Jason Dominy on March 19, 2008 at 1:09pm

All they needed was an investor who could boost their ability to create more machines, which would have inevitably pushed prices down. They could have done it and still kept what they had. And one couldn't put a number on how many they would have sold, but as costs went down, independent shops would have been in a better position to buy the machine.
And the thing about George Howell forgets the fact he was put in a jam by Howard Schultz, and only sold on the promise it wouldn't change, and as we all know it did. Howard didn't care, he got what he wanted. George Howell had to learn that lesson the hard way.

Comment by Timmateo Dominck on March 19, 2008 at 1:04pm

money talks and bull shit walks. How many units could Clover have expected to sell to indy shops in one year, five years, ten years? There was a clear upper limit and those guys are smart enough to crunch numbers.

This isn't the first time SBUX has made a deal with a highly respected company, George Howell sold to his old brand to starbucks then went on to found Terroir. I would never call him a sell out or bash him for making a good business deal.

Comment by Alex T. Fernandez on March 19, 2008 at 12:57pm

Will this kick off a trend akin to the web start-up boom? Make a site like Facebook with the goal of being bought out by google and make millions, invent a coffee innovation to be bought out by Starbucks?
Would be dark times indeed.

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