Evidently the world really is going to hell (possibly in a hand basket; possibly in a Pontiac): Starbucks has launched a new product…instant coffee.
Mind you, this is happening at a time when the company has begun rounds of cost cuts by laying off 1370 employees & closing 600 of its stores.
They’ve been suffering in recessionary times where people are having to choose between a week’s worth of Cup-a-Soups or a single tall half-caff mocha latte with extra foam.
But why bring out an industrially-extruded desiccated over-packaged coffee-like product? Why not just, you know, lower prices of their existing offerings?
CEO Howard Schultz cited foreign markets (notable Japan & the UK) where instant coffee dominates. But I’m not sure you want to stake your reputation as a premium brand on the likes of a country that can’t be bothered to brew a decent cup of coffee.
Interestingly, Britain’s Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, took umbrage at other statements by Schultz, who evidently said that the UK market is “in a spiral”, causing concern to the company (which has a number of stores there, including one across the street from Windsor Castle).
Mandelson’s actual quote was: “Why should I have that guy running down the country? Who the **** is he?”
So, is he saying that the UK economy is just hunky-dory? If so, someone needs to sit him down with a cup of coffee (instant, no doubt) & point out some reality. Kind of scary when your equivalent of Commerce Secretary lights into a CEO of a company headquartered in another country (& whose investment in your own economy isn’t going to make or break anything) simply because he states the blindingly obvious.
But that’s what I mean—definitely headed to hell.
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