Posted on 12/07/2016 8:42:04 AM PST by Prov1322
Starbucks courts millennials with $10 coffee at new Reserve bars
By Lisa Baertlein and Tim Baysinger
LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp co-founder Howard Schultz's plan to build a new prestige brand is a bet that moving upscale can raise the profile of the world's largest coffee brand with millennials like Megan Sauers.
Schultz in April will step down as chief executive to focus on building 1,000 new "Reserve" brand stores. Over time there also will be as many as 30 large, showcase Reserve Roastery and Tasting Rooms in major cities around the world.
Starbucks last week announced that Schultz was moving into the role of executive chairman in April to focus on the project. Analysts expect more details at a meeting in New York on Wednesday.
The transition marks a turning point for Starbucks, which introduced millions of people around the world to higher quality coffee and espresso drinks and now must find a way to avoid being labeled pedestrian when compared with upscale rivals like Blue Bottle and Intelligentsia, which are popping up in U.S. cities.
"Starbucks is the millennials' parents' coffee house and Starbucks is acutely aware of that," said Ric Rhinehart, executive director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America.
Starbucks' Reserve projects are "a reminder that they did this first and they do this best," said AB Bernstein analyst Sara Senatore.
The company already has added Reserve bars to a handful of Starbucks shops in major cities including New York.
Reuters visited one such cafe on Manhattan's Upper East Side, which offered $10 cups of coffee made in glass siphons, $10 "flights" of Reserve brews and nitro cold brew via a separate Reserve menu.
(Excerpt) Read more at ca.news.yahoo.com ...
My first job was behind the lunch counter of a 24/7 Peoples Drugstore, a cup of coffee was $0.05 for a bottomless cup. At that time if someone had told me that I would see this kind of inflation I would have called them crazy.
P.T. Barnum was a genius.
Starbucks coffee is burned. Like pink dye in pistachios, it hides flaws.
I feeling sorry for civet cats that will be forced to eat coffee beans to poop them out so Starbucks can sell $10 a cop coffee.
Dang!
That looks like a steaming bucket of fecal matter! And people actually pay for that dreck?
Give me a bag of Community coffee and I’ll stay happy for a year for about one cup of their crap costs.
LOL, I only yearn to find a good ole plain cup or Army coffee, rather than drink that hyped up bean drink that isn’t any better. Damn I miss that coffee from the urn in the CP.
So long as fools are able to spend $10 on a cuppa coffee, I’m not worried about the economy.
About 15% of that big student loan is most likely 4 years of starbucks visits.
Ha! I’m 63 with no health insurance. I take better care of myself and, more importantly, trust the Lord.
Also don’t forget heaven is better than here.
For me it’s not a heaven or hell thing. It’s an immortality vs death thing.
Is that right? My problem is I either like a coffee or I don’t, and I don’t like any that have a strong acidic, vinegary flavor. Costco only sells big bags and cans and boxes of everything so so if I buy one and don’t like it, I’m stuck with it. Casi Cielo. May have to try it.
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It’s all about how it’s prepared. We make our coffee in a French Press. Never any bitter acidic burnt nastiness. Always smooth an perfect.
Prestige brand? Starbucks tastes like stale once-used Maxwell house. What are they going to do? Make it taste like horse manure?
Well...people already spend $200/lb for Kopi Luwak beans...you may be on to something!
You can still get cheap coffee cheaply, it’s just that coffee has become a luxury good with lots of market segmentation.
Starbucks coffee is swill. Can’t stand the stuff. There’s far better coffee out there, for a lot less.
So I guess if Starbucks Coffee isn’t expensive for you, they’ll charge even more. Will the baristas still be pierced and tattooed, or will they be in tuxes? I’ll go to Buddy Brew or Panera for coffee, thanks.
I generally try to avoid Starbucks because of its left-wing leanings. Actually I enjoy diner-shop Joe as long as it's freshly brewed. That's really the secret. (And saves me $$.)
While I do buy artisanal coffee, there are limits. $10 for a cup? No way! This frou-frou stuff has gotten out of hand. Coffee has become overfeminized, like the rest of our culture.
I remember hearing that statement about taking better care of myself about the same time coffee was 10 cents a cup. That’s the only reason I threw it in there. I really did take good care of myself and am in excellent health.
For $10, will they stop using burnt beans?
There was a monetary counselor helping a young lady straighten out her account to prevent her from going bankrupt. Going over her list of expenses he told her to cut out her daily latte expense. She told him that was her treat to herself for the stress she was under. Counselor told her that her monthly latte expense was equal to her monthly car payment.
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