In Starbucks case, expensive, vogue coffee was bound to have lost it’s mass market appeal sometime.
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Well, considering espresso has been a popular European and Middle Eastern drink for several hundred years, I’d have to disagree.
Starbucks’ coffee isn’t too overpriced considering they have been moving in the direction of Fair Trade coffee. (ONE coffee bean is handled individually no less than three times by a human hand in the coffee production process. . .it is a commodity that if real FMV were applied would be more in the $50-$75/lb. range!!)
It is Starbucks’ Specialty Drinks (Lattes, Frappucinos) that has everyone “thinking” they sell $5.00 coffee. Consumers think nothing of paying $10 for a specialty martini, so, considering what goes into a latte, five bucks is quite reasonable.
It’s not that they’ve “lost” mass appeal, it’s that consumers are coming down to making a decision of: Do I put gas in my car to get to work? Or do I get my Venti Caramel Macchiato every morning?
The stores on college campuses are booming while the ones in ‘working’ neighborhoods are now underperforming...it’s the demographics and economy affecting the slide, not appeal.
/former coffee house owner
It’s pretentious, narcissistic swill, doled out and slurped up by pretentious, narcissistic, self-righteous, smug fools.