Brewing Trouble

Two Saturdays ago found us sitting down in the Mid-Valley ('MVM') branch of San Francisco Coffee ('SF') to take a little breather from our usual shopping jaunt whereupon we ordered Cappuccino for ourselves and a huge croissant for Sadia.

After several sips of said concoction, we were horrified to find ours to have a bitter and even burnt aftertaste.

My husband also saw that they already put aside some brewed 'black gold' in a plastic container and used that to make requested beverages. And I thought to myself: Isn't every order made from scratch?

The following Tuesday while waiting for hubby to finish work, I lolled about in SF at KLCC - Sadia sleeping on one shoulder - and had a skinny latte and a cream cheese onion bagel. The latte tasted great, unlike the one served in MVM. In fact, the coffee there has always been superb and this particular joint is a favourite amongst the foreigners (read: expats and visiting businessmen) talking shop on one of those tables with chrome chairs.

As I sat there soaking the scene, my eyes caught sight of the SF paper filler on the tray that held my drink and food. On it, SF congratulated the three winners for its annual Barista Competition for 2007. One of them is from the KLCC joint while the other two hail from the Citibank building franchise store and the Suntech branch in Singapore. In fact, I was earlier served by said KLCC winner. Does that explain why their coffee is much superior to the crappy one I got in MVM?

Almost everybody knows that I'm a coffee aficionado and thanks to the wonders of technology, the probability of people NOT knowing is close to nil. :)

And my love affair with Starbucks is legendary, with the lengths that I go to describing my amore for their robust cuppa. So when I read about this global chain's dwindling sales, specifically in the States, I was a trifle surprised.

I know some people are not happy with the fact that Starbucks has become a household name and lost its edge in terms of novelty and exoticism.

As Mr. Vuleta, a consultant put it succinctly in a related article:

“We all remember our initial encounters with Starbucks: the exoticism of new language, space, sounds and smells,” Mr. Vuleta said in an e-mail message. “Fast-forward a decade, and the first thing that jumps out is that the mystique that so thoroughly defined the initial experience is conspicuously absent — trampled in the stampede of proliferation.”

He suggests that Starbucks get back to basics, emphasizing the role of its baristas and focusing on the quality of its coffee, promoting “the theater of the craft and bold celebration of the provenance of the bean.”

I was more disturbed to find out that the US-based Starbucks features fully automated machines that take over the role of a barista (what is Starbucks without a Barista?!) and expands its range of food menu that inadvertently causes the brand to look and sound more like a fast-food joint than a café.

Like many well-known brands out there such as Coca-Cola and McDonalds, Starbucks is expected to hit the wall sooner or later and must come up with a new strategy to rejuvenate its stale image. For one, the management should stop daydreaming about reaching its lofty target of 40,000 stores worldwide and concentrate on bringing back that 'neighbourhood feeling' that conjures up whenever one utters the word Starbucks.

As the hackneyed saying goes, "Too much a good thing is never good." In the case of Starbucks, too many stores in the U.S. has diluted the Starbucks experience and caused haywire in terms of maintaining similar, refined standards in each and every store. If the relatively small fry, Malaysian-based coffee chain San Francisco Coffee can screw up my order, what can be said and expected of a corporate behemoth like Starbucks whose store counts as of 2007 stand at 15,011!

People in the States have been complaining endlessly that Starbucks is no longer cool, has lost its soul, feels commercialised and so forth. Understandably that's bound to happen to a company that has been around for more than a decade. The loss of novelty, coupled with the problem of market over-saturation, provide all the necessary ingredients for a business slump.

I have to agree with what the analysts and authors are imploring: Starbucks cannot continue to rest on its laurels and to be nostalgic about the past. The past is done and over with. There's more competition in the market now and other variables like cost, suppliers and locations figure largely in a store's lasting prospect. Starbucks has to wipe the slate clean and rethink its business model, possibly by way of competing either on price or superior, quality products.

Save and except for marriage and religion, I wouldn't be caught dead sticking only to Starbucks even after I came back from a pre-Starbucksian country, Holland. (Interestingly, as of August last year, it boasts only one Starbucks and that is INSIDE the EU departure hall of Schiphol!) Don't get me wrong. I love Starbucks through and through. Sometimes though, people need a change of scenery and in their tastebud once in a while, so that they would come back to their routine (read: Starbucks) fully recharged. Perhaps Starbucks should bear this in mind and strategise a formidable comeback plan accordingly. Believe me, after 'vacationing' in SF or Coffee Bean, I'd happily gravitate back to Starbucks.

As for over-saturation in Malaysia, I don't see it coming anytime soon especially after learning from its American counterpart's experience (putting Starbucks stores within a few radius from one another doesn't make any sense at all). I, for one, would like to see a 'neighbourhood' Starbucks in the suburbia of Ampang (read: from Pekan Ampang to Bukit Belacan onwards) so as to enable easy access to a morning picker-upper. If Dataran Sunway in my old town of Kota Damansara can house a Starbucks among its shoplots, it makes more perfect, financial sense to open a Starbucks in the high density area of Ampang?

Can anyone seriously look into this, pretty please with whipped cream on top?