shel1624

Starbucks: Losing Traffic, Making Excuses

mr sullivan: as a dissappointed sbux stockholder (a special diividend ala microsoft would be greatly appreciated) i will not quibble with your analaysis except concerning competition. my wife, recent college grad daughter and myself are big coffee drinkers. we have sbux in our coffeemaker in the morning and we all drink sbux daily at various stores. i sometimes get a mcdonalds coffee when there are no sbux around, and i also tried dunkin as they are opening new stores in indianapolis and gave them a try. there is no comnparison and i don't understand the rave reviews for their coffees. i personally don't like lattes, but will gladly pay an extra 60 cents for a great cuppa. maybe mcd traffic is up because of salads. instead of my annual visit to mcd for a big mac attack, i go there on occasion for a mcd salad. they are pretty good. now let me give you my wife's perspective. she loves the nonfat lattes and has one every day. the way she tells it, she doesn't spend money on lunch because she takes it from home. she is in a stressful job and for a daily break drives down to the local store where they know her and knows what she likes. she has a great experience every day for $3. she can't be the only woman in america who does this. i recently had a meeting at sbux from 8-9:30am. dunkin opened across the street 2 weeks ago. sbux was packed the entire time. an employee helped a professional woman carryout several bags of stuff. a group of mothers were at the table next to me with their young kids. (it was a little distracting) i suggest you personally get a coffee from the competition and sbux and then in your next analysis give a personal opinion. i know that numbers don't lie but there is way too much negativity on this company.