Jun 30, 2009 -
At the beginning of the month, Starbucks announced it would be rolling out a new "Real Food. Simply Delicious" campaign on June 30 to highlight its focus on all-natural ingredients. Starbucks has reformulated 90 percent of its baked goods to make them free of high-fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors, food coloring, and some preservatives.
- 14 Comments
Jun 10, 2009 -
Starbucks recently lowered some prices on its drink menu, but now the chain is making headlines for just the opposite — double-charging customers for their purchases. On Friday, May 22, and half of Saturday, May 23, the coffee chain unknowingly double-charged a million customers in 7,000 stores for their debit and credit card purchases. Starbucks explained that most of its customers never noticed the "settlement processing error" — although consumers' receipts indicated the correct amount had been deducted, later twice that figure was taken out of the buyers' accounts when stores settled the transactions at the end of the day.
- 11 Comments
Jun 05, 2009 -
America's largest coffee chain has decided to jump-start its own eco-friendly food revolution: Earlier this week, Starbucks announced it would be rolling out a new food menu on June 30 as part of its "Real Food. Simply Delicious" campaign. And yesterday, the chain said it would install new water faucets in its stores as part of an environmental initiative.
- 8 Comments
Jun 04, 2009 -
More than a year after a California court ordered Starbucks to pay its baristas $105 million in back tips, the 4th District Court of Appeal has reversed the ruling. It all started when former barista Jou Chau filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the 100,000 current and former baristas in the state of California, arguing that Starbucks was acting unlawfully by permitting shift supervisors to share tips.
The appeals court concluded that Starbucks supervisors should receive their fair share of tips because they "essentially perform the same job as baristas."
- 2 Comments
Apr 30, 2009 -
So far, 2009 hasn't been any better for Starbucks than 2008, and the coffee giant continues to try and regain lost footing, hoping to make up for a 77 percent drop in profits last quarter. To promote value, Starbucks has announced plans to lower prices on basic drinks.
Beginning May 5, items such as the store's grande iced coffee will now retail for less than $2, giving some customers as much as 45 cents in savings.
- 10 Comments
Mar 26, 2009 -
These days, chain restaurants are looking for any way to eke out a profit, from offering cheaper steaks to haggling with customers. But given the economic downturn, many are no longer expecting to fill tabletops at dinner — instead, they're counting on customers at the grocery store. Restaurants from Jamba Juice to California Pizza Kitchen and even Tony Roma's plan to introduce new licensed food products in the next year.
- 6 Comments
Mar 25, 2009 -
After a rough year, Starbucks has tried to start off 2009 on the right foot. In addition to rolling out a new line of instant coffee, it also began offering "value pairings" that include two new breakfast sandwich options. Considering the history of the chain's breakfast sandwiches, I was eager to try them out.
- 23 Comments
Mar 18, 2009 -
From serving spiced-up burgers to offering cheaper premium steaks, restaurants are trying every trick in the book to bolster sluggish sales. Some, seeing little improvement, have turned to a strategy that was perhaps once unimaginable: haggling.
A reporter from the New York Post, who felt there was nothing to lose and only some to gain through negotiating, decided to put her theory to the test by bargaining at various Manhattan stores.
- 25 Comments
Mar 03, 2009 -
When Starbucks announced it would be launching VIA, an instant coffee product, the food world collectively gasped. How could a premium coffee chain start selling instant coffee, a product with a notorious reputation for bad taste?
Today, the VIA brews were introduced in two markets, Seattle and Chicago.
- 23 Comments
Adjusting coffee prices, introducing instant brews, offering value meals — what will Starbucks think up next? Answer: A slew of promotions on social networking sites. Starbucks has just launched a massive marketing effort, the first Starbucks campaign to truly take advantage of the power of social networking.
