Starbucks Creates a Buzz

Starbucks' new instant coffee "water soluble caffeine product," Via, caused quite a stir last week. Via, which has been in development for the last 20 years, will be available in Starbucks cafes next month. Howard Schultz, chief executive of Starbucks, believes that Via provides "innovation, competition, and value." Hmmm...

With Via entering the market, Starbucks is presenting a coffee beverage that we will both have to schlep to a Starbucks cafe to pick up and prepare ourselves. It baffles me that Starbucks sees this as an opportunity for growth. I will admit, every Saturday morning I pour boiling water into my coffee grounds to make a great cup of coffee - it's called a French press. It costs me far less that $1 per cup and I would wager that it may actually taste better, too. So, my initial reaction is to question their rationality. To be fair, I will soon be one of the masses that will try a complimentary sample. Maybe this will change my mind - after all a packet wouldn't break on camping trips. I can't say as much about my French press.

That said, in the last month Starbucks has added a "value-menu" to their offerings (though they refuse to call it that) and now instant coffee. Initially people were willing to pay $4 for a latte because they were buying the "Starbucks experience," in which one could get a consistent cup of coffee wherever Starbucks was sold. However, in this struggling economy many have found the cost of coffee from Starbucks to be beyond what their tightening budgets can handle. Starbucks' cafes are closing all around the world, "partners" are getting laid off in record numbers and Starbucks is seemingly trying anything to get people to walk through their doors. Is the Starbucks brand, which once thrived, now dying?

-Hannah Hasbrook