Starbucks instant coffee unveiled

[maheel]

sorry if its a repost, i did a search


"With a $21 billion global instant coffee business, and instant coffee representing 40% of overall global coffee sales, we believe Starbucks is uniquely positioned to capture a significant share of this market," said Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/29/news/companies/Starbucks_Via/index.htm

[TC]

Re: Starbucks instant coffee unveiled

$$$ to anyone who can pick the difference when compared to their brown bean product :

[Senator]

Re: Starbucks instant coffee unveiled

hang on a sec

Via is sold in packs of three cup-sized servings for $2.95 or $9.95 for a 12 pack. That makes for a cost of $1 per cup, which is Starbucks cheapest option.

If I am reading that correctly, they want to charge $1 per cup for instant coffee??

I would have thought $1 a cup might be about fair for their "proper" coffee, but instant, seriously?

Sen

[jkarlis]

Re: Starbucks instant coffee unveiled

I was recently in the US and Starbucks are everywhere....I mean EVERYWHERE! In Vegas, some casions had 2 Starbucks. Most big shopping malls have at least 2.

It was difficult to find anything but Starbucks and it really is absolutely awful stuff. I tried it on 3 or 4 occassions and eventually just gave up on coffee whilst there. Lucky it was only a short trip.

I did try another chain called Seattles Best Coffee. I think they may have been a little worse than Starchucks. Id hate to taste Seattles Worst.

[argon]

Re: Starbucks instant coffee unveiled

I was in NY 2 yrs ago - this is how an espresso was served up...

[hazchem]

Re: Starbucks instant coffee unveiled

Mark Prince has been doing some blind tests on these in the coffeegeek lab, at least according to his twitter feed. The worst comment about taste on one of the score sheets was skunked coffee.

I wont touch instant anyway, least of all instant from charbucks.

[luca]

Re: Starbucks instant coffee unveiled

Its a very interesting initiative. Starbucks are touting it as a breakthrough; from memory, they claim that it contains "microground" coffee ... whatever that means. Some US dudes did make the observation that it was ironic to see that they bought clover and before they really did anything with it they have rolled out instant. Any bets this would have coincided with the GFC really impacting their bottom line, where handing over a few packets for $10 that you just add water to and marketing them as a cheap but somehow still premium product makes a lot more sense than spending many thousands of dollars on equipment that produces drinks that really need to be sold at a price point that competes with their other offerings and, in any event, needs good coffee and well trained operators to work.

Of course, people who like to bag Starbucks underestimate it at their peril; its still a massive, massive business that presumably has one or two clever people in it and at the same time that they are starting to sell instant, they are also trying to position themselves at the top end of their market through the 15th street store (stores?): http://pourquality.blogspot.com/2009/07/new-rules.html With such an incredibly huge turnover, Starbucks has the resources to just swoop in and snap stuff up if they want it, making it difficult for others to get - as they did with Clover and as they apparently did with Blue Batak. In this sense, the spectre of Starbucks hangs over small specialty coffee players like the sword of Damocles. For consumers of quality coffee, though, there may well be many upsides. Starbucks is a massive player in getting people to accept the idea that different coffees have different qualities and getting people interested in such coffees. This means that whilst Starbucks coffee might not be all that good, they play an important role in growing the specialty coffee market. On top of that, the entry of Starbucks into the specialty end of the market hopefully creates a strong competitor that will spur roasters who identify their product as "specialty" to lift their game if their product sucks and to maintain high standards if it doesnt.

Cheers,
Luca

[Senator]

Re: Starbucks instant coffee unveiled

Interesting post Luca.

I remember when Starbucks first entered the NZ market a few years ago, one of the news channels interviewed several of the NZ cafe / roasteries to gauge their reaction. None of them saw it as a negative thing.

They indicated that starbucks does for coffee what BK / McDs does for burgers. Gets consumers into the idea of accepting something and getting a taste for it, then when they realise how bad it is, they move on to a more palatable product.

They arent a multi billion dollar company for no reason, they realise where the mass market is and design their products / marketing to suit, and at $1 a cup for instant, they truely have marketing geniuses at the helm if they sell it to the american public

Sen

[Javaphile]

Re: Starbucks instant coffee unveiled

StarChar is feeling the pinch in their traditional store fronts and is clearly looking to other revenue generating streams. Including now acting as a Coffee Service. Ive just returned from a doctors office where I saw a superauto apparently apparently supplied and maintained by guess who. Yup. StarChar.


Java "Yuck!" phile

[maheel]

Re: Starbucks instant coffee unveiled

 Starbucks is a massive player in getting people to accept the idea that different coffees have different qualities and getting people interested in such coffees.  
Cheers,
Luca  

Great post Luca,

I would be assuming that part of this strategy is to also get people to except that "specialty coffee" might cost a "little" more. When it is quite possible that Starbucks has the buying power to not really pay anymore for "specialty" coffee.
Starbucks is all about MARGINS, increase the per cup margin buy only a few cents. BHAM massive profit growth for them.

No different to any other major (or minor) food retailer, just trying to grab market share.

Leeham

[hazchem]

Re: Starbucks instant coffee unveiled

Starbucks is a massive player in getting people to accept the idea that different coffees have different qualities and getting people interested in such coffees.

Good point! It reminds me that while taking baby steps on my coffee journey, I frequented a GJs near where I worked on a daily basis. Similarly, it got me thinking that about where all the coffees came from, what had been done to them, and that if there is a chain in a shopping centre selling espresso then it follows there had to be a more specialised outlet somewhere ...

While I now wont drink the products of either them for a variety of reasons, if it helps more consumers on their way to a personal coffee journey that leads to speciality coffee that they enjoy, and keeps the more niche retailers on their toes, we all win.

except for the potential for more people to want some of the harder to get coffees I really like, I suppose. ;D ;D

[Luke_G]

Re: Starbucks instant coffee unveiled

Just out of interest...

Is Starbucks paying a fair price for there coffee yet or are still contributing to 3rd world unfair coffee future contracts?

[Gracey]

Re: Starbucks instant coffee unveiled

Definitely food for thought Luca. And everyone.... remember who we are...
..COFFEESNOBS.. [smiley=evil.gif] [smiley=evil.gif] [smiley=evil.gif]

[Rocky]

Re: Starbucks instant coffee unveiled

I am interested in the suggestion that a proportion of consumers who start with a product like Starbucks will graduate to serious coffee. I think this is undoubtedly correct, although I fear that it is probably a fairly small percentage. I think it is probably like wine - a lot of people drink it but few really have a deeper interest in it. This is not a problem however as there is no law that says I have to buy my coffee there, and it keeps the masses out of decent coffee shops.
I think its a certain kind of warped personality who becomes a coffee snob anyhow (this is what my wife tells me) and the rest of them are the normal ones.

[peter.scales]

Re: Starbucks instant coffee unveiled

.....and the rest of them are the normal ones

Normal:

“Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.”


“Normal people ... believe that if it aint broke, dont fix it. Engineers believe that if it aint broke, it doesnt have enough features yet.”

Ahhhhh, definitions.  8-)