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Archive for February 26th, 2007
Automatic espresso machines and streamlined store designs are symptoms of the furious growth to 13,000 stores at Starbucks Corp. – and, it seems, the loss of some cafe magic. Or so considers Chairman Howard Schultz in a memo to executives posted on starbucksgossip.com last week.
The company has confirmed the authenticity of the memo, Nichola Groom reports, with some suggestion from a spokeswoman that it’s not being viewed as idle musings internally.
Schultz writes that the streamlined stores “no longer have the soul of the past and refl
ect a chain of stores vs. the warm feeling of a neighborhood store… In fact, I am not sure people today even know we are roasting coffee.”
What do you think? Has Starbucks lost its ’soul’?
