Forget Smoothies: Maybe the $11,000 Clover Machine Will Save Starbucks?
Starbucks has been hurting recently, but if anything can save this flagging chain, it could be an $11,000 Clover coffee machine. The stuff of dreams for hardcore java addicts, the Clover has the potential to steer the coffee giant back to great coffee basics and, for once, justify the high prices.
As Wired reports, Starbucks discreetly purchased and installed a few Clovers at various Seattle and Boston stores in the summer of 2007, charging $3.05 for a cup of the fancy Clover brew. After thumbs-up came from testers, Starbucks purchased Clover's makers, the Coffee Equipment Company, and now won't sell any more machines to independent cafés. With plans to install 80 of them across the country this year, Starbucks has early Clover adopters outraged. Some have even tried returning machines in protest, shaking their fists at the Coffee Man.
Can the fancy machine save the 'bux, or was the Vivanno smoothie a better plan?
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7 Comments:
"After thumbs-up came from testers, Starbucks purchased Clover's makers, the Coffee Equipment Company, and now won't sell any more machines to independent cafés."
That's a brilliant piece of corporate strategy. If they'd have agreed to just buy machines then they would be repeating the mistakes that IBM made with Bill Gates.
OneEyedMan at 11:51AM on 07/30/08
It's going to take more than Clover to plug the hole in that ship's hull...
GingerSnap at 11:58AM on 07/30/08
It's more mechanized, so less training, less unique value.
If you want a sign of how bad things are going, they announced they are bringing back the smelly breakfast sandwiches (in a slightly less smelly form).
peekpoke at 8:27PM on 07/30/08
Clovers don't mean "less unique value," because they are used to make drip coffee, which is wholly automated now. They will require a lot more training, because each cup is made separately, and the Clover machine allows for water temperature and brew time adjustment per cup depending on which bean is used.
My concern is that the Clover's fine-adjustment features, which make for a superior cup of coffee when it's used by trained, attentive staff and excellent beans, will be wasted in a lot of Starbucks. (Many stores have trained, attentive staff, but due to the nature of the business, when things are rushed, quality control goes down as they try to process as many customers as possible. The independent coffee stores I've been to that use Clovers have the culture built-in that customers should expect to wait a couple of minutes for their singly-brewed cup.)
All's fair in business, but it is too bad that this happened. Clover machines can really make an excellent cup of coffee, and independent coffee shops that had them were thriving because they offered a unique and superior cup. But everything's got it's price, I suppose.
producestories at 12:32AM on 07/31/08
I got a Vivanno last Friday. Strawberry Banana Mango. First let me say I wanted to like it. I really did. I love a good smoothie. The taste was unripe banana juice with strawberry seeds and a mango tang finish.
It was just not good and it was just not cold. The consistancy was not good either. It was too thin. It took a long time for it to be made. People behind me in line were served before me. I am not giving Starbucks cards this christmas for gifts. I have a feeling the writing is on the wall.
JerzeeTomato at 1:58AM on 07/31/08
I think Starbucks should focus more on the experience of buying coffee, rather on just taste. Burnt coffee is only one of their problems. As many people are discovering small coffee houses that are run by true baristas, and that offer a more intimate ambiance, the are realizing that the cookie-cutter corporate way of experiencing coffee that Starbucks has instilled in many of us is also, well...burnt.
asg749d at 3:41AM on 07/31/08
I agree with producestories above...the feature-set of the Clover machines will be wasted as many of the "baristas" now employed at Starbucks will not know how to use them to their full extent and recur only to what they learned during their standard, non-detail-oriented training.
asg749d at 3:44AM on 07/31/08