viva la VIA..! March 2, 2009
Posted by irish.lemon in Uncategorized.Tags: chicago, cod, college of dupage, howard schultz, instant coffee, marketing, nloth, no line on the horizon, starbucks, starbucks via, starbucks via ready brew, u2, via
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Well, tonight is just an eve of excitement now isn’t it? I’m supposed to technically keep my mouth shut about a particular event that happened today…at least until tomorrow. I promised my boss I wouldn’t blog or tweet about it until after the fact, so I’ll keep my word as intended, but expect more tomorrow.
already satirizing our sweet VIA display
In other news, VIVA LA VIA! Yeah, I said it. I helped to a very minor degree on our store set for tomorrow’s launch of Starbucks VIA Ready Brew instant coffee. I honestly hate to admit, Howie was right, it’s relatively delicious. Generally speaking, instant coffee is absolutely awful, unless you get the good stuff from Europa; considering we’re Americans, we have little to no concept of how to properly enjoy coffee. At any rate, the convenience and surprisingly palatable flavor of VIA has led me to keep my mouth shut and my criticisms to a bare minimum…it’s good stuff, and I’m quite thrilled to have Chicago as one of only three test markets for the product, with Seattle and London being the only others.
Also, I got my hot little hands on the new U2 album; no worries to my
happiness is new U2
managers who read this blog, I promise you I did NOT take a copy tonight. Besides, we’re not selling the $100 deluxe version, so no worries there…just took shameless photos of myself practically eating the packaging. I’ve got a bit of a rebuttal to make against the New York Times regarding the loss of U2’s relevance in the world. Look for that tomorrow or Wednesday. I was, however, very pleased to see that $1 from the sale of each copy of “No Line On the Horizon” would be donated to the Global Fund. Not an incredibly huge donation, but pending the response from customers, it could lead to something.
Enough Starbucks news, I’ve got some sad personal affairs that I’d very much like to address for the sake of my distress and discontent and the illusion that my posts are actively read by the world. As I may have mentioned not too long ago, I received the CEIA National Two-Year Student Internship Award. The award presentation is going to be – as it always is – at CEIA’s National Conference, which happens to be in Portland, OR this year. Originally, I was supposed to attend the event. Obviously, the economy keeps spiraling further into the abysmal depths of depression, there was the slim chance I wouldn’t be able to attend.
karole, casey, and myself in the ad the CEIP dept. took out in the feb. 20 edition of the courier
Well, that slim chance became far more likely when I went for the SFE Award as presented by COD. Today, I got a very apologetic email from the Co-op director. In very few words, she regretfully announced to me that the school wouldn’t cover the expenses to send me to Portland even for a day to just fly in, accept my award, and go home. Now to me, there’s something incredibly wrong with this.
I understand the slump we’re all in, but when the institution boasts about the amount of awards its students receive, how much attendance is up, and all the grants and scholarships that are being given out to students, departments, and just to the institution itself, I begin to wonder what the real reason is. So, instead of accepting my award in person, I have to wait until May to attend the Board of Trustees meeting and accept it there, where I know no one, no one knows me, and where all relevance will have been stripped from the original significance.
I’m incredibly disappointed, but I’m still the national winner in my category, however, by matters of principle, I’m very surprised that this was the road the institution preferred to travel. Again, I’m not ungrateful, just surprised, but what can you do? My Manifest Destiny’s just gonna have to wait. Besides, the Co-op department took out that nifty ad in the Feb. 20 issue of the Courier, so I can’t gripe too much.
At any rate, it’s been an interesting day. This week’s going to be absolutely insane with PRSSA elections coming up fast, four papers and a speech due by Thursday as well as my obligation to play my horn for a Taize prayer service at St. Vincent DePaul, I’m guaranteed to be a ball of nerves. Spring break, get here a bit faster please…
plz refer to 1-800-STARBUC… December 13, 2008
Posted by irish.lemon in starbucks.Tags: howard schultz, starbucks, starbucks gossip
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so maybe i’m obsessed with my job, the company itself, or just the corruption of my mind since i’ve been a PR major…either way, i see a unique challenge coming, and i want to snatch it up faster than you can say– well, i won’t use a ridiculous example from work ‘cos that would essentially prove my devotion to my industrial espresso machine.
i admit, i have an addiction to starbucks blogs for the sake that they show me i’m not the only outwardly, overly critical partner out there…there are many others. i ran across a comment on starbucks gossip regarding a letter a partner wrote to his/her customers. it wasn’t a letter of sympathy, only empathy for the tightening of the starbucks belts among the underlings of the company…the store partners.
everyone’s afraid to blink let alone breathe for the simple fact that everyday at work might be our last. it’s only been four days since howie’s interview on CBS and only a week or so since we found out labor was going to be cut by almost half. just upon personal observation, our once naturally playful and efficient staff seems to have become quite the opposite in little less than a week…i’m no exception. we still treat our customers as we always have, but privately amongst ourselves, you could cut the anxiety in the air with a machete. so, in my perusals, i stumbled across this letter i mentioned, and this is the comment that immediately caught my eye:
schultz and his brand… December 10, 2008
Posted by irish.lemon in communications, starbucks.Tags: cbs, communications, howard schultz, interview, katie couric, news, public relations, starbucks
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maybe it’s the stress finally getting to me, maybe it’s the possible corporate visit tomorrow, or maybe i’m just not as confident as i once was in the company. i missed it monday night, but i managed to get a hold of the howard schultz interview with katie couric. ironically, i had a similar reaction to the interview that a tv analyst had as well…why did this interview happen in the first place? upon watching it myself, i can say it was likely filmed to provide reassurance among shareholders and possibly employees on the store level. however, far too much jargon regarding brand meaning. there are things howard presented well, and things that could’ve been toned down. given my views of corporate governance in accordance with social responsibility, i think he beat the horse a bit too much. strategically placing a barista in a (red) apron at the door acting as an usher didn’t help the message from being blatantly obvious.
however, kudos for taking on accountability! howard, you get a gold star on that one. not necessarily admitting guilt, however, accepting the consequences of previous decisions and where the company will move from here. nice handling of the dunkin donuts question as well. i’m still not too optimistic in terms of financial stability of the company and was surprised to hear him say that overall “trust” in the starbucks brand is at 86%…i haven’t seen that in my store at all. everyday, there’s at least five or so customers – both regulars and new faces – that beg the question, “is this store closing too? you seem to be doing well, why are other stores closing?” etc…
i’m not entirely sure how i feel about the interview as a whole, aside from i believe it was pitched by starbucks to cbs…not entirely a negative thing, however, i’ve yet to see such high-profile corporate interviews yield any promise in the coming fiscal years. ironically, what’s meant to reassure generally seems to plant more seeds of doubt.
considering i have a direct stake in this, i’m incredibly concerned…
there is NO WAY that a manager can use 2 hours of non coverage time to fully operate a 40K store open 24 hours a day. you are either a liar, naive or your manager works off the clock. the latter is what is probably happening. and no, i’m no spoiled SM. i work hard. i plan. i LOVE my actual job but who are we stepping up for? i, for one, am stepping up for my partners and my customers. I AM NOT STEPPING UP FOR SOMEONE IN AN OFFICE AT THE SSC SO THEIR BOTTOM LINE LOOKS BETTER AND THE EXECS CAN CONTINUE TO MAKE MORE IN WEEK THAN I DO IN A YEAR.
i work harder for my team. my store. myself. and, i appreciate having a job. i don’t think starbucks is bad. their a business and they have to run it accordingly. tough times right now and i realize this. i just think they are clueless as to what actually goes into running a store at the store level. the amount of crap that comes out of their press-release-oriented mouths is sickening. call a spade a spade so to speak…and i think everyone would be much more at ease with all of this. their communication and planning is horrid.
Posted by: tiredSM | December 11, 2008 at 10:11 PM