Restaurant and Food Service Blog

Starbucks is ready to roll out an instant coffee (see  Starbucks rolls out Via instant coffee nationwide – Yahoo! Finance.) For years, the coffee behemoth has touted the joys of traditional brewed coffee and espresso. But instant coffee?

I remember growing up during the 70’s and seeing my parents drink instant coffee. Back then, there were no Starbucks or specialty retail coffee chains. But what these chains have done over the past 20 years is help to influence American taste and perception of quality coffee in the US. The introduction of a high-quality instant coffee looks like we are going back 30 years.

The opportunities may be great for Starbucks, but it seems like a bad move that may have a big impact on the brand and public perception in the long run.

What are your thoughts?

Starbucks Coffee

On a recent visit to my local Starbucks, I did not get my coffee right away. They were all out of my favorite, Sumatra. Normally, I would shrug it off and wait for the next batch, I paid attention to the Batista and how he was going to handle the matter. Being a former partner, I knew how it was handled in the past. The customer would be given a coupon for a free cup on the next visit. Not this time.

In fact, the barista did not even apologize for not having the coffee. I then noticed that as the coffee was brewing, the barista would slowly fill a cup. As most coffee snobs know, you need the whole batch to run or you are going to get a cup of crap.

What this gets back to is customer service and setting customer expectations. What the barista forgot was to really understand the problem and know how the manage the situation and acknowledge the problem. Unfortunately, he did not do that.

Although an isolated incident, this is not the first time that I have had my drink make wrong at Starbucks. But how hard is it to make a really good drip coffee?

Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO,  seeks to dispel excess myth in a rectent MarketWatch article. But in light of the whole AIG $1 million bonuses that were just paid out to the top executives, you may wonder if Schultz may want it both ways.

For years, Starbucks touted itself as a premium cup of coffee and was unabashed in the fact that it was more expensive then other coffees, but it was worth the extra money. The image of the white coffee cup with the green logo symbolized a higher end, premium product. It was much like the Tiffany’s of coffee. But a product that came at a price.

There will always be cynics to products that strive to be the best if its class.

In an article from Yahoo! Business News - Fast Food Giants Urged to Value [the] Meal- a watchdog, Corporate Accountability International, has decided to demand the fast food industry to take more responsibility to whom it markets to. Corporate Accountability names McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s/Arby’s, and Yum! Brands (KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell) as the biggest violators. It goes further to suggest that these companies should “stop aggressively marketing to children, blocking labeling laws, and interfering in public healthy policy.”

Below is a brief excerpt from their formal statement:

Corporate Accountability International issued demands in a letter to CEOs and is launching a national public education and action campaign called Value [the] Meal. The campaign aims to stem the global tide of diet-related disease, in which fast food giants are playing a central role.

“McDonald’s and others reduced the meaning of “value” to how little we pay at the register, ignoring the significant cost to our children’s long-term health and environment,” said Executive Director Kelle Louaillier. “It is about time the fast food industry took responsibility for its role in making our children sick, acting to truly Value [the] Meal, not just to increase sales of ‘value meals.”

I know that there has been a lot of fodder to slam the in restaurant industry especailly with the publication of Fast Food Nation. But there have also been some companies that have been making positive changes or even have been offering healthy alternatives. Take Subway for instance. I don’t think that Jarrod really lost all that weight by eating Subway sandwiches, but it is a better fast food alternative.

I don’t think that the problem is entirely the restaurant industry’s fault. Americans are now leading more sedintary lifestyles and there is less of an importance of eating at home. I know that I am one who will feed my kids dinner out a bag from time to time as I get them from school to after school activities. With two working professionals in the house and three kids, we sometimes have to make decisions based on time and convenience.

Even Papa John’s founder, John Schattner, has made a sort of warning about even eatting his own pizzas.

Where do you fall on the issue?

“Restaurants offer escape from economic woes” from the Nation’s Restaurant News.  According to Bob Derrington, a securities analyst at Morgan Keegan & Co, he sees a silver lining for the terrible economic downturn. In addition The Nation’s Restaurant News reported that many trends in QSR and casual dining are showing positive growth indications from the last quarter. Maybe not is all so bad after all.

Regardless what analysts may be predicting, there are a huge number of top executives and professionals out on the market or really great ones who are taking a serious look at what the market is like. I still suspect that will a Dow that is taking a beating and looking like it may hit 6000, we still have a long haul to go before any of this is going to get better

I came across this at my local McDonald’s. They are giving away free samples of what they are currently making at the time.

Free taste at McDonald's

From 8 AM to 5 PM, this local McDonald’s is giving away free samples. Now that was something different, espcially for a QSR. I did not have a chance to ask for my free taste. I took my kids in for an early dinner and the place was packed with high school kids looking like they were trying to take advantage of the offer.

So I am uncertain if this is really a great marketing plan and I wonder how long this particular franchisee will continue with the program.

There are several other McDonald’s in the area that are jumping on the free bandwagon as one other store just a few miles away is offering a lot of buy one get one free offers on breakfast day-parts.

I can see the free samples working for casual dining. I don’t see it working at all for QSR. What do you think?

Seth Godin just posted a great entry in his blog about the power of copyrighting and words. So much can be said of a brand in a few simple words. Here Pete’s Coffee tries to get the message across, but falls short. So much of what many companies try to convey today simply gets mired in trying to get across to customers.

Hungry diners craving a Chipotle burrito may soon have to fork over a bit more cash.
Denver-based Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. is considering raising its prices to combat high food costs, the company said. Expect more companies to follow suit. Chipotle is a top brand, so if they are struggling can you imagine what going on in the rest of the industry.

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Beef O’ Brady’s restaurants are spreading the word on water conservation.
Nearly 50 franchise owners gave a big boost to the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s free Water Program for Restaurant Outreach, or Water PRO for short.

With conserving natural resources all over the country seeming to be the minds of everyone today, it seems fitting that a chain restaurant concept has finally stepped up to the green revolution. Just last year, Subway introduced a “Green” store to open in Florida. With all the waste that goes on in a restaurant such as water, paper, plastic, food, etc, it is refreshing to see that there are companies that are looking to make a change.

For years, it was only Ben & Jerry’s that was pushing the green movement. They even put language in their mission statement. But now more and more companies are seeing the benefits of becoming green and so are job seekers as well.

So has the tide turned, or is this just a fad? Would you be more willing to shop at a “green” store? What are your thoughts? 

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Pssst. The secret’s out at KFC. Well, sort of. Colonel Harland Sanders’ handwritten recipe of 11 herbs and spices was to be removed Tuesday from safekeeping at KFC’s corporate offices for the first time in decades. The temporary relocation is allowing KFC to revamp security around a yellowing sheet of paper that contains one of the country’s most famous recipes.

Shrouded in secrecy, you would think that the folks at YUM! were part of the Da Vinci Code conspiracy. Apparently there are only 2 top execs at KFC who really know the entire recipe and a third who knows the secret combination to the lock to get into the safe. Even all of the suppliers who formulate the recipe are not in the know. There are several manufacturers who only make parts of the recipe and are sworn to a secrecy agreement.

I tried to find out if the famous Todd Wilbur, author of Top Secret Recipe Books, doesn’t have a “clone” recipe online – but does have one of the famous Big Mac!

With so much word of this on the internet and KFC themselves releasing this in a press release, you really have to wonder how secret is this recipe anyway? This recipes has make billions of dollars for the company and they want to hold it close to their chest, but in the same conversation they let the whole world know that it will be temporarily out and be relocated. Sounds more like PR spin then anything else.

I thought that parent company YUM! could be more creative then this.

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