7.15
McDonalds is now Starbucks’ main competitor and Starbucks has nobody to blame but themselves. By opening up so many stores and introducing so many “frou-frou” drinks that they commodified the coffee buying experience, Starbucks gutted the value proposition of buying an espresso drink at their stores and, in so doing, created a monster in their own competitive space by inviting the king of commodified food service operaters - McDonalds - into the business of selling coffee. Starbucks has gone for the big middle ground and given McDonalds a new lease on life in becoming the scrappy underdog in the battle for the palettes of middle-america. Good job, Starbucks.
The wonderful thing about all of this is that Starbucks has made plenty of room for the so called “third wave” of coffee to gain a foothold in the marketplace. The commodification process Starbucks has undergone has allowed other shops to compete on the quality of their product. While Starbucks’ focus in making you an espresso drink is to get it in your hands as fast as they can, others are focussing on making sure that the beverage you are holding in your hand is of a certain quality: that the money you just shelled out is reflected in the integrity of the drink. They are bringing the craft back to the espresso bar. Good job, Starbucks.
In honor of the announcement that Starbucks will be closing 600 stores nationwide, a list of posts on Starbucks here at Dan Markham dot net.
6.3
In “The Next American Frontier”, Michael S. Malone describes a future in which more and more Americans eschew the thirty-years-and-a-gold-watch career, opting, instead, to work in the continuously changing work environment of the entrepreneur.
5.5
In other words, the Microsoft offer increased the value of Yahoo! Inc. by more than $7 billion and decreased the value of Microsoft Corporation by almost $33 billion.
The answer to my question over the weekend is … Yahoo! ↓$4.74 to $23.93, Microsoft ↑$0.55 to $29.79.
As John Gruber says …
that’s not bad, given that their stock was at $19 prior to the Microsoft takeover bid.
That $4/share difference? I think it’s hope. Hope, that the shareholder’s and public’s rooting for the underdog is going to bare fruit.
Give ‘em hell Yahoo!
5.3
Color me shocked! Microsoft has withdrawn it’s bid for Yahoo!.
No one will know until Monday what affect this decision will have on both Microsoft’s and Yahoo!’s stock price. I am, by no means, facile in the ways of the business world but to me, this shows a surfeit of tenacity and strength on Yahoo!’s part and a dearth of both on the part of Microsoft. But I’m biased. (@NYT, via Daring Fireball)
12.19
The other day, while I perusing the magazine rack of our local B&N, I saw this article in Fast Company. I wasn’t more than an eighth of the way through the article when I knew John Gruber, of Daring Fireball, was going to rip it to shreds methodically debunk nearly every argument the author put forward.
11.28
Verizon Plans Wider Options for Cellphone Users (@NYT).
There has always been talk of the iPhone contributing to the end of the pernicious business-as-usual practices of locking the consumer to a particular carrier. And so it begins. Thanks, Apple.
11.3