...as in "Save Our Starbucks!"
Several folks have asked me if there's anything we can do to convince Starbucks to let us hang on to our store. I know that corporate seems to at least be willing to listen. Here's what I know for sure:
The Seattle Times quotes Brad Stevens, Starbucks' vice president of customer-relations management, in this article about store closings: "customers could make a difference but added he (Stevens) has not heard much reaction from them. 'That's such an amazing thing, that customers would actually take up that cause,' he said. 'How lucky we are that we as a brand have that kind of relationship with customers. I think we would listen carefully.'"
So, what that says to me is they might not change their minds, but they'd maybe be willing to consider it. If any of you IT wizards out there can go to the Starbucks website and find an email address for Brad Stevens, PLEASE post it in a comment. I have poked around there myself, to no avail. They don't seem to want to give out individual emails. Go figure.
Here is the phone number for Starbucks Retail Customer Relations:
(800) 235-2883
Mon – Fri 5 AM – 6 PM (PST)
Sat – Sun 6 AM – 3 PM (PST)
Call 'em up. Tell 'em why they need to keep Paris open.
You might also go to their website at http://www.starbucks.com/customer/contact_forms.asp?nav=3e and fill out their comment form.
Obviously, you should also be buying stuff at our Starbucks as often as you can! If you don't like coffee, but you like the idea of Paris continuing to have a Starbucks here in town, they are going to be offering "Coffee for Troops" again starting this coming week. You can buy a pound or twenty of ground coffee, and they will get it to our troops for you.
Also, in a kill-two-birds-with-one-stone kind of thing, the Red Cross is collecting items to make available to the 600++ troops who will be training this month at Camp Maxey. Go to Starbucks, buy non-perishable stuff like bottled water, trail mix, CDs, books, etc., then take it to the Red Cross drop-off point at Ramseur Baptist Church this Friday, July 18th, between 9 and 12.
Remember to be positive and encouraging to the partners in the store! They're holding up pretty well, most of them, but it's a bummer to think that they might be out of a job soon. Many of them have been there since Day One, and this is a tough road. Tell them what you've done - if you've called, or emailed, or whatever. Tell them to keep their chins up - that you're not giving up, and neither should they!
And, finally, REPRESENT!! Carry your Starbucks cup with you when you shop, show the logo, talk about the store to people you know, and people you don't. Talk to the movers and shakers in town that you know (like Chip Harper, who loves Starbucks) and get them to call, email, write letters.
If we try, and they still close, at least we will know that we've done what we can.
Showing posts with label long-shots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label long-shots. Show all posts
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Monday, July 07, 2008
How Starbucks Broke My Heart
Or: When Numbers on a Corporate Spreadsheet Don’t Tell the Whole Story
I love Starbucks.
I’ve never made any apology for that. I like their products, the personality of the stores, the friendliness of the baristas. I’ve had Starbucks iced lattes from far west Texas to downtown Chicago, from south Alabama to Istanbul, in airports, malls, and on opening day at brand-new stores, and they’ve all been consistently wonderful.
Welcome to Paris, Texas.
A small-ish city of 25,000 in northeast Texas, we Parisians like to think of ourselves as more than a typical small town. Rumors frequently find root here about new businesses that are looking for locations. More often than not, the rumors are quickly debunked (Old Navy? Target? HAH.), but occasionally one turns into reality. Such was the case about two years ago, when the rumor began to spread that Starbucks was coming to town.
When that rumor did turn into reality – well, it was a happy day in Paris! Finally, something measurable that says that Paris is, indeed, more than just another small town. A Starbucks!! We have hit the Big Time, baby! We all watched eagerly as construction began and the store took shape. And when it opened, it didn’t take long for Starbucks to become THE place to meet friends.
No one was more excited than I when the often-dreamed of Starbucks became a reality for us. I’ve been there from Day One. Not daily, but close to it - and since James started working there this summer, it’s been more like a couple of times a day! They know my favorites – my morning Iced Quad Venti Non-fat Latte, my afternoon Venti Shaken Passion Tea Lemonade, or my new favorite, the Venti Blended Lemonade with Passion Tea. They tsk-tsk when I forget to bring my cup from home, because they know that I’m trying to consume less plastic. They remind me to pick up the iTunes pick of the week.
Many of the baristas remember me from Aikin, or they were in class with one of my kids. They call me Mrs. Reed, even though I’ve tried to get them to call me Frances, but now with James working there, they’re starting to call me Momma Reed. I like that. But what I really like the most, is that I’m not the only customer that they know so well. It’s amazing to me to see the number of people come in that the baristas automatically start working their drink as soon as they hit the door.
I’ve been reading with interest all the press Starbucks has been getting lately, as they’ve started to make some decisions about changing the trend that they have found themselves on – declining sales, unprofitable locations, all the corporate things that so often affect the folks on the front lines far more than the folks in the corporate offices.
As multi-store Quiznos franchisees for nearly ten years, Randy and I have seen many changes take place within our own corporate structure. Quiznos, like Starbucks, has suffered greatly from opening way too many stores in too short a period of time and with (in many cases) puzzling real estate choices. Many of our fellow franchisees have been unable to keep up with the changing requirements of a corporation taking sometimes drastic measures to steer Quiznos back onto a profitable path, and have closed or sold their restaurants. This is never an easy choice for a franchisee. No one goes into business thinking they will fail. So we are not unfamiliar with turmoil within a corporation as those in charge try to affect change that will strengthen the corporation as a whole.
How this manifests, unfortunately, is that decisions are made that affect not only the employees of a company, but also the communities involved.
Much to our dismay, we hear that OUR Starbucks is one of those 600 stores currently on the chopping block. At the risk of sounding a tad melodramatic, this is heartbreaking in many ways. As a business owner, I fully understand the need to streamline operations, to cull out the locations that are not profitable, and to reduce overhead. But I would hope that someone, somewhere in the corporate structure of Starbucks might stop looking at the balance sheet for just a moment and see what we – the customers of the store in Paris - see.
All of the things which Starbucks has always been about are present in the store in Paris. Partners who provide quality products, made to correct specifications (which I do not always find in other Starbucks I visit), in a clean and welcoming store. Partners who know their customers, by name and by beverage, frequently starting a drink when they see a familiar car pull into the lot. Partners who are involved in their community. From the store manager, Roger Courson, who seems to be everywhere in town talking about coffee and inviting folks to stop by, to the shift managers and partners who provided coffee and water at the recent Relay for Life – and didn’t leave the stadium until 4:30 a.m., Starbucks employees here in Paris embody the traits I believe that the corporation aspires for all their partners to display.
I know that this location is probably not currently profitable. Sales are probably not what they had originally hoped for. One of the things that should be taken into consideration is that for the entire time the store has been open, the highway directly in front of the store has been undergoing a major construction project. Access to the parking lot is weird right now, and commonly, a visitor to Paris has a hard time figuring out how to get there, and then get back to where they were headed. Even people who live in town try to avoid the area when they can. Many neighboring businesses have been deeply hurt by this project, and the whole city is ready for it to be done. When access is better, I am certain there’d be improved sales. Another thing to consider is that, even if sales are not what they had hoped for, what sales they do have here aren’t going to transfer to another location. Nobody’s going to drive for an hour just to get a Frappuccino.
Randy and I know from experience that sales and profits can come the longer a store has been open. Our store in Hot Springs was not profitable for the first three years it was open. The vast financial resources which Starbucks has at its disposal? The best we had was a MasterCard with enough available credit on it to keep the landlord and our food suppliers happy. It was a challenge to decide whether to keep going there, but we stuck it out, and now it’s doing very well – and getting stronger all the time. That, I believe, will be the case with Starbucks in Paris.
Plus, then there’s the whole goodwill and bad publicity thing. We in Paris don’t need another closed-up building to remind us that Oops! Just kidding! You’re really NOT the big small town you thought you were! PLEASE - close a location where you’ve got three in the same block, or a free-standing store across the driveway from the one in Target, but leave us our one store here in Paris.
IF (and I’m still holding out hope that someone will come to their senses and change their minds) this store closes, I will not feel the same way about Starbucks that I would have felt had they never come to town.
Because now?
Now, they’ve been here, and if they close, they will have screwed over people I have come to know and care about.
HOWARD SCHULTZ, ARE YOU LISTENING?!? Look up from your spreadsheet for just a moment and see what we’re looking at. This Starbucks has barely been open a year. We aren’t giving up on it. It’s far too early for you to give up on it.
I love Starbucks.
I’ve never made any apology for that. I like their products, the personality of the stores, the friendliness of the baristas. I’ve had Starbucks iced lattes from far west Texas to downtown Chicago, from south Alabama to Istanbul, in airports, malls, and on opening day at brand-new stores, and they’ve all been consistently wonderful.
Welcome to Paris, Texas.
A small-ish city of 25,000 in northeast Texas, we Parisians like to think of ourselves as more than a typical small town. Rumors frequently find root here about new businesses that are looking for locations. More often than not, the rumors are quickly debunked (Old Navy? Target? HAH.), but occasionally one turns into reality. Such was the case about two years ago, when the rumor began to spread that Starbucks was coming to town.
When that rumor did turn into reality – well, it was a happy day in Paris! Finally, something measurable that says that Paris is, indeed, more than just another small town. A Starbucks!! We have hit the Big Time, baby! We all watched eagerly as construction began and the store took shape. And when it opened, it didn’t take long for Starbucks to become THE place to meet friends.
No one was more excited than I when the often-dreamed of Starbucks became a reality for us. I’ve been there from Day One. Not daily, but close to it - and since James started working there this summer, it’s been more like a couple of times a day! They know my favorites – my morning Iced Quad Venti Non-fat Latte, my afternoon Venti Shaken Passion Tea Lemonade, or my new favorite, the Venti Blended Lemonade with Passion Tea. They tsk-tsk when I forget to bring my cup from home, because they know that I’m trying to consume less plastic. They remind me to pick up the iTunes pick of the week.
Many of the baristas remember me from Aikin, or they were in class with one of my kids. They call me Mrs. Reed, even though I’ve tried to get them to call me Frances, but now with James working there, they’re starting to call me Momma Reed. I like that. But what I really like the most, is that I’m not the only customer that they know so well. It’s amazing to me to see the number of people come in that the baristas automatically start working their drink as soon as they hit the door.
I’ve been reading with interest all the press Starbucks has been getting lately, as they’ve started to make some decisions about changing the trend that they have found themselves on – declining sales, unprofitable locations, all the corporate things that so often affect the folks on the front lines far more than the folks in the corporate offices.
As multi-store Quiznos franchisees for nearly ten years, Randy and I have seen many changes take place within our own corporate structure. Quiznos, like Starbucks, has suffered greatly from opening way too many stores in too short a period of time and with (in many cases) puzzling real estate choices. Many of our fellow franchisees have been unable to keep up with the changing requirements of a corporation taking sometimes drastic measures to steer Quiznos back onto a profitable path, and have closed or sold their restaurants. This is never an easy choice for a franchisee. No one goes into business thinking they will fail. So we are not unfamiliar with turmoil within a corporation as those in charge try to affect change that will strengthen the corporation as a whole.
How this manifests, unfortunately, is that decisions are made that affect not only the employees of a company, but also the communities involved.
Much to our dismay, we hear that OUR Starbucks is one of those 600 stores currently on the chopping block. At the risk of sounding a tad melodramatic, this is heartbreaking in many ways. As a business owner, I fully understand the need to streamline operations, to cull out the locations that are not profitable, and to reduce overhead. But I would hope that someone, somewhere in the corporate structure of Starbucks might stop looking at the balance sheet for just a moment and see what we – the customers of the store in Paris - see.
All of the things which Starbucks has always been about are present in the store in Paris. Partners who provide quality products, made to correct specifications (which I do not always find in other Starbucks I visit), in a clean and welcoming store. Partners who know their customers, by name and by beverage, frequently starting a drink when they see a familiar car pull into the lot. Partners who are involved in their community. From the store manager, Roger Courson, who seems to be everywhere in town talking about coffee and inviting folks to stop by, to the shift managers and partners who provided coffee and water at the recent Relay for Life – and didn’t leave the stadium until 4:30 a.m., Starbucks employees here in Paris embody the traits I believe that the corporation aspires for all their partners to display.
I know that this location is probably not currently profitable. Sales are probably not what they had originally hoped for. One of the things that should be taken into consideration is that for the entire time the store has been open, the highway directly in front of the store has been undergoing a major construction project. Access to the parking lot is weird right now, and commonly, a visitor to Paris has a hard time figuring out how to get there, and then get back to where they were headed. Even people who live in town try to avoid the area when they can. Many neighboring businesses have been deeply hurt by this project, and the whole city is ready for it to be done. When access is better, I am certain there’d be improved sales. Another thing to consider is that, even if sales are not what they had hoped for, what sales they do have here aren’t going to transfer to another location. Nobody’s going to drive for an hour just to get a Frappuccino.
Randy and I know from experience that sales and profits can come the longer a store has been open. Our store in Hot Springs was not profitable for the first three years it was open. The vast financial resources which Starbucks has at its disposal? The best we had was a MasterCard with enough available credit on it to keep the landlord and our food suppliers happy. It was a challenge to decide whether to keep going there, but we stuck it out, and now it’s doing very well – and getting stronger all the time. That, I believe, will be the case with Starbucks in Paris.
Plus, then there’s the whole goodwill and bad publicity thing. We in Paris don’t need another closed-up building to remind us that Oops! Just kidding! You’re really NOT the big small town you thought you were! PLEASE - close a location where you’ve got three in the same block, or a free-standing store across the driveway from the one in Target, but leave us our one store here in Paris.
IF (and I’m still holding out hope that someone will come to their senses and change their minds) this store closes, I will not feel the same way about Starbucks that I would have felt had they never come to town.
Because now?
Now, they’ve been here, and if they close, they will have screwed over people I have come to know and care about.
HOWARD SCHULTZ, ARE YOU LISTENING?!? Look up from your spreadsheet for just a moment and see what we’re looking at. This Starbucks has barely been open a year. We aren’t giving up on it. It’s far too early for you to give up on it.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Dear Mark Cuban:
Please consider this blog post as my request for press credentials to any upcoming Dallas Mavericks game. Per your own blog post of March 29th, you are throwing the whole experience wide open to any and all bloggers. Good for you! I love to watch the way you can take a directive from the NBA and tweak and turn it to make a point.
Am I qualified for this? Maybe. Please consider the following:
My writing qualifications? Well, I briefly considered a major in journalism when I was in college a million years ago, but came to my senses quickly. But I have had letters to the editor published in my local newspaper from time to time, and I've been writing this blog for a few years now. It’s no great shakes, but my family and friends seem to enjoy it.
My technology credentials? I spent the last eight years of my teaching career as a technology coordinator in the Paris Independent School District, where I repaired computers, taught other teachers to not be afraid of email, and showed 1st graders how to publish a picture to a website, among many other things. I even taught elementary school kids how to use spell check, which is more than many of your frequent commenters seem to have learned. I subscribe to your blog, and look forward to a new posting from you with much anticipation.
My sports qualifications? My husband and I lived in Charlotte in the late eighties, and we were charter season ticket holders with the Charlotte Hornets. Man, those were the good years, before George Shinn got WAY too full of himself. When the games were fun, even if we didn’t win. When 23,698 people booed Michael Jordan the first time the Bulls came to the Charlotte Coliseum.
Michael Jordan. In North Carolina. Because he wasn’t part of the home team anymore. It was AWESOME.
We took our 18 month old daughter to almost every freakin’ home game that first season. Pregnant with her brother during the whole season, I carried her up the stairs to our nosebleed seats, put her up on my shoulders for every national anthem, taught her to cheer for Muggsy Bogues, for Robert Reid, for Dell Curry – who I could not be any more tickled for, watching him watch his son Stephen take the NCAAs by storm in this year’s tournament. I gave Kurt Rambis a high five during an autograph event, after he pulled a pacifier out of a three-year-old’s mouth and told the embarrassed dad in line in front of me: “it’s just so gross to see one of those things hanging out of a kid’s mouth.”
We missed the final home game of the year that first season because I gave birth to our son that May. But on our first night in the hospital, I sat in my room with my newborn son and watched the Hornets on TV, telling him all about the players we would take him to see during the next season. And we did.
Now, can either of my kids talk to you about basketball these days? Not so much, but they’re both students at the University of Alabama, and they can sure talk some Crimson Tide football.
We were only season ticket holders for one more year in Charlotte, because we moved back to Texas, where we picked back up with our enthusiasm for the Mavericks. My husband was actually in attendance for the first Mavericks home game – we still have the medallion he got at that first game. But we weren’t dating then, and he took another girl, so we don’t talk about that much. But he did get to boo Kiki Vandewehge.
But we’ve been Mavs fans ever since, most especially so since you bought the team. I winced when you traded Steve Nash and Jason Kidd, but realized why you did. I cheered when you made Avery Johnson your Head Coach. I get tickled reading about your problems with the league, and your clever and creative ways of dealing with them. I roll my eyes frequently at David Stern and his pompous pronouncements. I learned to hate the Miami Heat when we were in Charlotte (since they came into the league the same year as the Hornets), and I hate them still. I groaned in disbelief when the Dallas city government announced - and the Dallas Morning News published - the route for the stinking victory parade after game 2 in 2006. They jinxed y’all. I still hold them solely responsible for the Mavs losing the Finals.
So what could my blogging do for the Mavericks? In a literal sense, nothing. I have never been able to tell a pick-and-roll from a zone defense, though God knows I have tried to make sense of it all. I can’t brown-nose you, because I know very few important people, except my husband and my kids. I don’t know anyone you know, unless your wife happens to be from the Paris area. Hey - it could happen. Troy Aikman’s wife grew up around here. I don’t know your brother, haven’t met anyone at the Indy Convention Center, and I don’t have a business plan to present to you that is sure to be the Next Big Thing since broadcast.com.
What I do have is a genuine interest in the Mavericks, and you, and other people who pursue professional sports as a way of life, whether as players, or owners, or in some other kind of a support role. Not in a “wow, how awesome you are!” kind of a way, but in how you conduct your lives, and how you interact with people who can ultimately do nothing for you.
I can write effectively, usually (I hope) with some semblance of humor. I could perhaps interpret the experience of being at a Mavs game from a different perspective for those who may not get the mechanics of what happens on the court, but who are still impressed and amazed at the drive and dedication of the people who choose to play.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Love,
cruisermom
Am I qualified for this? Maybe. Please consider the following:
My writing qualifications? Well, I briefly considered a major in journalism when I was in college a million years ago, but came to my senses quickly. But I have had letters to the editor published in my local newspaper from time to time, and I've been writing this blog for a few years now. It’s no great shakes, but my family and friends seem to enjoy it.
My technology credentials? I spent the last eight years of my teaching career as a technology coordinator in the Paris Independent School District, where I repaired computers, taught other teachers to not be afraid of email, and showed 1st graders how to publish a picture to a website, among many other things. I even taught elementary school kids how to use spell check, which is more than many of your frequent commenters seem to have learned. I subscribe to your blog, and look forward to a new posting from you with much anticipation.
My sports qualifications? My husband and I lived in Charlotte in the late eighties, and we were charter season ticket holders with the Charlotte Hornets. Man, those were the good years, before George Shinn got WAY too full of himself. When the games were fun, even if we didn’t win. When 23,698 people booed Michael Jordan the first time the Bulls came to the Charlotte Coliseum.
Michael Jordan. In North Carolina. Because he wasn’t part of the home team anymore. It was AWESOME.
We took our 18 month old daughter to almost every freakin’ home game that first season. Pregnant with her brother during the whole season, I carried her up the stairs to our nosebleed seats, put her up on my shoulders for every national anthem, taught her to cheer for Muggsy Bogues, for Robert Reid, for Dell Curry – who I could not be any more tickled for, watching him watch his son Stephen take the NCAAs by storm in this year’s tournament. I gave Kurt Rambis a high five during an autograph event, after he pulled a pacifier out of a three-year-old’s mouth and told the embarrassed dad in line in front of me: “it’s just so gross to see one of those things hanging out of a kid’s mouth.”
We missed the final home game of the year that first season because I gave birth to our son that May. But on our first night in the hospital, I sat in my room with my newborn son and watched the Hornets on TV, telling him all about the players we would take him to see during the next season. And we did.
Now, can either of my kids talk to you about basketball these days? Not so much, but they’re both students at the University of Alabama, and they can sure talk some Crimson Tide football.
We were only season ticket holders for one more year in Charlotte, because we moved back to Texas, where we picked back up with our enthusiasm for the Mavericks. My husband was actually in attendance for the first Mavericks home game – we still have the medallion he got at that first game. But we weren’t dating then, and he took another girl, so we don’t talk about that much. But he did get to boo Kiki Vandewehge.
But we’ve been Mavs fans ever since, most especially so since you bought the team. I winced when you traded Steve Nash and Jason Kidd, but realized why you did. I cheered when you made Avery Johnson your Head Coach. I get tickled reading about your problems with the league, and your clever and creative ways of dealing with them. I roll my eyes frequently at David Stern and his pompous pronouncements. I learned to hate the Miami Heat when we were in Charlotte (since they came into the league the same year as the Hornets), and I hate them still. I groaned in disbelief when the Dallas city government announced - and the Dallas Morning News published - the route for the stinking victory parade after game 2 in 2006. They jinxed y’all. I still hold them solely responsible for the Mavs losing the Finals.
So what could my blogging do for the Mavericks? In a literal sense, nothing. I have never been able to tell a pick-and-roll from a zone defense, though God knows I have tried to make sense of it all. I can’t brown-nose you, because I know very few important people, except my husband and my kids. I don’t know anyone you know, unless your wife happens to be from the Paris area. Hey - it could happen. Troy Aikman’s wife grew up around here. I don’t know your brother, haven’t met anyone at the Indy Convention Center, and I don’t have a business plan to present to you that is sure to be the Next Big Thing since broadcast.com.
What I do have is a genuine interest in the Mavericks, and you, and other people who pursue professional sports as a way of life, whether as players, or owners, or in some other kind of a support role. Not in a “wow, how awesome you are!” kind of a way, but in how you conduct your lives, and how you interact with people who can ultimately do nothing for you.
I can write effectively, usually (I hope) with some semblance of humor. I could perhaps interpret the experience of being at a Mavs game from a different perspective for those who may not get the mechanics of what happens on the court, but who are still impressed and amazed at the drive and dedication of the people who choose to play.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Love,
cruisermom
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