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Damn You, Starbucks

Posted by Scott on 16th November, 2007 |    3 comments

It began innocently enough, with a bottle of iced caffe mocha from my hotel room’s fridge in Las Vegas at Blog World. A day later, I was driving at night and needed a Starbucks mocha to stay alert. That’s all it took: I’ve officially developed a full blown caffe mocha addiction. Yes, I must now have my daily iced or hot Starbucks caffe mocha and Starbucks, I hate you for making me addicted but I do like your beverage . At least I can take solace in the fact that I like the tall nonfat no whip variety that’s 174 calories and 2g of fat rather than the whole milk whip version that’s 340 calories and 19g of fat.

I managed to stave off a coffee addiction for 29 years. Iced tea sure, but never coffee. I used to poke fun at the people who had to have their morning coffee fix, or those that had 5, 10, or more cups a day. I don’t think I’ll get to that point, and maybe this is just a phase. But for now, Starbucks, you’re getting my $3.50/day.

Any business that’s based on selling an addictive product is probably a good bet. If Starbucks was smart, they’d do a 5 free coffees promotion and just tie the promo to each person’s drivers license number. Enter their license number into the computer to keep track, rack up the coffees and voila, you’ve got yourself a new addict, er… customer.

Business models that rely on human weakness, such as addictions and laziness, can’t help but be successful. That’s why I’ve always been so bullish on the Internet in general. Whether you’re an ecommerce based business selling a product, or a content/advertising based business that just needs people to look at your site to make money, what better business is there than one that doesn’t ask anything more of its customers than to walk from their bed to their PC in their underwear and click a mouse button? People don’t have to get dressed, drive anywhere, etc – of any business, that’s the one to get into, because people will always be lazy and it seems to me that people are getting even lazier over time.

Never fear, Starbucks. I will help pull you through your recent 1% sales slump. I have a feeling though, that as long as people remain addicted to your product, and they will, you will be ok.

But… That 1% sales slump probably means more for our economy than just a hit to Starbucks. If people are skipping their daily coffee, how will that affect spending this holiday season and does it mean that people are skimping in all areas? Or, maybe these people just realized how much money they’re throwing away by spending $3.50/day on coffee. Over 10 years, with that money invested conservatively in the market instead of spent on coffee, it comes to $21,500. A pricey caffeine buzz, for sure.

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Friday, November 16th, 2007 at 9:34 pm and is filed under Web Business. If you like this post why not subscribe to my full text RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.