Starbucks Down But Not Out!

Looks like Starbucks realized they needed to shut more stores, 600 included the total from the last round. As a businessperson, accepting a retrenchment is hard to do. When you have been in growth mode for decades, then suddenly you have to slam on the brakes, not for survival, but to keep the A-holes on Wall Street happy, has to suck.

So Howard, I feel for ya. But what’s the old saying, “what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.” I don’t think $4.00 coffee is going to win out over $4.00 gas, so something obviously has to give. But it is these times that guys with vision attack. If Schultz didn’t have to keep Wall Street happy, he would expand in markets like this because there are plenty of opportunities out there to capture market share.

But, before you expand, you must retract, so 600 stores and 12,000 people will be “insert corporate doublespeak here.” Which leads me to this funny video from Louis Black that is quite apropos: