Starbucks is really going to crap!

For many years Starbucks would change the flavor of their coffee multiple times a week. Bold, Mild and Decaf move around and let us both explore and enjoy a variety of coffees. Then a couple years ago they flavors went to changing weekly. This was not as good but it was ok, 104 flavors a year seemed pretty good (I do not drink decaf). Now my Starbucks has stopped changing the flavor. They have had House Blend as the mild flavor for WEEKS and they tell me it will stay that way until the end of the year! If I wanted the same flavor coffee every week I would go to one of the Bread Company places.

Another thing that made Starbucks interesting is they would re-arrange their furniture from time to time. Reminded me of coming home from school and finding my Mom had moved everything around. Well it seems the district manager does not like this and has insisted that the furniture remain one way to facilitate getting more customers through more quickly. Excuse me but it is this kind of attitude, worrying about revenue above everything else, that has caused me to leave other businesses. And they have stopped changing their music selection as much too, instead of each Starbucks having a variety of cd's to play they all now must use that crappy Hear music service.

Certainly I want them to be profitable and I know moving customers through quick helps, having a consolidate music service reduces costs etc. but I go there for the atmosphere as much as anything and they have killed the atmosphere.

Layoffs suck all around

A very good friend of mine has been laid off from the company we both work for. He is actually the friend who introduced me to blogging and opened my eyes to many other internet technologies. To be sure the layoff sucks most for him and his family during this time of uncertainty. At the same time it also sucks for those of us left behind who keep looking over our shoulders and wonder when the layoff bullet will finally hit us.

My friend, we will call him Sparky, has a valuable skill set that I think is really needed in the company so why then did the layoff hammer hit him? Like so many it is all about where you are in the company and not about your skills or value to the company. If you organization can save the company tons of money by shipping labor over seas to China or India or Costa Rica or even Canada then your organization will do that. Corporate America does not care that the average family income continues to drop year after year, they only care about cutting out the cost of labor as much as possible. Of course this does not extend to off-shoring our CEO's or Vice-Presidents.

I want to ask Sparky how the job hunt is going but I also don't want to rub salt in the wound since I am still employed. I want to tell him how much his friendship means to me but guys usually don't speak about such things. I want to apologize for not being a very good friend most of the time. Most of all though I want him to know how much I have appreciated his willingness to put up with me and open my eyes to so much in the world of technology.

I hope we can still see each other at Starbucks once in awhile Sparky.

Sincerely,

Eric