Can Starbucks be saved?

“It's been a rough year for Starbucks, which saw a 97 percent profit drop in the fourth quarter and a sharp decline in traffic and spending at U.S. stores.”(1)

There has been criticism about the pricing and other strategies of Starbucks in the U.S. In essence, the U.S. Starbucks is criticized for over-confident, wrong assessment of its weak sales, bad PR moves and so on. In an old article in BusinessWeek in 2006, such criticisms were raised.(2)

The situation of the Starbucks in Hong Kong cannot be as bad as in the U.S. Most people, however, also find the prices of their products are too high, considering everything. In view of the impending recession, it seems quite likely that the sales of the Hong Kong Starbucks will also fall.

Taking the situation of the US Starbucks, in what way and how much can any business or customer relationship strategies be used to save the business? I am thinking about it. Who has the answer?




(1) see Profit takes big hit as Starbucks readjusts to bad economy, Seattle Times, 11 November 2008 (available at http://www.tmcnet.com/scripts/print-page.aspx?PagePrint=http%3a%2f%2fwww.tmcnet....)
(2) see What’s behind Starbucks’ Price Hike, BusinessWeek, September 22, 2006
(available at http://www.businessweek.com/print/bwdaily/dnflash/content/sep2006/db20060922_252...)