In my Thursday evvening IS 7010 class, we keep coming back to Starbucks and McDonald’s as examples of distinctive competencies. Starbucks does coffee and coffee-flavored milk very, very well.
As a music store, Starbucks is not that great. I do not understand why Starbucks has to litter its counters and floors with CDs and DVDs for sale. Most Starbucks customers want coffee, not entertainment.
In the fast-food industry, breakfast is battle to satisfy some very specific key success factors. Coffee has to be hot and acceptable. The food has to be quick and reasonable. McDonald’s figured these issues out in the 1970s and has dominated fast-food breakfast ever since.
Starbucks has announced that the company will dump its recently introduced line of breakfast sandwiches before this fall. The items were selling, but counter staff had to spend time microwaving the refrigerated sandwiches.
Frankly, this idea sounded more like a McDonald’s scheme. After all, McDonald’s uses distribution as its driving force. The food can be assembled in the restaurant with a minimum of skill. The factory plays an important part in preparing the food to be shipped to each restaurant.
As McDonald’s rolls out its McCafe coffee counters, Starbucks is planning a 19 March announcement of five “bold” new features. I’m wondering what Starbucks will try next. Perhaps they’ll have breakfast pastries that actually taste good.
