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Originally Posted by SteveD
Alas...sad but true. One of the worst examples of category killers around, and burned, stale, overpriced coffee. Dunkin' Donuts has better coffee.
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I don't get my this is such a pervasive opinion. Sometimes I think that once a company reaches a certain size or market share, it automatically becomes viewed as evil and of poor quality. The fact is that Starbucks could never have grown as fast and as large as it did without having a good product. The American people are not stupid (at least when it comes to consumer products; politics is another story). If Starbucks was chock full of "burnt, overpriced" coffee, not as many people would patronize the establishments.
Even the argument that they were first movers in an untapped market doesn't hold much weight on this front. To that point, competitors such as Dunkin Donuts, Caribou, and PJs have barely even made a blip on the radar in terms of market share. A firm with a substandard product would have been culled from the industry by now. Also, while I do understand the reasoning behind the complaint that "it kills local businesses" or it is a "category killer," I still don't buy it. Again, if those local stores or other coffee shops had the superior product, people would go there instead of Starbucks.
Yes, giant corporate entities can lose touch with their customer base and become faceless players in the industry, but that doesn't make them evil or worthy of everyone's scorn. Starbucks, as a corporation, does a lot in terms of social responsibility, which is nice to see in this day in age. Finally, I am not a Starbucks (specifically) apologist, but I just think that some opinions about large companies are based on specious reasoning instead of personal experience.