I heard a story on NPR about a couple, Caitlin and Daniel, who were forced to pack up their car with their dog, infant son and life's belongings to live with Caitlin's mother in Maine. It's a story about the recession and how it's forcing people to go back to their roots, even if it's with heads hanging.
It seems the recession is bringing a lot of folks home. Recently, Starbucks opened a new store, aptly named "Heritage," just across the street from its historic, first, Pike Place store. The idea is to connect back to their coffee heritage.
photos from Tim Girvin's blog http://blog.girvin.com
How are they doing this? Well, as far as I can tell, they're going through some of the standard, "green" motions: the bar is encased in scrap leather from shoe and automobile factories, there's a reused community table, the bathrooms have energy efficient hand dryers and lighting, and there's recycling for hot and cold cups. And their walls are covered in coffee burlap sacks. So the question is: are these pit stops on the journey home to the heart of the Starbucks brand or the final destination?
Back to Caitlin and Daniel. Their story is touching because you understand how hard it must be. "I’m almost thirty-five years old and I’ve just moved in with my mother. I have a child, a husband and a dog." But you also see a fundamental transformation in what they consider important: they traded the big dreams and boundless ambitions of their L.A. lives for a deeper, richly satisfying sense of family in Maine.
Heritage for Starbucks tells a nice enough story, from what I can see. But stories are hardly enough to turn around a failing brand in a new economy that demands that everyone rethink how we live. Beyond a new look and catch-up greening, what are the deeper changes here at Starbucks Heritage? The menu is the same, except for the fact that no prices are displayed (a tip-of-the-hat to the regular). The same maddening language. A return home should demand much more than a new outfit. Transformative business practices, perhaps in the form of a new service model, need to go with the distressed leather and stained concrete. Those are the types of changes that can turn a brand around - ones that run deep beneath the surface, a bit harder to spot than the Dyson hand dryers.
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