Interviews

Interview with Mark Malkoff: The guy who visited 171 Starbucks in one day

by Melody on October 6, 2010

{ 16 comments }

A few years ago a New York comedian Mark Malkoff decided that he would visit all 171 Starbucks in Manhattan in one single 24-hour period.  Could he do it?  Mark produced a nail-biter of a video of his quest.  Though it’s been a few years, it’s still a delight to watch.   A few days ago, I caught up with Mr. Malkoff through email and asked him a few follow-up questions.  Thank you Mark for agreeing to this mini interview and your answers are wonderful! Enjoy!

(If you enjoy reading interviews, click here for more of them.)

(1)  What’s your favorite Starbucks drink?

I love Frappuccinos, but normally stick to green tea.

(2)  How long after visiting 171 Starbucks was it before you stepped foot into a Starbucks again?

About two weeks.

(3)  I laughed out loud at the part of bribing a barista for a piece of pound cake.  Eighty dollars for a piece of pound cake.  So have you had any subsequent opportunities to bribe a barista?

No other bribes. I was amused that the worker was soon after actually promoted to scheduling manager.  I must mention it was the tastiest $80 pound cake I’ve ever had.

(4)  I recently saw in the news that a brand new New York City Starbucks opened up: http://news.starbucks.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=437 – Upper East Side.  Just checking … Have you been to it?

Not yet.  I’ve been to all the others so I’m sure I’ll visit sooner or later.  It’s inevitable.

(5)  What new project are you working on that you want to tell my readers?

I’m working on a bunch of crazy new video projects, but I’m sworn to secrecy.  I can tell you that one video project involves New York City taxis.

(6) If you could, say, ask, or tell Howard Schultz (CEO of Starbucks) one single thing, what would it be?

I’d tell Howard how much I admire that Starbucks gives back to the community.

(7) When was your most recent trip to Starbucks?

I was in a Starbucks in the past week.  Normally I get a green tea.

(8) I saw that you made a video called “5 days in a bathroom” – Actually, I only found part 2 and not part 1. But so it might have been 5 days without internet, but did you really have to go without Starbucks for 5 days?

I did go 5 days without Starbucks, but the Starbucks people actually heard about what I was doing and sent over packets of Via.  They were so kind to think of me.

(9)  My favorite part of the “5 days in a bathroom” was you learning how to knit.  The sight of you with pink knitting needles and some nice chunky yarn made me giggle.  Have you kept up with the knitting?  If so, what was the last thing you made?

All I’ve made so far is that one scarf.  Maybe I’ll shoot next for a sweater.

(10) When you’re not being absolutely hilariously funny, and finding people to carry you around New York, what do you do?

Let’s see.  I write a lot.  I work on coming up with ideas.  I go to church.  I apologize to my wife for putting her through my comedy projects.  171 Starbucks was particularly agonizing for her.

(11) Have you ever been to Seattle? I’ve only been on one vacation to New York City and it was in the month August, and I experienced humidity like never before.  What do you do to get away from that?

Yes I’ve been to Seattle.  I loved it.  When it’s humid in New York I try to stay in my apartment … or maybe go to Starbucks.

(12) And last but not least, there is only one right answer to this question, do you use a Registered Starbucks Card?  If not, go get one!

No. Good idea!

(13) I forgot to ask, how many months or how much time went into preparing for 171 Starbucks in one day? It looks like an enormous amount of planning!

It took me two months of preparation.  I don’t know how I pulled it off.  I had to hit a store every seven minutes for over 23 hours!

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For a few minutes, Howard Schultz (Starbucks CEO), Winter and Melody all in one room

by Melody on May 2, 2010

{ 27 comments }

Winter, at Roy Street Coffee, April 30, 2010

A meeting with famous Starbucking customer Winter at Roy Street Coffee, and Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks in the room:

When I started plotting out this blog entry, I had planned it to be the sequel blog post to my prior interview with Winter, who is the famous Starbucks customer on a journey to see every company-operated store in the world. Not just the US. Not just North America. The world.  What an incredible goal.  One has to admire the drive that people have to accomplish goals. He is a famous customer. There has been a movie made about him called “Starbucking“.  He’s been featured in the media numerous times.

By way of background, the first episode of this story starts here:

Catching up with Winter

Last September, I started this blog and at that time I reached out to Winter because I wanted to interview him.  Lucky for me, he was coming to Seattle to visit 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea.  I’ve been in contact with him ever since. He tweets. We’ve exchanged a couple of emails. I briefly caught up with him when I took a short trip to Texas to explore the then-test-version of the Frappuccino (launching everywhere May 4, 2010).

Roughly two weeks ago, Winter tweeted that he was coming back up to Seattle because he had not yet seen Roy Street Coffee and Tea. Fabulous! I would have a chance for a second interview. He narrowed it down that he would briefly be in Seattle on 29th and the 30th of April.  His preferred time to meet up would have been Thursday afternoon (the 29th).  Unfortunately this was a day where I had a heavy court schedule. I tried to get the day off.  I had too many cases that would have needed coverage, and there simply weren’t spare attorneys in my office to do that for me. One thing about my work is that if I am not in court I have quite a bit of flexibility, but if I’m in court, the opposite is true. Finally we compromised on Friday morning, the 30th, first thing in the morning so that he would have time to drive down to Portland afterward for a Scrabble tournament.  He plays competitive Scrabble.  My understanding is that he is ranked in the top 50 Scrabble players nationwide.

This morning (4-30-2010) I arrived at Roy Street Coffee at the scheduled time, in fact just a few minutes early.  The place seemed to have a buzzing energy about it. I could feel it. Lots of people buzzing around, a separate room getting set up for something, and very alert looking partners milling around.  I approached a partner whom I know and asked, “what’s up?” and he replied, (not verbatim) “Howard is coming by soon to taste some coffee.”

I was stunned at the coincidence.  Shortly thereafter Winter arrived, and we camped out in a corner and began to talk.  We drank coffee, and I ate a yogurt parfait, and I began the interview.  At one point I got up and went to the register and right then I saw Howard Schultz coming in the front of the store.  He had that look on his face that radiated, “I’m busy.”  I said nothing to Howard and sat back down and continued to chat with Winter.  Howard headed towards the private room behind the red velvet curtain (there literally is a room behind a red velvet curtain at Roy Street Coffee).  Before he disappeared into a private room, Winter looked up and said to me, “Is that Howard?”.  I said “yes.”  We both chatted about how stunning it was to see him here. Winter said it was the closest he’s been to him. At one point, Howard lingered about literally 3 feet away from where the two of us sat.  And then he disappeared behind the curtain, and was gone. I didn’t see him again. We were all in the same room for about three to five minutes.

He looked busy, and so I simply did not want to interrupt, and on top of that, I figured at this point there might be diminishing returns on Howard-Schultz-handshaking.  ;) He’s already autographed two Pike Place Cards for me, one Conservation International card (sent to @Sbirr), and one Heritage design card.  He knows who I am. Whether he recognized Winter is a real question in my mind, but I’m sure he had to have recognized me. The bottom line was that it didn’t feel to me like a good time to bother him.  I was though left with a sense of disappointment. I think it would have been SO cool if he had come over and met Winter.  I am sure that Winter would have liked it.  Obviously Winter is rarely in Seattle, and this was one of those once-in-a-blue-moon moments.  Winter later told me a great story: On one of his Starbucking adventures, while in Florida, he by chance met Howard Behar.  Howard Behar was delighted to meet Winter and took the opportunity to reload his Starbucks card for him as a gift! What a great gesture!!

Turning the blog discussion back to Winter, he is working right now so not doing a lot of Starbucking. Here are highlights of our discussion (not perfectly verbatim):

Melody:  Why don’t you give me update as to where you’re at with US Stores you’ve seen?

Winter:  Well, I have to apologize because the numbers haven’t really changed that much since our last interview, or at least since October.  Since then there weren’t that many stores I visited across the US and Canada: maybe a few dozen.  It’s been pretty much static because no new company stores have opened in the US since December — only about 14 stores opened in Canada since then.

Melody:  You’ve visited every store in the US?

Winter: Right now there is three – There is one in Scottsdale, Arizona, one in Frisco, Texas, and one in San Diego. Those are three stores I haven’t been to. …

Melody: So you’ve got three stores you’ve got to get to…

Melody: What made you come to Roy Street today, other than arranging to meet with me here?

Winter: Because it doesn’t look like Starbucks is going to open very many new stores, if any, in the US this year, and not that many Canada .  This will probably be my first year since 1998 without a Starbucking road-trip. A cross country Starbucks road-trip. Since I’ve been focusing on Scrabble, and there is this tournament in Portland, this would a good opportunity to visit this store, and the new one in Bellevue Square, and two new ones up in BC. All I had to do is just fly in a day ahead of time.

Melody:  How many left to go in Canada?

Winter:  I believe there are 14 or 15 left in Canada.

Melody: What about your international plans to travel?

Winter:  My international plans are going to have to wait until January 2011 because of Scrabble.  Even if my job ends later this year, I’m still trying to play in a Scrabble tournament every single weekend of this calendar year.  Hopefully in January I’ll be able to someplace where it’s warm, like Australia. I have to focus on Australia because there is an article that main Starbucks will continue supporting Australia through January next year, and then after that, who knows…

Melody:  I remember hearing that you have record of hitting 28 stores in one day.

Winter: 29 stores in Starbucking.  You’ve seen Starbucking?

Melody:  Well..uhhh

Winter: How could possibly have not seen Starbucking?

Melody: …unintelligible

Winter: Oh my god!

Melody: Well it’s funny. Okay so I’m going to tell you a story.  Last night I was just at my friend’s house and picked up this 1993 Annual Report – cause she is the one who has all these old annual reports so that I can use it on my website -, and my friend says, “Oh Melody, I was just at the Seattle Public Library book-sale and I saw this movie, “Starbucking” and I thought of you and picked it up.” Which means she picked it up for a dollar at book-sale, and I got it last night.

Winter: So they had a copy of Starbucking at the Seattle Public Library? That is cute. That is a cute story, the thought that you got it at a library book sale. That the Seattle Public Library had it.  The director Bill should get a kick out of that.

Melody: So have you ever beat that record of 29 stores in one day?

Winter:  No. I haven’t. I could envision myself, if I really really wanted to, beating that in a city like Seoul, South Korea. Even with public transportation I could probably get to 30, if I really wanted to but I would be really uncomfortable. I have to think about that. Since I would be at a hostel … I’ll think about it. I’ll worry about that when I get there.  But let me add that I don’t think that opportunity will ever present itself in the United States again. That’s over and done with in terms of growth in the United States and Canada.

Melody: So in terms of a time-frame, do you have an end-point? Done in 2015?

Winter: I thought we through this last time we met. There is no done. So long as Starbucks exists and opens up new stores, and I’m able to travel, and the world economy allows a person to travel from one place to another…

Melody: Last time we met, you’ve been to Canada since then? Anything in particular that you saw in the Canadian Starbucks that you like?

Winter:  I am pretty sure I’ve seen at least one or two stores up there that have the, incorporate the recycled materials.

Melody:  The LEED Certified design?

Winter: I am not sure if they’ve been LEED Certified. But I’m pretty sure a few of the stores in Canada have the newer designs which seem to incorporate recycled materials.  I can’t be completely sure. The stores that have been open since then – the 14 or so stores I haven’t been to yet – I’m going to be seeing those designs. But I don’t know when I’ll get to them. I might get to Calgary and Edmonton in June for a Scrabble tournament. And I may get to Toronto later this month for a Scrabble tournament,

Melody: I wanted to ask if you’re going to come back and see stores you’ve already been to that have had significant remodels.  I ask this question thinking about the Olive Way store because I remember you said you really liked that store.

Winter: I was just parked at the Olive Way store this morning!

Melody: I know you like that store.  And that store is slated for a drastic remodel from the gossip that I hear …

Winter: If I know that it has been remodeled and I’m in the area, I’ll try to see it again.  I’m not going to make a special trip out, but Seattle is a place I’ll always come back to. There’s that store that Starbucks tweeted about 76 Spring Street, which I think is 72 Spring Street in Manhatten, which is now LEED Certified. I’ve actually hung out at that store.

Melody: How long ago were you at that store?

Winter:  Oh I don’t know. I’ve done so much work on the East Coast. I’ll just go up to New York for the weekends for Scrabble tournaments, and I’ll just hang out sometimes at that store, but no I have not seen it since the remodel. No, I have been there in a few months. Now that I’ve read about it, I’ll check it out next time I’m up in that area and have extra time.

Melody:  What do you think of Roy Street?

Winter:  Oh this is beautiful. Magnificent.  The only reason I can’t call this one of the most beautiful – well it is one of the most beautiful – the only reason I can’t call this the most beautiful store is because there is the Boulevard des Capucines store in Paris. That kind of outshines any other any store in the world. That is something that wont be repeated very often anywhere in the world.  You ought to hop on a plane and go there Mel.

Melody: (laughter) I don’t even have a current passport.

Winter: You should always have a passport. You’re a lawyer and you should know you should always have a passport and if you get into trouble and you have to run. (Very non-serious tone of voice).

Melody: (More laughter) I don’t plan on getting in trouble.

Winter:  How many people PLAN on getting in trouble? It just kind of happens.

Melody: oooohhhh.  (Laughter). You and I are the opposite extremes of each other. I stay right here. And you are all over the world.

Melody: Are you ever going to write a book about all of this?

Winter: A book is always in the back of my mind.  I have always two books in the back of my mind.

Melody:  What are the two books?

Winter:  The other book is about philosophy.  Well, actually, with Starbucks there are at least two different books.  There are my adventures, and then there is what I think would be – very perfectly marketable if somebody did it right – just a book of photographs and descriptions of some of the prettiest stores around the country.  I can’t believe Starbucks hasn’t commissioned anybody to do something like that.

Melody: That would be a perfect book.

Winter:  They’ve got lots of stores where the interiors and everything are beautiful.

While Winter was there at Roy Street, he ordered a glass of wine, just for the novelty of being able to order alcohol at a Starbucks. He drank like three sips of it, and we toasted my Sumatra with his red wine.  Mostly he didn’t drink it, and then pretty soon he was off on his way to the Scrabble tournament in Portland.  We laughed that there are only two places in the world where you can have alcohol at a Starbucks.

——

Just an aside comment about all three of us (Howard, Melody, Winter) being all within 3 feet of each other:  I’ve been thinking about this. Though I would have wanted Howard to say ‘hello’, the circumstances were such that I can see why it didn’t happen. For one thing, I primarily sat with my back to Howard, and facing Winter.  Whether or not Howard recognized Winter is a complete mystery to me. But Howard didn’t appear generally social, and I think one is less likely to approach and say hello when it appears that two people are engaged in conversation (in other words, there can be some awkwardness breaking into Melody and Winter’s conversation).  And the bottom line is that the look on his face radiated ‘all business’ and not social time. But was I disappointed? Yes. But do I understand why he didn’t say hello? Yes. I get it.

What do you think should happen in this scenario? Imagine a CEO pops into one of his stores and sees customers he knows by name, and recognizes their faces. What should he do? What is good etiquette under this circumstance?

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In Conversation: Bryant Simon, author of Everything But the Coffee, Learning About America From Starbucks

by Melody on January 14, 2010

{ 15 comments }

Bryant Simon at Roy Street Coffee on Jan., 13, 2010

Bryant Simon is currently in town visiting Seattle on his book tour, and StarbucksMelody got a chance to catch up with him at Roy Street Coffee and Tea and ask him a few questions.  Again, I am reminded that I am hardly a professional journalist and I need more practice at this, but here are some highlights from our conversation this evening:

We started the evening with him mentioning that just before meeting with me, he had met with an SSC partner (a partner at the corporate headquarters) who had contacted him to chat with him.  I recognized the name of the SSC partner as someone fairly highly placed, and so I began with a question regarding that:

StarbucksMelody: You just had told me that you had met with a particular Starbucks person, who is fairly high level…having had a chance to speak face to face with someone like that, does it change any of your opinions of Starbucks? Did it get any serious questions answered for you?

Bryant Simon: No.  I would never doubt that there aren’t people within the company who are really committed to an expansive vision for this company – That this company play positive role in the world.  But that doesn’t mean that is actually how the policy plays out all the time. And the fact that it does play out sometimes, that doesn’t negate one of the larger points I want to make in the book is that Starbucks wants to insist at times that it’s different than other companies but I would say that more often it operates in a way that is similar to most companies.

StarbucksMelody:  What’s your favorite drink at Starbucks?

Bryant Simon: My favorite drink really all I drink at Starbucks is coffee. I actually like Starbucks coffee.

StarbucksMelody: So which coffee do you like Verona, Sumatra, Komodo Dragon?

Bryant Simon: I actually only half the time pay attention.

StarbucksMelody: That’s very strange, if you like coffee?

Bryant Simon: I do like coffee but I don’t pay a ton of attention to what I’m drinking. The drinks were never the thing for me. When I first discovered Starbucks I drank Mistos.

StarbucksMelody: Back to the book. Did you have anyone proof it who actually is a Starbucks employee for factual accuracy? I notice some minor factual inaccuracies especially in the first half of the book.

Bryant Simon: Uh. No.  And if I am wrong, probably, then I’m relying on some bad journalism and then my own fault, probably equally to blame.

StarbucksMelody: When you finally get to read my book review you’ll get to see the places I point out bad information.

Bryant Simon: Oh good. No but it would’ve been great to have that person. I would say that Starbucks, this is one of criticism… Starbucks held me … was not eager to help. So if I asked questions then they often went unanswered… You might be right…I went through the sources were offered to me.  I had kinda a lot of people who worked there and left. Give me one factual error and I will tell you if it was my mistake.

StarbucksMelody: So somewhere in here you actually talk about the dress code.  I think in the chapter on uniformity. And you give a description of it that is inaccurate.  For example, you say that baristas can only wear khaki pants which is not true – they can wear black or khaki.  You describe that they can wear ‘not too much perfume’ but even today, perfume is forbidden.

Bryant Simon: I got that directly from someone who worked at Starbucks.

StarbucksMelody: Then you also say that they have to wear a Starbucks shirt. They don’t have to wear a Starbucks-branded shirt, but they do have to wear white or black, and then there is some funny rule where if they wear a white button-down shirt, they have to have the same colored undershirt underneath. Like, you can’t wear, apparently, a black button-down shirt with a white undershirt.

Bryant Simon: I can live with that mistake! It doesn’t argue against the point.

StarbucksMelody: No, that’s actually what I’m writing for the book review …you’re getting a taste of it… That you make a lot of minor factual errors but they don’t really change the weight of your argument.

Byrant Simon: I can live with that. It’s a hard book to back check. In some sense…

StarbucksMelody: (interrupted! Bad Melody!) …you needed me…

Bryant Simon:..yeah I did!

StarbucksMelody: Okay, so on the point of authenticity…Something that had popped in my head: You talk about the interior of a Starbucks as “props”. The whole bean wall is a “prop”.  The espresso machines as props, that this sort of creates the coffeehouse atmosphere, but one of the thing that popped into my head coming originally from California, seems like Californians never get out of their cars. The drive-thru is incredibly popular and in California you’ll meet people who have no idea what happens inside a Starbucks, they only use the drive-thru. How do you reconcile this incredible phenomena these people who don’t get out of the car but love Starbucks?

[[It was a rambly, badly-worded question. I was trying to ask, "How does one reconcile the success of the drive-thru in certain geographies while your book seems to suggest that customers need the props of the interior of the stores?"  Fortunately, he completely understood me.]]

Bryant Simon: You know this is a really interesting question. I struggled with it. I don’t drive.

StarbucksMelody: You don’t drive?

Bryant Simon: Not really. I can drive but I almost never drive.

StarbucksMelody:  Okay, so how do you reconcile this?

Bryant Simon: And so, I tried to get a sort of handle on the drive thru experience by sitting in stores. I’ve been through the drive thru like a couple of times. I think it is a fair comment that that is some place where the book isn’t very comprehensive. Because I thought about ‘how do I do research on this?’ ‘how does this shape commitment to community?’ ‘how did this add to sales’. I did stuff like sit in drive thru store and count …I did stuff like keep track of number of customers and taking notes. It was a way for me to get a sense of what people were doing in the stores.

StarbucksMelody: Have you visited the showcase stores like University Village and First and Pike yet?

Bryant Simon: I’ve been to First and Pike last time I was here. I have not been to University Village and I’ve been to the Pike Place Market store, I mean the original store.

[[In the next section, we kept interrupting each other a lot...]]

StarbucksMelody: Let’s talk about coffee sourcing for a second. This is one of those areas that is great fascination for me, but might not for you. In the indy coffee movement right now there is a strong movement towards “direct trade” branding and you see that at Intelligentsia on their website, and at Stumptown, at their website as well.  So “direct trade” appears to be trying to create private equitable relations with farmers. It’s a great branding, and it’s a movement away from “Fair Trade”… this could be a whole ‘nother conversation…And it seems that consumers right now are not savvy enough to understand that “Fair Trade” is a label…

Bryant Simon: …nor are they savvy enough to know the difference between C.A.F.E. practices and Fair Trade…

StarbucksMelody: …uuuummmm… I think that is a little better understood, but I think they can’t distinguish between … like when you start throwing all of these things at them like “direct trade” “fair trade” and “C.A.F.E. practices” – it starts to become very blurry because people don’t really understand..

Bryant Simon: … except that I think that… well, I’ll wait for the question…

StarbucksMelody: ..well in some ways …

Bryant Simon: …this is a really thorny issue as you know…

StarbucksMelody: …well, I actually find it ironic because as the movement is in the direction of “direct trade,” it is actually moving closer and closer to what Starbucks has already been doing for well over a decade… and that is “private equitable relations with farmers”…

Bryant Simon: …Fair trade is still “private equitable relations with farmers” the state is not involved…

StarbucksMelody:… well it’s a license though, and that’s very very different…

Bryant Simon: …it is just a certificate run by a quasi-non-prof…there is no state involved…

StarbucksMelody:…but having a multinational, large profit with association fees is part of the reason that smaller businesses like Intelligentsia – I don’t know how small it is – are moving away from Fair Trade…

Bryant Simon: …no it’s not entirely the reason why Intelligentsia and Stumptown are moving away from what they don’t particularly like about Fair Trade is that they can’t control the quality of the bean… what they want to do is identify excellence …reward excellence…but Fair Trade wants to create equity. And it’s not that it’s not that they’re concerned with quality …

StarbucksMelody:..but every description I hear of “direct trade” sounds like fabulous re-branding of C.A.F.E. practices is all about… all about quality beans and responsible farmer relations…It is amazing to me, you probably know this, but in 2008 Starbucks had 24,000 C.A.F.E. practices farmers in Sumatra…

Bryant Simon: …I didn’t know that, that’s sort of staggering…

StarbucksMelody:…those are all little tiny farmers. It’s amazing that they could get that many farms to work with them cooperatively.

[[This part of the interview I did I really poor job of trying to get out what I wanted to say. I essentially was trying to say that his book's description of C.A.F.E. practices being primarily large farms isn't really right, and that Starbucks is in fact many of the same practices as indy houses, but indy houses have much better sounding lingo with "direct trade".]]

Bryant Simon: …it’s amazing that they could get that many to fill out the paperwork…Direct trade is all about the quality of the coffee…The problem at base, where they’re getting criticized is that they’re pulling people out of the cooperative…And this is for people who are concerned with the political issues involved, the fact that they’re pulling people out of the co-ops is a real issue…

StarbucksMelody:… oh, I don’t think most consumers understand that…

Bryant Simon: …I’m talking at source, at origin… if you go talk to people in Nicaragua there is a real big debate whether Intelligentsia is doing a bad thing or a good thing to Nicaragua coffee farmers and small farmers…but by singling out the ones who give them better beans and giving them long term contracts that is really the key here…

StarbucksMelody:…but this is exactly what … “long term contracts” is a Starbucks phrase…

Bryant Simon: …the thing about C.A.F.E. practices… the characterization I made about C.A.F.E. practices…I actually didn’t know what I was going to find…when I went to Nicaragua and went to talk to people, that was almost entirely based on interviews of two people who explained it to me, and talking to exporters, and then talking to Dub Hay as well who readily acknowledged that they weren’t buying from small farmers because they couldn’t  get enough beans from them…When I talked to him, he didn’t say anything about Sumatra…he talked mostly about Africa and Central America…

StarbucksMelody: okay, next question…comes from me browsing John Moore’s website, and he has a blog entry that ‘there is no such thing as authenticity, only varying degrees of inauthenticity’ and so do you think that is what any major corporation has going on… because your criticism of Starbucks essentially is that it is not an authentic experience…

Bryant Simon: …yeah well I’d definitely agree that there is no platonic, no objective form of authenticity.  It’s a search, a chase but also that there is a continuum in that there are things closer than what we represent as authentic.

StarbucksMelody: Do you think that Starbucks is authentic as it can be for its size?

Bryant Simon: I actually think that …  I think you’re misrepresenting the way I say this … I think they set themselves as up quite frequently as the seller of authenticity and they’re on this tight rope where, it’s very important to them, they need to have enough authenticity to seem as though they have coffee knowledge…

StarbucksMelody:  Starbucks has a big red cape, and carries with it the ability to make more people successful than just itself… isn’t it true that you’re trading on Starbucks success just to sell your book?

Bryant Simon: No, I’m not… no I mean, it allowed me to take a reasonably recognized company and try to use it as a way to interrogate the company and the culture; it happened to be that I am interested in coffee and I’m interested in coffee shops as…

StarbucksMelody: I don’t believe that you’re interested in coffee otherwise you’d be paying attention to whether you’re drinking Verona or Komodo Dragon or Sumatra …

Bryant Simon: I’m more interested in coffee shops…

StarbucksMelody: …you are interested in coffee shops, you are not interested in coffee sir!

Bryant Simon: That’s fair.  [[Insert lots of laughter here]] And I never represent myself as a coffee expert. But I could have done this by writing about Target, any number of sort of recognizeable brands that are involved in… I could have done Eddie Bauer, The Body Shop….

StarbucksMelody:  What can Starbucks do better?

Bryant Simon: I think there is a really easy answer. And that is to push in-store ceramic cups.

I want to say that throughout the interview, there was a jovial tone of voice. Bryant Simon is quite a pleasant guy who smiles and doesn’t get irritated when you argue with him.  Very pleasant interview!  Those were the highlights!  I should probably explain that we talked much longer than what is given above, and I have provided some of the more interesting conversations above.  When all is said and done, I would say that Bryant Simon and I can agree that the corporation faces certain challenges, due to size and growth, but fundamentally I believe that it is still able to deliver a relevant and meaningful experience, where as Simon would be more critical of this view.  In my own view, Starbucks still offers a true respite between home and office, where as Simon focuses more on lost cachet and that customers are not having a genuine experience, with Starbucks unable to live up to its promises to the customer.  Obviously, I understand that mistakes are made and there is no perfect company, but I also disagree with his claim that the experience lacks authenticity.

************************************************

If you like this blog post, you might also like my interview of Winter:

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Catching up with Winter: In conversation with a guy on a journey to visit every company-operated Starbucks

by Melody on September 24, 2009

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Winter, a man on an adventure to visit every Starbucks

Winter, a man on an adventure to visit every Starbucks

I caught up with Winter at 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea today who was passing through Seattle to visit 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea, and then heading up to Canada.  He’s an intense goal-driven person with a sense of humor, and kind personality.  He has been pursuing a goal of visiting every company-operated Starbucks for the past twelve years, and you can follow his adventures on his website.  He’s just come from a trip to Chile, and we talked about the music being very Beatles-focused right now, and he noticed “Even in Chile they had the Beatles”.

We had a casual conversation with him enjoying a “pour over” cup of coffee and so here are some short excerpts:  (By the way he liked the Pour Over saying “it’s better than drip”).

Melody:            Has your opinion of Starbucks changed with your 12 years of experience?

Winter:            Regrettably, yes, for the negative.  I have had so many negative interactions with Starbucks baristas that I just don’t feel the same joy about Starbucks that I did in 1995, 1996, 1997 …I just see them making mistakes and trying to correct the mistakes but making more mistakes.

Melody:            Since you travel all over the place you must encounter test products all the time.  Do you notice those things? Do you make note of them?

Winter:            Yeah of course.  I like to try them – like the Sorbetto in southern California. That was great.  I liked it. The shaken double shot with cream like the canned product but  actually fresh where they pour the espresso shots and shake them with cream and sugar.  I saw it in Nashville. I remember the Chantico when it was called Chocofino; I had it in the Chicago market.

Melody:            What is your favorite overseas beverage that you’ve had? I’ve heard they have a lot of totally different beverages.

Winter:            The orange juice.

Melody.           The orange juice?

Winter:            Because they have fresh squeezed orange juice at a lot of the overseas stores : France, Spain, Mexico, Greece, Turkey … Actual orange juice squeezed from oranges.

Melody:            Do you visit other sites in the city when you go somewhere besides visiting Starbucks?

Winter:            I am not big on tourist attractions.  I try to get to museums and anything else that attracts me…. I went to the Tate Modern.  I went to the National Portrait Gallery.  I went to some photography museums …

Melody:            So what’s your usual drink, when you’re at home in Texas?

Winter:            Just regular drip coffee.

Melody:            Do you drink Pike Place Roast?

Winter:            I do drink Pike Place Roast … If they have Verona or Columbia, I’ll try that.

Melody:            Did you make it to all the stores closing?

Winter:            I missed the store in Hillsborough, Oregon. That was very …

Melody:            …tragic…

Winter:            Actually it was …

Melody:            You don’t follow anyone back on twitter, why is that?

Winter:            Time.

Melody:            How much longer before you’re done with all of this? Seeing all the stores?

Winter:            I’m never going to be done.  After this trip I will have reached a state where I won’t be doing as much traveling around North America anymore because they won’t be opening as many stores.

After meeting with him and reviewing the conversation, I realized that I talked over him too much, and I’d make a lousy reporter. Some other interesting things I learned about him is that he likes the symphony, and that he competitively plays Scrabble and has been ranked in the top 30 Scrabble players in North America.  Thank you Winter for meeting with me! Great fun catching up with Winter over coffee at 15th Ave. Coffee!

While at 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea, I snapped a few pictures inside the store just for fun:

15th Ave Coffee - 24Sept2009-smaller15th Ave Coffee - 24Sept2009-smaller-315th Ave Coffee - 24Sept2009-smaller-4

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