The Starbucks experience & connections: Customers & Baristas

Coming soon: A brand new Starbucks store with a really big heart!

June 10, 2010

What’s 2300 square feet and has an even bigger heart? The brand new Starbucks inside Children’s Hospital Seattle. Coming soon: July 17, 2010 Starbucks is scheduled to open a new company-operated store inside Children’s Hospital in Seattle.  Most Starbucks located inside other businesses are licensed locations, but this one is not.  This is an all [...]

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Deconstructing the Starbucks Experience into three pieces

April 23, 2010

Many books have been written about the “Starbucks experience,” some criticizing it as lacking authenticity, and others heralding it as a gold standard.  This blog post is Melody’s take on what the “Starbucks experience” means.  This is not scientific.  It’s just my own experience and observation. Yes, I believe the “Starbucks experience” is real, and [...]

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Book review: The Starbucks Experience by @JosephMichelli

April 17, 2010

Published in 2007, The Starbucks Experience by Joseph Michelli is the essential guide describing what the Starbucks Experience really is and can be, at its best.  It should be required reading for new partners, and anyone who really loves Starbucks, and even those who have disdain for the company! The book outlines five guiding principles [...]

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Starbucks in the Philippines: The experience around the globe and chalk art adventures continue

April 10, 2010

I received an email recently from a loyal Starbucks customer in the Philippines who is also regularly reading this blog.  The customer particularly enjoyed my previous blog entry on the art contest. For those of you who don’t remember that, it’s here: Barista art chalkboard art contest: Entries and Winners The previous chalkboard art blog [...]

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The combo cupping: Tea and Coffee; Warmth and fun

April 4, 2010

This blog post is a mixed-bag of things. It’s a tea cupping (I don’t think I’ve ever talked about a tea cupping before, though I talk about coffee cuppings all the time.) It’s about the very limited small cooperative Rwanda Fair Trade Starbucks coffee available in the UK, Ireland, and Middle East (this is not [...]

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What would you directly ask Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz, if you could? (And archive round-up)

March 16, 2010

The annual meeting of Starbucks shareholders is almost here.  I won’t be updating my blog much for about one week.  I am giving myself a little break, but please come back next week and for sure I will have new content for my readers.  In the meantime, I am still looking for ideas on what [...]

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Commentary: Starbucks Brew On Demand – The experience in the stores.

February 6, 2010

The difference between a request and a demand is the ability to hear ‘no’ for an answer. This blog entry is my commentary about the experience created by Starbucks‘ “brew on demand” policy.  This blog entry mostly focuses on the experience at the register – the few short minutes between customer and barista while standing [...]

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15 Pieces of Starbucks flair

November 6, 2009

The inspiration for this blog post comes from the movie “Office Space“.  Jennifer Aniston has a waitress job that she hates and she is required to wear “flair” at work.  She always wears the bare minimum number of “flair” and her boss is always on her case for only doing the bare minimum. She’s fed [...]

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Starbucks Via Ready Brew Earrings Episode #2

November 2, 2009

This is Via Ready Brew Earrings Episode #2:  Does anyone remember my previous blog entry on the “Via earrings and enthusiasm” at a downtown Seattle Clover Starbucks? Well, a regular reader of this website was inspired to make her own Via earrings (she is a customer!) and gave them as gifts to her local baristas!! [...]

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

September 24, 2009

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 [...]

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