Howard Schultz apparently hasn't put the brakes on warm sandwiches

So much for your fantasy of the warming ovens being dragged out of Starbucks stores. It was just announced that Detroit and Toledo, Ohio stores will begin serving warm breakfast sandwiches on Feb. 8. (Detroit Free Press)

Comments

[Eric]

Oh, the horror!

[Emma]

::kicks self::

[EZ E`]

No Complaints here... The sandwhiches are tasty and they will make our AM offerings a little bit more dynamic.. Personally, I see our budget growing next month.. So, let's hope for the best..

[jim h]

From what I've read, the new plan is going to the familiar "wad more new products into the stores and push them harder."

Looks like another futile effort to grow the business without focusing on the core product or their area of expertise.

Is this Starbucks Coffee or Starbucks Sandwich Shoppes? Maybe they should buy out Panera who have great homemade breads and sandwiches and definitely much better customer service than the Buckeroos with filthy bathrooms and slow speed of service.

[FLASM]

The ovens are great! The breakfast sandwiches add incremental revenue, and drive avg ticket. Plus, everything in our pastry case is better warmed. Our food UPH is more than 10+ what it was last year because of warming. So it's really only 5 new SKUs, but lots of new options for formerly blah pastries.

[Adrienne]

I used to hate warming, but the more I grow with this company I am starting to see the benefits. More people come in, because now not only can they get a trendy coffee, they don't have to sacrifice breakfast to look cool. And some people come in just to get a warmed pastry. If it isn't working in your store, try adjusting your deployment, or asking your dm how to up your labor. It also helps, though it's cheating a little, to press the warming button for EVERY pastry, even when you don't warm them. We ear 1 hour of labor for every ten times we push it per hour during peak. And believe me, that adds up. And have you ever had a warm chocolate chip cookie? Or RF cinnamon coffee cake? YUM!!

Adrienne, just to warn you...The P&AP dept will be looking for that trend in stores and it will be treated as time theft. Please learn a different way to increase labour without "cheating" you could get into trouble!

"Panera who have great homemade breads"

When was the last time you went to Panera's house for bread?

[misscelestia]

Of course they are going forward with warming - they have already sank a TON of money into it. Howard cannot change the fact that dumping the entire warming program would be throwing a ton of money out the window, and further killing our stock.

[Adrienne]

Thanks for letting me know. I'll pass it on to my DM as she is the one who game me the idea...

So, has anyone in a new warming environment thought of asking your DM or RM for a 50 cent per hour raise (minimum) because of the increased profit AND increased job responsibilities that entails? Anyone ever consider a strike?

[ex-sbuxmanager]

I don't think P&AP will be on the lookout for phony warming hits. They really only care about stealing money. If one were able to scam money by pushing the warming button, they might be concerned, but since it rings up "NC" (no charge), no one's going to care.

[jim h]

I'm just a customer with a long-time interest in Starbucks.

The now-famous memo talked about the loss of the ground coffee aroma in the stores. That, to me, just nailed it. I don't want to smell Egg McMuffins when I walk in a coffee shop in the morning. That's why I went to a coffe shop and not a McDonald's. I don't want a somehow-trendier McDonald's in a different color scheme. Or at noon, somehow-trendier Panera.

The American corporate business plan, in a nutshell, is this: take something that's working and keep making it bigger until it doesn't work anymore.

[Javaccino]

My dream would be to get rid of the pre-packaged sandwiches and wraps, which don't really taste like eggs to me anyway. Keep the ovens. Well, something similar, the one in my store is always going down, and heats the cranberry scones until they boil (I stop it after ten seconds). I hate it. Get the smell of warm pastries into the store to complement the smell of coffee. Give us healthier breakfast pastries to warm up (spinach knishes anyone?).

[chitown's best/angriest barista]

perhaps a better sort of oven? like ones that don't occupy our entire counter-top maybe? and ones that don't require such a toxic cleaner and an involved (pain in the ass) process? we used to have safety goggles (like from a science lab) we were supposed to wear when we cleaned, it's that bad. of course, we lost them soon after we got them, but the point is all those chemicals that close to food can't be doing it any service either. i think this is another case of something that was launched before it was fully developed and could still use some tweaking until it works.
fun fact: we were supposed/expected to sell 300 sandwiches a day when they first came out. we've never sold that many in a day, ever. not even when we bribed customers with raffle tickets or other incentives.

[Melody]

I need a little help with acronyms in this thread:

What is " P&AP " ?

Just as another ordinary customer here, I do sort of miss the nice smell of ground coffee and I think the warmed sandwhiches detract from the atmosphere of the store, yet add a lot to the food selection. I see them as here to stay.

[bearista]

The sandwiches are good... high class mcmuffins

P&AP = Partner and Asset Protection.

[jc]

say it ain't so, Joe

[sclaire]

I live in a region where there are no warming ovens. Our store has been trying for months just to get a microwave because so many customers request their pastries heated.

I do NOT want breakfast sandwiches in the store where I work unless they're at least somewhat HEALTHY. The pastries we have are already fattening enough, I would love to have that option of the spinach knishes!

[Bladerunner]

And the Organic milk is going too...:( I just wish the breakfast sandwiches were healthier. Have you seen how long the ingredient list is? More fruit, and whole grains. I love the Vegan muffin. And for the record I'm not a vegetarian. I just believe in fresher products. The Lunch menu is rocking!

[SoCalSnowBunny]

Here's my thought- let's keep the ovens, but PLEASE let's figure out our food category. We can debate the sandwiches all day long, but the fact is that they SELL compared to our other products. It's the smell that makes us question it. Can you imagine if we had 15-20 amazing food offerings that were available nationwide, whose aromas filled the air with (if anything) complimentary smells to our grounds, such as cinnamon or spices or toffee, etc?

Don't get me wrong, I think about half of the food items are strong. But, I think there is a HUGE market for the "dessert" meal (yes, it's the fourth meal of the day, as Americans know it) and as a typical young 30 something, I'd love to treat my husband to dessert and coffee, and as a consumer I'd be prepared to lay down $15-20 total bill if the environment was there, and the TREAT was there.

In fact, it might even deter us from going to dinner out so much (when it now costs $50 it seems to get a meal for two) and enjoy a coffee date instead! If we could somehow remodel a dessert menu similar to those at restaurants into more of a quick serve format, we could pull HUGE revenues, and our partners would probably be excited about it. I know I would be MUCH more proud to serve a decadent new york style cheesecake paired with a cafe mocha rather than with, well, you know.

We want to go back to looking forward to hanging out at Starbucks. We need a respite in this crazy world. I say this as a partner, and as a customer. I am looking forward to an amazing 2008!!

[turbo spaz]

so unfair they get to have the eggs florentine and they took it out of our stores in NY. i loved that sandwich!

[BOSTON STARBUCKS REBEL]

What? No eggs florentine? What are they thinking?

[Jeffrey]

Can we use the warming ovens to make XH lattes?

[Laurie Ross Clements]

Starbucks should stay on it's orignal course.
Yes, with such a powerful brand Starbucks could enter any catagory of business they desire.
But at what cost?
When a company diversifies so much from what established them in the first place, they lose their very essence of what made them so great.

Recapture the Starbucks experience.

In this electronic age we need more then ever to sit face to face with someone, and partake in a warm cup of deliciously brewed coffee.

The coffee house experience is where we stop texting and actually get together. People bond, ideas are debated, and plans are made over a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

I don't go there for a sandwich. And yes! I want to smell coffee when I walk in.

Laurie

[Sheik]

I've said this before and I'll say it again: Starbucks ought to think about changing their name from "Starbucks Coffee" to just "Starbucks." Since it's clear that their 'food revolution' is in full swing.

Also, to the poster who commented about 300 sandwiches a day during launch. That's what my DM said in my district too. It's purely a DM setting his/her district up for failure. Ain't nuttin more to it...

[VegasDude]

SOCALSNOWBUNNY... They tried the whole dessert thing a few years back. There was a chocolate "blackout" cake and a caramel brownie, and a few other things that I don't even remember. They made a really big deal about presentation and creating the very same "restaurant desserts" you're talking about. We had to drizzle the pastry trays with mocha and caramel and make them look all pretty. I, like you, thought it was a great idea at the time.

THEY BOMBED.

They were insanely expensive items for us, and none of our customers bought them. Way back when before joining the company I was a night Starbucks person too. I just loved the atmosphere of the store when it was dark outside and the store was so well lit and inviting, and it was the perfect place to warm up and have a long conversation during the winter, or cool off on the patio during the summer.

But the reality is, our stores and our products are built more for the morning crowd and so the majority, if not the entirety of products and innovation are geared towards that.

Which brings me to my next point... I'm in Vegas and would absolutely KILL for warming. We just got lunch two years ago now and my store has been making a bundle off of it. I have experienced warming as a customer in other markets and have truly loved the products. As compared to some of our pastry offerings, and even some of the sandwiches and salads, I thought the warming sandwiches were all extremely good! So whats to hate? As has been pointed out over and over again, our stores are already lacking the smell of coffee, is the smell of the warming products that offensive? As I said, experiencing it as a customer it certainly didn't draw my notice. It still smelled like a Starbucks (at least the smell of today) to me. Every time one of my customers comes back from being out of town, they inevitably ask me about it, so there's certainly demand. So I guess I need an explanation as to what's so bad?

[Will]

"Adrienne, just to warn you...The P&AP dept will be looking for that trend in stores and it will be treated as time theft. Please learn a different way to increase labour without "cheating" you could get into trouble!"

That seems a little crazy. Seems like that problem would be MUCH too widespread to control. Our P&AP lady has enough trouble even getting into our store to review the camera tapes when neccessary between all the audits and such.

When I traveled to New York and had the breakfast sandwich, I thought it was outstanding (I had the spinach and egg), and couldn't wait for it to roll out in my market. Still can't. I don't see what the big deal is.

The biggest problem I can see was addressed the other day in a post, in reference to the mindless beauracrats who continuously call the store to check sales numbers and tell us what to write on chalk boards. Seems like way too much money is being sunk into those people.

I don't believe the warming button adds labor at all. If they don't have ice water adding labor why would warming. It is my understanding that warming button is for Drive-Thru stores to communicate the need to warm. And as such P&AP won't even know your doing it.

[Zipy]

Warming adds labor. Ice water used too, and it probably still does -- why bother having the button if it didnt?

Strike? We aren't union, we'd probably just get fired.

Oh it adds to labor. Trust me.

[itsnotamermaid]

i like the ovens ofr pastries. we sell more pastries now that we can heat them up. the breakfast sandwiches sell too, so even thought i personally don't like them, oh well. i don't work mornings often anyway. my biggest problem w/the ovens is that we shut them down an hour before we close so we do lose some possible pastry sales when we can't heat a cookie after 10pm. also now that the mozzarella tomato sandwich is back...so yummy heated! the stores definitely smell different, but our counter remodel changed the smell of our store, go figure. so did having the floor tiles replaced and properly regrouted, but that made sense.
i think warming is here to stay and it's not the worst idea sbux has had...

[VancouverSm]

When we lauched warming, our USD goal was 43. If you acheived 43 you earned about 1:30 Minutes of labour. I highly suggest you dont mis-use the warming button, it really doesnt make a difference when you get your P&L, labour is labour.

the water button doesnt add to labor but it helps acct for shrinkage on the P&L statements... my manager says i can use it if i want but he's not gonna try and get everyone to do so...

[marcos]

can anyone find definitively if Warming adds labor? if so, WHERE CAN THIS BE FOUND IN WRITING?

anything else is just hearsay.

[John]

the "WARMING" button adds to your labor, just like frappuccions do. The cup of water button is for inventory shrinkage like Vancouversm said, however, the problem with hitting your warming button for every pastry is that the warming button is sku trackable, and if your DM or RM finds out, you will be terminated, ask my old manager.. Warming is fantastic for stores and raises your sales and labor like you wouldn't believe. Warming was originaly created for stores in markets that their sales were not exceptable so they brought in warming and it was a huge success. Pray for it in your stores if you don't already have it. I live in Hawaii which has a different pastry market all together after recently being purchased by RNA and our sandwhiches are bommmmb!

[Beantownsbuxbitch]

They should copy a page from Dunkin Donuts, and offer bread choices for your sandwhiches. I think a peppered bacon on a butter croissant would be yummy. We have customers who get pissed off that they can't have one on a bagel without paying for the bagel too. We also should get other condiments, I have been asked about a hundred times this year for jelly. Maybe add a veggie cream cheese and peanut butter as well. People ask so we should give it to them. JUST SAY YES!!!!

Jeff, only if you want to get fired.

[thinkdifferent05]

I'm a partner in Ann Arbor, MI and we've known warming was coming for a while now. As far as the 'shake-up' is concerned, we haven't heard anything official from the company (neither has my manager), so it could still be stopped. My feeling is that this change hasn't gone through the organization yet; more changes are probably coming.

[Atl. aliens]

We don't have a warming oven and I don't want it. I chose to work at Starbucks because I got tired of waiting tables and it seems like were going to be serving food anyways and it seems like we will be having more and more kids drinks....What was that awful blueberry frap??

And my god do I have to say double chocolatey chip frap in public...I'm a grown woman.

[badgerista]

Detroit market SMs just got trained on the ovens and we can start warming pastries as soon as everybody's trained up on the oven. (Next week.) I'm mixed on the whole warming thing. I like the idea of being able to toast bagels and such (I've been hearing that request for 5 years now,) but I'd also like to focus on coffee more (again.) First we were coffee masters. Then we were coffee merchants. Now we're food merchants? *nostalgic sigh* Oh, to be a green bean again... :)

[Elizabeth]

I think the benefits of the warming sandwiches greatly outweigh the costs. Sure, the smell has somewhat changed, though frankly I can't tell the difference and no customers have complained about it.

Sure, Starbucks is getting away from its original niche, which was quality coffee. But is that so bad? One of the most successful restaurants in my hometown of Charlotte, NC, is Pike's Old Fashioned Soda Shoppe. Pike's is a sit-down restaurant where you can order a burger, fries, things like that. It evolved out of a genuine soda shoppe where they had fresh-squeezed limeade and stuff like that (all of which you can still get). This in turn had evolved out of a pharmacy whose proprietor got so good at concocting a more delicious version of Dimetapp that he actually just started making delicious drinks. Change is a basic fact of economic life: it's unpleasant at first, but it can have good results in the end.

[anna p]

for what it's worth, i'm probably one of the .2 people out there who enjoy the breakfast sandwiches. i get the turkey bacon sandwich, and i think it's a good alternative to getting a pastry or bagel when i don't have time to make my oatmeal at home.

[Kevin D.P.]

Man, just something else we can have for poorly trained Baristas to mess up.... *grumble grumble*
I've worked with Baristas who can barely manage the pastry case, let alone some kind of heating unit.

[Tim]

Anna, nobody's saying the breakfast sandwiches aren't darn tasty, it's the disappearance of coffee's prominence in our stores that is the issue. =)

Example #1: Removing the hallmark Whole Bean menu from our boards and replacing it with a breakfast sandwiches menu, as though little plastic inserts in our coffee stands is sufficient enough of a reminder that we *do* still sell coffee, believe it or not.

[Tim]

That being said, I would, in the end, rather sacrifice tasty breakfast sandwiches to put the focus back on what we're supposed to be about.

[nq]

of course he hasn't stopped warming from coming, they've obviously already ordered the ovens........

as for the poorly trained baristas, maybe your store should invest more labour into training and follow the training plans.

[Elese]

To ATL Aliens if you are in fact in the ATL I hate to break it to you but we're on the schedule to have ovens by the end of this year. All of the new ATL area stores are already built for them. They're coming, like it or not.

As for the bit about poorly trained baristas and investing more labor into training, that sounds like a great idea. I think the Starbucks training plan is very well done, the modules and the learning coach program are all excellent as well. The problem, however, (in my experience) is that SM's simply aren't given enough labor to follow the training program properly. The training program is well designed, the execution is severely lacking.