Starbucks to get rid of warm breakfast sandwiches

Howard Schultz made the announcement in his Wednesday conference call with analysts. "The scent of the warm sandwiches interferes with the aroma of the stores," he said. (Boy, is he right!) Stores will still offer warmed pastries. (Associated Press reports the no-more-warm-sandwiches news.) || You can listen to a replay of the call at this link.

** The warm sandwiches "are going to be out by year's end." In the meantime, they will be "de-emphasized."

** Serving sandwiches got in the way of employees' "ability to make the perfect shot of espresso." In other words, spending time on sandwiches took away from the focus on coffee.

** The sandwiches will be replaced with "a breakfast menu that delivers what our customers are asking for."

** "We're going to be in the lunch business; we're going to modify it."

** "We are bringing back our annual leadership conference." There will also be open forums for all partners.

** Re the $1 short coffee, Schultz reminds analysts: "This offering is just a test."

** Schultz also notes that "it has only been three weeks since we made leadership changes, but we have made significant progress."

** Although underperforming stores are being closed and new-store growth has been slowed, Starbucks is still a "growth company," says Schultz.

** Detailed turnaround plans will be disclosed at the March annual meeting.

Comments

[BOSTON STARBUCKS REBEL]

Breakfast sandwiches did not increase our tip rate at all. Breakfast sandwiches actually brought down tip rate because thats an extra body on the floor but no overall increase in tipping to offset the increase in labor.

BSR:

Frankly, I never tip because, for food-service/ retail workers, you all have it made with your salaries.

Regardless of what you think, that's not really the customer's problem anyway. If I were SBUX management, I'd do like B&N cafes do and rip those tip jars off your counters immediately.

And, it doesn't look like it's going away. You (as someone mentioned) lose some breakfast sandwiches for some other breakfast food. It's a wash... you probably will keep that extra person when the new roll-out occurs.

Like I said, it's ultimately not the customers problem that your tips are being distributed to more people. Maybe if service was better, you'd get more tips. Funny how you're damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[BOSTON STARBUCKS REBEL]

To the above poster, you are the type of person where I shall move your drink to the end of the line. And wait to see how long you can wait. Remember tip used to mean "to insure promptness." Your drink will wait a few extra minutes. Believe me, most baristas know who tips and who doesn't tip. And if we see you coming, we have ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD. And then we give you DECAF!

[Pat Nerr]

how were the numbers for Q1?

[i say espresso!]

the sandwiches/oven made things so complicated!! our store is always having to cut our labor (per DM) and when we could normally rock a line out the door with only three partners on the floor we will take 2-3x more to get through it - people end up leaving, not tipping, getting upset. so down with the sandwiches!!!

[Northern Latte]

Ensenadajim-

Actully the customers are asked what they would like quite frequently through our customer voice survey program, the comment cards on our condiment bars, the 1-800 number (sorry not in store so don't have it off the top of my head), and anyone who has access to the internet can freely visit starbuck.com and click "contact us." So just because you haven't been called at home by a partner from Starbucks does not at all mean you don't have access to an opportunity to provide feedback on our company. Please send in your suggestions, comments, concerns, complaint.

[Melody]

[quote=ENSENADAJIM]
** "We're going to be in the lunch business; we're going to modify it."

And how will this affect that mythical coffee aroma that the breakfast sandwiches supposedly cover up?
[/quote]

^Ensenadajim comment 1-30-08 at 4:36

Cold salads and sandwiches really don't have the same issues. If I grab a chicken-curry-couscous salad (my favorite of them) there is really no added smell to the store!

The logical question I would ask is whether [i]other[/i] warming affects store smell: When a customer asks for a warmed chocolate chip cookie, is that interfering with the smell of coffee? The answer is probably yes, but that the smell of a warmed pastry is not nearly as offensive as the smell of warmed eggs and cheese and ham!
www.greenapronbook.com

[Vicki Verona]

^ To your point, I also want to add that "aroma" can be one of the biggest non-verbal contributors to a positive experience for customers in a food/beverage environment.

For example, you always remember a Jamba Juice by the smell of fresh orange juice. You always remember a Cinnabon by that sweet smell of cinnamon.

When we added breakfast sandwiches, not only did we take away from the smell of coffee, but we added a smell of chemical and grease.

Because the warming ovens are cumbersome to clean, theres a lot of ambiguity in whats considered the best vs proper way of cleaning them. Because of that, I've noticed a lot of stores have a smell of burned chemicals after they've cooked a breakfast sandwich.

[worried]

worried for my job right now...hmmmm. looks like march will be when the cuts come down.

[Lilith]

Get rid of tip jars. Customers deserve legendary service. Period. They shouldn't feel the need to drop in an extra dollar for us to do our jobs.

[BOSTON STARBUCKS REBEL]

Tips at Starbucks are imputed from our paychecks which really sucks. Yes, they take money out of our paychecks and consider tips as part of our income at Starbucks.
Now, I shall enjoy a good Californian as I toast the end of breakfast sandwiches.

If some of you dislike heating breakfast sandwiches and grinding coffee, maybe a different line of work other than food and beverage service would make you happier. Just a thought.

[Mark Graban]

BOSTON STARBUCKS REBEL:

Wow, guys like you make me (a customer) want to stay the heck away from starbucks. Sheesh.

[Decaf Drinker]

From a customer: Yeah!!!!!!!!! I can only HOPE when I walk in it smells like coffee once again!

I know that the starbucks I go to always smells like coffee. I see them grinding coffee sometimes and I smell a great coffee aroma as I walk up to the door.

[x-sbux-dm]

As for the smell of coffee, it went away with the the arrival of flavorlock and pre-ground COD. It will not come back until they go away..I'll believe that one when I see it. However, the elimination of warming is a great start.

As for Dangerous Dan's comment that "..SBUX isn't going to prosper on coffee alone. Real estate and overhead is too expensive...," actually that was what made Starbucks a wall street darling back in the day!! Coffee and espresso beverages are the most profitable thing that SBUX sells: margins are ridiculously high. Selling more coffee would be huge to SBUX bottom line: partners will be able to focus on customers and their beverages. We used to have "black out" screens that went in front of the pastry case in the old days (mid-90's) because we just didn't keep a fully stocked case into the PM daypart: the focus was on the coffee, not the food.

There were some extremely profitable stores that had relatively low sales: I ran a few of them before I became a DM (I should add that I also ran one of the busiest stores in my area as well). Focusing on the basics is a step in the right direction!!

Get ready to grind coffee as the pre packs are being eliminated it's on the action items this week...I can't wait to smell it!!!

[ex-sbuxmanager]

I think this is great news. The day we got our rollout date for warming was the day I started getting my resume together.

For those who are concerned about losing labor, I wouldn't worry too much. For one thing, we were only given extra labor for warming for the first few weeks after rollout. A month into the rollout we were back to the same number of people on the floor at all times. Second, one of the bad things about breakfast sandwiches (besides the horrid smell and giant pain) was that the profit margin wasn't very high. I think that investors might not like the initial sales downturn, but they will like it when they realize that profits will go up. Beverage and bakery are the most profitable things in the stores.

Also, I love the idea of keeping the ovens in the store. When we got the ovens, I was shocked at how a stale hard Starbucks pastry was turned into a warm delicious fresh-tasting pastry in about 30 seconds.

Boston Starbucks rebel: does legendary service mean anything to you?

Tips are a perk: not an entitlement.

[Beantownsbuxbitch]

Forget about tips for a moment everyone...The preservative laden breakfast sandwiches are going, lets celebrate!! I listened to the conference call and was quite impressed by it. More training is certainly needed. Stores that aren't doing well should be re- thought. Most of Howie's thoughts were right as rain. I just worry about the partners at the under performing stores. Will they be laid off? Fired? Transferred to other stores? I also hope that my store isn't one on the block. We do about 23K a week, and constantly have a line out the door so I doubt it.

[BOSTON STARBUCKS REBEL]

HI Beantownsbuxbitch,
I just wanted to wonder if you and I know each other. Try give me a clue.

[Joe]

Mark Graban: Wow, guys like you make me (a customer) want to stay the heck away from starbucks. Sheesh.

Hey Mark,

Don't you know that Boston is a legend in his/her mind? He/she claims to be the epitome of a Starbucks employee who always follows standards, elevates fellow partners and works his/her butt off to make Starbucks experience the best it can be for their customers. Unless, you dont tip, of course. Then...er...not so much.

[MusicGal]

Sounds good to me! Although I admit the breakfast sandwiches didn't taste too bad, they weren't worth the hassle.

"When a customer asks for a warmed chocolate chip cookie, is that interfering with the smell of coffee?" (Melody)

True, it will create it's own aroma, but one that compliments the coffee smell rather than... well, doesn't. (Remember how certain foods compliment certain types of coffee?)

And please... not another tipping war.

[javajohn]

Those breakfast sandwiches brought in an average of $35,000 a year per store. They'll have to replace them with something that does significant better than $35,000 per story, per annum - or this change will be seen as a mistake. Starbucks has just spent two years building their breakfast business; employees may not like the breakfast sandwiches but a lot of customers did. I think taking them out is a mistake.

I'd like to see a major de-cluttering of stores - with less merchandise, junk, cd's, books, etc on free-standing displays.

[Bladerunner]

I must now worship HS as a God. He has answered my prayers.

[SoCalSnowBunny]

If we hire the right people, and focus on retaining them by providing a world class experience, then it will make for a huge reduction of cost, I would argue we spend more than $35k a year turning partners in our stores...

And, to give my 2 cents, while I personally enjoyed the peppered bacon sandwich, I agree that we can slap our brand name on a product and it will sell. I bought them myself. But the point made earlier regarding degrading the brand is the right point. I'll give them up for the greater good. In fact, despite my personal enjoyment I KNOW this is the right choice to make.

Now, if we could just get our food category together, it continues to blow my mind that CB&TL and even B&N Starbucks have better food offerings than we do...

[hmmm]

Don't know why my message was deleted.

Starbucks shouldn't take tips out of the paychecks. That's dumb.
I don't see why they should get tips anymore than any other fast food place.

$35k in sales, but how much of that is profit? I think it would be better if the ovens just went AWAY and were replaced with a "scooped beans" section. It makes me sad everytime I sell a pound of coffee and have to hit the "Flavorlock" button.

Regarding:
Get rid of tip jars. Customers deserve legendary service. Period. They shouldn't feel the need to drop in an extra dollar for us to do our jobs.

Posted by: Lilith | Jan 30, 2008 5:37:43 PM

Thank you, Lilith. Thank you.

Also regarding...

Sounds good to me! Although I admit the breakfast sandwiches didn't taste too bad, they weren't worth the hassle.

employees may not like the breakfast sandwiches but a lot of customers did. I think taking them out is a mistake.

Frankly, the fact that you think it was a hassle is not an issue to the customer. If you can't handle the job, you shouldn't have done it.

Once again, customers are actually buying a product, letting SBUX know what they want, and SBUX doesn't care to listen.

I wonder how much of this taking back the sandwiches had to do with baristas bitching every five minutes about putting some already made sandwich into the oven and heating it up.

Makes the folks at McDonalds look like first-class foodies. They "make" the food AND serve coffee.

Huh.

[DallasSM]

I agree with JAVAJOHN, we will have to make that money up somewhere, however, not remodeling the South Central region alone will save millions of dollars. You must remember that not every market has the warming ovens. I believe they are only in a small portion of the U.S. stores. I really agree with removing clutter in the retail areas.

You know why I disliked the sandwiches? Not because they were hard to prepare or they made the store smell terrible, I dislike them because I joined starbucks to be a part of the premier purveyor of coffee! I enjoyed hand crafting lattes, knowing about all the coffees we serve, and being able to translate what any customer wanted into our "jargon". I did NOT join starbucks to make food. period. If I wanted to do that I would have applied to McD's, BK, Subway, or another fast FOOD place. I wanted to work for a coffee shop.

At my store we started grinding our COW and got rid of all the pre-packs except for iced coffee. We had already been grinding our own mild and decaf so the switch wasn't very hard. Now when we get auto-shipped some pre-packs it seems like an inconvenience. And we don't have warming here so our store does indeed smell a lot like coffee. Customers coming through the DT comment on it all the time.

We have three espresso machines right now, one in DT and two side by side in the lobby. I would love to at least have one manual for the lobby. Years back I worked at a little espresso shack and we had amazing espresso. I miss that. Not that the 'bux espresso is bad, but there's definitely better.

[Spike]

The fire sale begins people.....

If we get rid of tip jars, they'd better pay us more or it's not going to be worth it.

[Bellevue Shift]

Anyone know when the annual report comes in the mail usually? I look forward to receiving my tickets to the annual meeting. Should be an intriguing one this year.

[ensenadajim]

Hehehehe, if anyone had a clue, the Starbuck's marketing arm takes these customer satisfaction surveys with a grain, no, make that the entire box of salt.

Why?

Because they know that each and every one of the crew who does not like something will fill out one of these convenience surveys in the sheep's clothing of being a customer. Further, they know that dissatisfied employees will enlisted all their friends who are customers to aid you in their cause. And they know those who are dissatisfied will use any excuse to rally indifferent customers to that cause.

As far as the general pubic, they usually do not weigh in unless they feel strongly about some - one way or another.

All these web-based surveys and cards in the stores are window dressing.

Now, be honest here - how many of you have filled out a negative comment on the sandwiches while not revealing that you are, indeed, an employee and not a regular customer?

Ahhh, a few hands have gone up, I see.

Now, this is all about Schultz's personal desires, not one bit about what the customer wants or does not want.

Like I said above, three or four days a week, I'll be taking my business across the street - and probably spend a bit more there instead of buying a cup at Starbuck's later in the day.

If the $35,000 per store is accurate, then compute the loss across the entire chain. It is a chunk of change.

The 2007 Annual Report says there are ~15,000 stores worldwide, so lets just use 12,000 for grins X $35,000 revenue going away. And the answer is?

Kills $420,000,000. Yea, chump change.

Hope you whiners are satisfied, or are you actually trying to sabotage the Mermaid?

j.

Oh yes, my tip, the one you would get, is going across the street also.

[Decaf for EVERYONE!]

for those of you upset by this news, I don't feel you understand / care about what the company originally represented.
go back and read those 5 guiding principles... and don't forget that the order in which they fall is equally important as what they say.
we are starbucks COFFEE, not Starbucks Bar & Grill.
i am proud to work for a company that has the audacity to admit its mistakes and be so public about how they intend to fix them. THAT is genuine.

Dolce-
Latte art? A sweet touch on a slow day for someone who's drinking their coffee in the store maybe. But for the average shmoe who's on the run? They won't care and it'll be a waste of both of your time.
Lots of different bagels? There are tons of bagel shops and dunkin' doughnuts. I don't want to have to smell an "everything in between" bagel (which is most likely going to include onion) with my coffee.

....Its NOT A MERMAID.

Its a Siren.

Geeez.

[Jason]

There's nothing wrong with Howard making changes that are in line with his vision for Starbucks, because Starbucks is HIS.

And seriously, yeah, most partners hated warming. Especially those who were at sbux way before they ever rolle dit out. Most of us joined Starbucks because we enjoy the environment, and because we have a passion for coffee and people. I personally have no passion for sausage, or eggs. I dont know where the sausage comes from and I certainly dont care about how it's processed. I know some customers are going to be up in arms, yes, but its a business we should have never gotten into in the first place. We are Starbucks Coffee and we are getting back to what really matters to us. Coffee and human connection. We can't be everything for everyone. If that makes you mad and you want your breakfast sanwich, then go to McDonalds. They thrive on trying to be everything...and fail at being the best at anything. Sure their sales are astronomical and their stores are everywhere but the only reason they make money is because they're convenient. I think Howard doesnt want Starbucks to become successful on convenience, but on environment and people and providing a great product, not a convenient one.

People bitch about how SBUX doesn't smell like coffee and how they want their espresso, etc.... then bitch about it when Howard takes the Breakfast Sandwiches away - the reason the store does not smell like coffee.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. If you really don't like Starbucks now because of this decision, what did you do before the sandwiches rolled out summer 2006? Did you honestly just start coming in because you heard the ham was to die for?

I'm just curious.

it's NOT a mermaid - it's a SIREN!

[baristagirl]

here's the funny thing: my store hasn't even gotten our oven nor our breakfast sandwhiches yet. we are supposed to get all of that next week. and yet, we're already getting rid of the sandwhiches. THANK YOU JESUS!!! I don't even want to think about what a headache that would've been in my store in the mornings.

[Legendary or Bust]

What is meant by "de-emphasizing" breakfast sandwiches in the meantime? We are taking the BS menu off in the cafe and in the DTs? We are going to stop suggestive-selling them? We will only serve them if asked for them? Thoughts?

[Nerfebarista]

Here's the new bottom line, no one important on this board really cares if you will take your money to mickyds because you'd rather have an artery clogging egg sandwich. Make your threats, go have your sandwich, god knows i love some eggs in the morning, but dont pretend you won't be back in later today and twice tomorrow. Everyone on this board KNOWS you'll be back, that in all likely hood, you won't leave in the first place. If it really does mean that much to you, i'm sure you won't be missed and neither will this $35k number we've started throwing up in the air. Did someone above really just say we would lose 400 million bones in one year because of taking the sandwiches away? I'd say less than a 3rd of the US company operated stores actually have a warming program in place right now, and of those, maybe a dozen of them per region could boast about selling 35 thousand dollars worth of sandwiches in a year. But thats just my guess. We are not burger slingers at Starbucks, we do not give a rats ass about bacon sandwiches and please, hold the bacon. We care about coffee and our people. If you feel like this decision made today offends you and your diet, perhaps, you are'nt the one we are trying to serve!

I don't understand something...
Howard specificaly did say that the warming smell was getting in the way with the coffee-I GET that 'cause it DOES! Fine...So, I've worked in 4 warming stores now and the smell that is the WORST is the chemical smell from the cleaners ( that we're supposed to wear eye protection and gloves from- BTW) So, how will he address THAT problem???

Also-has anyone else heard about de-emphasizing the myriad of Frap choices???
Something about going down to 4 or 5 choices only????

My 2 cents: I will miss some of the sandwiches personally BUT I'm proud of my company for making the decision to go back to coffee!!! BRAVO!!! BACK TO BASICS! :)

[Concerned Customer]

Remember that negative comments about customers -- holding up their drinks if they don't tip, "decaffing" them, informing them that if they don't appreciate the "art" of coffee-making then they aren't the ones you're trying to serve -- WILL come back to bite you. Right now, you may just be expressing an opinion on a forum, but eventually that attitude will show in your work. And eventually, it'll affect your co-workers, and show in THEIR work. Bad attitudes all around = unhappy customers. Bottom line, your job is to keep customers as happy as you reasonably can. That's what EVERYONE's job is, whether they serve coffee or work in a corporate environment. If you can't do that -- if you can't do your job -- you need to work elsewhere.

Oh yes, my tip, the one you would get, is going across the street also.

Good, because with customers as mean as you are we don't need you.

[Jane]

Okay so get rid of the breakfast sandwich smell.. but what about the bagel smell?!!? The store doesn't make any money on them and it's such a process to get the bagel out and cut it and get the butter and put it in the oven.. WHO CARES?!?!?!

Get rid of the oven completely!! No one I know ever wants their cookie heated and besides that, they get annoyed at having to wait!

Enough w/ the oven Howard. It's over.

[ex-sbuxmanager]

Jane,
The ovens aren't going anywhere. They've been installed in a couple thousand stores and they cost a few grand each. They're staying.

When warming was rolled out in my area, my thinking was that I agreed to take the promotion to ASM and then SM because I wanted to and liked working at a coffee shop, not McDonalds. The reason? I like coffee. I didn't mind the fraps and the pastries either (there were only 5 or 6 fraps back then, not 1400). I liked the coffee business, and I liked the company.

I'll be the first one to admit that when I heard warming was being implemented, my attitude suffered. My work suffered. I'd be surprised if it didn't filter down to the rest of my team. Within a year of the launch date, I had quit.

I think this move could make some store partners get back their original "spirit."