Open letter to Howard Schultz about launching a Starbucks Book Club

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* Starbucks Book Club pitch

Comments

[Martha]

Dear "Scott",

People do NOT need another place where they can drink their coffee, read books for free and spill drinks on/get oily with food-fingerprints, and then leave (and their mess behind).

As a BN employee I can't help but think that maybe if people actually BOUGHT the books and magazines that they pillaged through and then abandoned, that would be one less reason to fear the end of brick-and-mortar bookstores.

Buy your books, buy your coffee, and go HOME to use your internet. Pardon my rage, I haven't had a PSL yet this season. ;D

[sarah b]

I'm fine with this proposal... except for the fact that I'm not really sure what the person is proposing. That Starbucks sells select books like we do CDs? That would be cool. That we have a take a book, leave a book shelf? Also cool. That stores schedule book club nights? Still cool.

[Mr Barnes]

One needs only to see the piles of abandoned books and magazines in B&N Cafes to know the Starbucks Reading Club is another word for a library for the cheap skates that hang around Starbucks.

[Georgia Latte]

Pretty sure Howard has better things to do than sit down and talk with this guy. Just saying...

[chicagoshift]

I've tried the take a book leave a book several times at my store. People just take the books, don't leave anything, and don't bring them back.

[baristajack]

Well we have been instructed that our lobby guests are now second priority, Drive-thru customers are now the top priority. I am guessing the 3rd place formula has gone out the window. I do not see how changing our core business plan "which made our business what it is" today, is supposed to grow our bottom line. Sad that the higher ups just don't understand the daily struggles we on the front line face .

[Starbucks Gossip webmaster]

Jack, When and where did this edict come down from? What specifically is said about "lobby guests are now second priority"? Details pls.

[.]

The edict is probably from a frustrated store manager who is fighting with his partners to try and get them to focus on speed of service. They are probably met with excuses such as the one above, and then make a statement which is taken out of context and extrapolated to represent the direction of the entire company, by a partner that's stuck in the past and resistant to change.

There's your edict.

[baristajack]

Ask any drive thru store partner, this was not taken out of context, the timer is counting down speed speed speed is the name of the game, gone forever is the 3rd place. In the 9 years I have been with the company I never thought this would happen. But it has come to be.

[.]

Yeah... I bet you aren't complaining when you cash in your bean stock.

Not every customer wants a 3rd Place. Especially not in a damn drive thru. Therefore, respect their time and get them in and out. They have families, friends, and work to attend to. If they want to come in and chat, hey, that's great too. In the ten years that I have worked in DT stores, I can tell you, they have evolved from an aspect of our business we haphazardly venture into, into something that might make our customers think we actually know what we're doing.

We all own a piece of this reality, and yours happens to be stuck in the past. If you don't like it, do something else.

[lattelady]

Hello people!! Been an 8 year partner and we used to sell books. Most of them ended up in the storage areas unsold.

[Grande Latte]

Maybe Howard can write another book telling everyone what a wonderful man he is. The last one made it right to the top of the best seller list because they reported as sold all of the books that were sent out to the stores. In reality most of the books wound up being shipped back in a media return.