That's odd because I'm in the Detroit area and every Starbucks in town has been heavily promoting the impending arrival of warm breakfast sandwiches (which they don't currently have). I think it's supposed to happen within the next week or so.

"Serving sandwiches got in the way of employees' ability to make the perfect shot of espresso."

Um....Starbucks uses fully automated espresso makers...all they do is push a button and out it comes-I don't see how that requires tons of attention?

Yuck burnt coffee for $1.00 I'll pass. Besides America runs on Dunkin.

That's the sweet, sweet smell of recession. Did you know in some countries they sell shampoo in $0.15 sachets? Since people can't afford larger "economy" sizes they market to the other extreme. Kinda like the "99 calorie" granola bars that's actually 1/3 of a regular sized bar.

Starbucks has breakfast sandwiches?

"Serving sandwiches got in the way of employees' ability to make the perfect shot of espresso."

Translation: The sandwich angle, although interesting, cut into our margin much more than the coffee we sell. It also required certain types of health code compliance that is not needed with just serving a glorified cup of coffee.

No surprising. And anyways, when people buy breakfast fast food, they want good breakfast fast food, not crunchy granola set crap.

This is why McDonalds exists.

$1 is still too much for Starbuck's coffee... BUT I never knew they had breakfast sandwiches. One of the local coffee places here has great breakfast sandwiches (and coffee!), all for what Starbuck's charges for coffee.

@headon: i thought their coffee tasted burnt too, until I asked for the mild blend... and I was impressed.

The only Starbucks I drink is the coffee I buy in a bag and make at home, mostly because it is excellent coffee. MMMM Komodo Dragon.

a: I actually liked the sandwitches. Its nice to be able to have a non-sweet breakfast item, when traveling, that you know is consistent. Yeah, they weren't great, but they weren't bad.

b: "Make a perfect shot of expresso"?!? Say what? The system is so automated (automated expresso, automated milk steamers) that all the counter person has to do is assemble the components. (And, in my experience, they are still slower than Pete's, which uses real expresso machines rather than ExpressoBorgs)

Blech. The last thing I want with my foo-foo coffee is a nasty sandwich. I wish my local Starbucks would get a big basket of fresh fruit already. A venti nonfat mocha and a big orange is one of my favorite breakfasts.

I like this. It looks like this new(old) management wants to end the "mission creep" that the recently deposed management imposed. Great. Starbucks didn't make theiri reputation with breakfast sandwiches. They made it with coffee. Period. On the off chance that these breakfast sandwiches ever got popular,they would be a big fat target for the corporate bean counters to fuck around with and before long you would have... I don't want to think about it.
Prices. The number one complaint that I hear about 'bux coffee is that its wayyyyy overpriced.This is a concern. they better get that fixed because when that image is fixed in consumers minds,its as tough to change as being thought of as crappy cheap.

"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."

Yeah -- those beans aren't going to burn themselves nasty by themselves.

Don't take the Breakfast sandwiches!

I like their breakfast sandwiches. The display sandwiches did look suspect but they tasted fine.

Mmm... warm breakfast sandwiches. Knew I should've stopped somewhere on the way to work.

I'm interested to know what kind of new breakfast items they'll be offering.

Hopefully not more stale hard as rock pastries they pull from the freezer.

Look out Starbucks, that large object in your rearview mirror is...the golden arches. The irony--McDonalds has figured out how to make a good cup of coffee, but Starbucks is either too arrogant or too out of touch to understand that a decent breakfast sandwich is more than weird, overpriced prepackaged food substance. I thought their breakfast sandwich was revolting. However, I'm certainly not too snooty (or healthy conscious) to enjoy the value and good flavor of a sausage & egg McMuffin and a large cuppa Joe.

I was excited that my local Starbucks was getting breakfast sandwiches last year . . . excited until I fnally ate one.

Anything closer to resembling breakfast (and not dessert) would be an improvement. It's sad when a plain croissant is the sensible option.

the next person that says eXpresso gets an atomic bomb in the face

It's funny, I tried one of the sandwiches right when they were test marketing them and they were excellent. Fresh ingredients, freshly made, great price.

Then when the local stores got them in, they were prepackaged, quickly made, and pretty bland. The conversion from test idea to easily produced and distributed basically killed them.

$1 for a cup of coffee AND free refills? It's all downhill for Starbucks now...next thing you know they will be offering value meals and a .99 menu. I miss the old expensive, trendy, crappy $4 Starbucks coffee.

@causticitty: Too bad they're all delivered fresh every morning and thrown away every closing.

@facework: See that's what I'm talking about! The Sausage Egg McMuffin is the pinnacle of breakfast sandwich art. Nothing even remotely compares to it.

This is odd. The act of 1. Unwrapping a sealed package and 2. Putting the item in the oven for 1 minute, is keeping them from making perfect coffee?

@LorneReams: No no, is keeping them from putting a glass under a machine DESIGNED to make perfect coffee....

I dont think a starbucks hack could even understand HOW to pull a shot if they saw a real machine.

As long as they don't mess with the cranberry muffins.

"Burnt coffee" comment ratio running at 9%. "Overpriced" holding steady at 9% as well.

@facework: Actually... combine McDonald's coffee + their ubiquity of locations and their McDonald's Bistro menu (and include some decent breakfast sandwiches instead of their usual fast food crap), they've got an absolute winner.

The thing is, Starbucks has always had "short" drinks, but they were off-menu. Some drinks, like cappuccino, taste better short: [www.slate.com]

@Phunk:
The pinnacle of the breakfast sandwich art is the Steak Bagel sans onion. But yes, the S/E/MM did reign for quite a while.

Starbucks should keep the breakfast sandwiches. They are quick and easy to make. Stupid move on their part. The ironic part to all of this and this applies to all businesses is that they believe that by cutting items or jobs, they will actually save money and earn more profits. BUT, the exact opposite happens due to poor customer service. In effect, the recession is not the killer of businesses, but the business itself!
Lastly, the starBuck $1 cup of coffee is another bad idea. Why? Imagine how small that cup must be for $1.00.
This si the beginning of the end for starbucks.

The sandwiches were decent, even if they didn't look too pretty in the case. I really liked being able to grab something hot to eat when deadline crunching on a cold morning. The pastry items suck... you don't always want something sweet.

I don't know. The one and only time in recent memory I attempted to have a sausage egg mcmuffin, it was soggy and misshapen, and they left out the sausage. Not much of a pinnacle of anything, except seething disappointment.

In my opinion, Starbucks' breakfast sandwiches are very good. They are on par with what I've gotten at Panera Bread or Au Bon Pain, and much better than anything I've ever had at McDonald's or Dunkin' Donuts. However, unlike the breakfast items in the case, they require on-the-spot preparation. So when someone orders a breakfast sandwich, the third employee - who floats between the second register and making espresso drinks - has to step away and make the sandwich, thereby causing the line to back up.

McDonalds may have great coffee for I know, but I'm not going there for the same reason I don't shop at Wal Mart. If they start treating their employees better (so they, in turn, can treat me better), perhaps I'll reconsider.

Everyone here lamenting the price of Starbucks' over-roasted coffee probably doesn't go there anyway. If they did, they would have noticed that Dunkin' Donuts' diluted coffee - not their specialty drinks, but their coffee - is actually more expensive. Yeah, I get it. We all get it. You don't like Starbucks. Shut up already.

Hey guys... I agree with startbucks on this one. They have great sandwiches but they take 3-5 min to make and since I had a few I would know. Now the 1 dollar coffee might be a small daily brew. is ok, but their small is really small, and have you ever seen the short? Their "coffee" is pretty ok in price, their stupid crappy mixed drinks are pricey and honestly they taste like crap, so does the regular coffee. It tastes sour, acidic and burned. Bring back the real coffee: columbia, yukon, breakfast blend, house blend and do not brew them to death.

What Elijah-M said - the Starbucks sandwiches aren't the McD's unwrap-and-heat variety, they require a bit of preparation. I eat them occasionally, but my husband LOVES them. I don't know what he'll do when they're gone; probably go back to having coffee and no food when we go to SB for a breakfast treat.

wow. an argument about what's better, starbucks or mcdonalds. im nauseous.

@stinkingbob: "This si (sic.) the beginning of the end for starbucks."

They've always had the short size available. No end in sight.

The idea of a cheap small coffee with unlimited refills is actually a good idea for them. Right now, I pay about $3 for a French press which tastes awesome and you get about 3 full cups worth of actually good coffee. You can even ask them to make you one with whatever premium coffee they have laying around and it's the same price.

Happy to see them go! Stores that sold 'em smelled like McDonalds. When i go into a coffee shop, I want to smell coffee, not eggamcmoobymuffins.

The Shanghai stores all have great breakfast sandwiches. They better not be phasing those out because they are win. Of course, if they go, Starbucks here has other nice things like cheesecake and tiramisu. I hate going back to Starbucks in America because I miss all this stuff.

LMAO @ "make the prefect shot of espresso".

I actually liked their breakfast sandwich... but being vegetarian, they ended up pulling the only sandwich option I could eat a while ago, for no apparent reason.

I guess I'll starve. I loved the breakfast sandwiches.

They even had a low fat breakfast sandwich that ALMOST didn't taste like cardboard. Not bad compared to pretty much anywhere else.

@loganmo: Actually, the preparation beyond the actual pulling of the shot can have enormous impact on the taste. Starbucks' espresso is so good because they a) have nice ingredients and machines and b) follow a rigorous preparation method.

Milk has to be added to a shot within a few seconds of pulling, so it doesn't develop a bitter taste (beyond that of normal espresso). I've tried other local coffee shops, and often they have the shot sitting for like a minute. It tastes really bitter.

Well, let me ask you this: When you go to starbucks, do you go JUST to get coffee, or do you go to get coffee and eat something along with it? For me, I can't drink coffee unless I have some kind of food, sandwich or donut. A lot of people I see in the morning time are the same way to. If starbucks does axe the quick bites, they will lose customers to McDonalds. I understand that it takes time to make the sandwich, but I don't mind waiting a few extra minutes for it. If I wanted something quick, then yes, I would hit McDonalds in a heartbeat.

So, people here are critical of Starbucks breakfast sandwiches but absolutely love their Sausage and Egg McMuffin? That says quite a bit about the taste of the American consumer.