Starbucks has announced that they will focus on a return to core competencies, not selling CD's.

We are concerned that not every consumer gets a mouthfull of burned grounds at the bottom of their cup of flavorful Starbucks beverages. Consistency is important in meeting the expectations of our consumers.

In addition, barista retraining will occur to insure a uniform experience. We are going to become like military boot camp to insure that every barista can maintain the correct balance of snarkiness tempered with contempt with repeating every customer's order in our correct terminology. This retraining is due to customer survey results indicating and some Starbucks locations there have been reports of Barista's being friendly and accepting such inappropriate orders as "Give me a large black coffee". This cannot be tolerated.

Starbucks should replace the CD rack with breakfast sandwiches. I bet they sold more than two breakfast sanwiches per day per store.

@SkokieGuy: :rolleyes:

@skatastrophe: I thought it was a funny/clever satire.

The way the music industry's going, two CDs per store per day is nothing to sneer at.

@ianmac47: All the Starbucks in the Chicago area do have breakfast sandwiches.

There not bad and compared to the other drive-through obtainable breakfast fare, head and shoulders better.

Months back, Starbucks said they would 'de-emphasize' the sandwiches, supposedly because the smell was ruining the in-store experience.

I think its a shame. Lots of people want a drive-through eatable breakfast item that is actually semi or really healthy. No one is adequately adressing this (huge) market.

There's no reason for Starbucks to sell CDs at their store. It's a poor business decision and the racks take up space that could be used for products that will actually sell. It's ridiculous to expect people to want to spend $15 on the new Radiohead album when they walk into a coffee shop.

I'm sure the CD rack will be replaced with an equally annoying gift card rack. Or perhaps something to display their $14 mugs or $35-a-pound 'special' coffee.

Yeah but there are approximately 15,000 Starbucks in the world. 2 discs sold per day is 30,000 CDs sold per day. Per year, thats approximately 10.8 Million discs sold. At approximately 5-8 bucks in profit per disc (Starbucks is definitely taking in more per disc than the avg CD store), thats a total of approximately 70 Million dollars in profit per year.

Not bad for three inches of counter top.

On hand I agree with reyhjavik but I don't think all the Starbucks are selling that much.

The biggest thing is their customers who have had to FACE THE MUSIC in this economy.Let's see 8$ for my over priced coffee and 15$ for a CD I could download for free and 10$ for 1 day of internet use I could of gotten else where-cheaper,alot cheaper.

Do the math that's a 33$ for basically a COFFEE;even once a week that's a pretty heavy bill.

My guess is that the CD sales must have really started tanking significantly even compared to last March's NY Times article.

I remember well the phenomenon of the second "Hear Music" store in the country, opened on the Santa Monica Promenade in Santa Monica, CA. Completely transformed method of sampling music and buying music. They actually provided "curated" music suggestions... and in so doing helped introduce many people to whole genres of music they'd never experienced before. At this time, Tower Records had no ability for you to listen to CDs before buying them. Borders Music had limited but really quite expansive ability to listen to assorted CD's at listening stations. A major innovation. But HEAR MUSIC carved out a whole new experience in the way they classified music by mood, not genre. And you could listen to any CD in the store -- brand new, they'd open it for you and let you listen. Beautifully designed stores, architecturally interesting.

So it struck me the day, several years later, they installed a Starbucks mini-cafe in the front corner of the store. I was curious and asked about this. I was told Starbucks had purchased HEAR MUSIC. This was probably coinciding with the dotcom boom where acquisitions like this were common.

I was sad, at first, that this wonderful concept-store was being scooped up, and wondered what would happen ultimately. But I have to say that as they rolled out Hear Music @ Starbucks, it worked. It was a great environment in which to stumble across some new music from a variety of cultures and genres. They started with the inclusion of the amazing HEAR MUSIC reviews of these assorted CDs. Then those went away.

As Starbucks cemented its brand as a Lifestyle Company vs coffee beverage store, it seemed that Hear Music played less and less a central role is establishing mood.

So, it is intersting to see how this has played out...

@u1itn0w2day: I don't follow your math. No single drink costs more than $5 at Starbucks, and if you need more than the 2 free hours of WiFi a day, you can get a monthly plan starting at $19.99. "33$ for "basically a coffee" is quite a stretch.

I do agree that their CD prices aren't in line for an impulse buy, and the "digital download" cards that they sell are pretty dumb. Why would I pay in store for a card that gives me a code that I have to put in on iTunes to get the album? I have to go to iTunes anyway. I can just buy it straight from there.

@u1itn0w2day: Anyone buying the same CD week after week needs to be tested for dementia and short-term memory loss.