starbucks

Do you enjoy Starbucks chilled beverages, but hate the waste that comes from so many disposable plastic cups? Do you also want to keep your friends and co-workers from knowing about your secret environmentalist tendencies? Maybe you should consider purchasing the reusable Starbucks cold cup, a sturdy plastic tumbler made to look just like its flimsier, single-use cousins.   More »

After we proposed tracking Starbucks's roll out of Christmas products as a metric to gauge yearly Christmas Creep, we got a fair amount of comments saying they saw no problem with Christmas stuff coming out once Halloween was over. So, inside, a poll: at what point does Christmas Creep become acceptable holiday display?  More »

A reader wrote in on November 3rd to let us know that Starbucks has busted out the holiday-themed coffee paraphernalia. This gives us an idea.  More »

I visited the epicenter of Starbucks this weekend. It's a nice little store that adheres to the Pike Place Market historic district guidelines. The logo on the exterior is the original brown, nippled mermaid. Inside, it's not that large and theres a converted tackle supply shop feel to the place. The ceilings are made of painted white wood slats with lots of low white lights hanging. Otherwise, the coffee tasted exactly the same. Yes, no matter which corner in America you visit, whether the first store or the last, you can be assured of enjoying a consistent, smooth, burnt flavor.  More »

After 20 years of development work, and six months of test-marketing in Chicago and Seattle, Starbucks is taking its Via instant coffee national today. Will coffee snobs be willing to pay $1 a serving for a drink that Consumer Reports recently called "good, not great?"  More »

If you have a WinMo smartphone, you're in luck. (Wow, I never thought I'd be typing that.) Starting September 14th, AT&T will open up its approximately 20,000 Wi-Fi hotspots to Windows Mobile customers with "qualifying plans." According to AT&T, that should mean most WinMo customers as "most [already] have a qualifying data plan."  More »

Personally, I trend more towards "stupid casual."  More »

Starbucks has raised the prices of some of their drinks and lowered others, in an effort to differentiate their mixed coffee drinks from those currently offered at McDonald's. By making them more expensive, apparently.  More »

McDonald's sales rose 4.3% on the tongues of customers clamoring for a taste of the good life for cheap. McCafe coffees, which offer a proxy of brews found in places like Starbucks, and Angus burgers drove sales. [Bloomberg] (Photo: andinarvaez)  More »

Sun Min Kimes, a behind-the-counter barista at a Starbucks in Ashburn, Virginia has written a guest post on the Fortune magazine blog "Postcards" that offers advice for the CEO of her company, Howard Schultz. Starbucks has been going through some lean times lately, and are trying everything from removing their branding from their coffee shops to... well... making their employees put a Mr. Potato Head toy together over and over again.  More »

A few weeks ago, we shared a story about Starbucks opening new stores that are not branded "Starbucks." The idea is to recreate the flavor and feel of the independent coffeehouses your neighborhood used to have before Starbucks came along. Shortly after that, the first non-Starbucks Starbucks, 15th Avenue E Coffee and Tea in Seattle, opened for business. What's it like?  More »

A few coffee snobs at Slate have done a blind taste test of regular drip and cappuccino coffees at Starbucks, McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts. Results? Dunkin' Donuts had the best regular drip; McDonald's, the best cappuccino.  More »

Starbucks is rolling out a company-wide speediness initiative, which can only mean one thing: forcing managers to take apart and put together a Mr. Potato Head for two hours straight.  More »

Today until 10 am 10:30 am, Starbucks is giving away free pastries with the purchase of any beverage. You have to present this "invitation" to receive the food. Sorry Moneycat, oatmeal isn't included. (Thanks to o-line!)  More »