I'm Glad Starbucks Helped Me Understand
Let’s be honest. Paying $4 for a coffee drink is ridiculous. Yes, I used to be able to validate the purchase on several levels. Not so any longer. However, I have found something even MORE ridiculous.
Since mid-September Starbucks has been continuing to charge $4 for a coffee drink but then offering at their POS (read: cash register) FREE copies of the GOOD sheet. Each week this fumbling duo has attempted to tackle one election topic, like carbon emissions, health care or education. I found especially ironic since my first free issue was on ‘The Economy.’ Yes, leave it to Starbucks to inform me of the national debt, unsecured credit lines, and the stock market collapse. All set inside a bio-degradable fold out wrapped in a GAP ad on one side and an American Apparel on the other.
“We had been looking at ways to bring a little bit of those conversation-starters into the Starbucks environment,” said Terry Davenport, the senior vice president for marketing at Starbucks to the NY Times. The iconic New York newspaper covered this unorthodox paradox of over-priced coffee and over chewed sound bytes via an online article
. My favorite quote? “We thought, boy, if we could distribute some of those in the stores, it’s a quick way — without sitting down and reading a five-page article — a quick way to join the conversation,” Mr. Davenport said, adding that he envisioned stores holding discussion nights. Seems a bit like subliminal messaging to me. But who am I? Just the guy that paid $4 for a cup of coffee a few weeks back.
