It’s the recession, stupid

Tom Mullaney in the Chicago Tribune, examines the fact that Starbucks is closing 600 stores and concludes that it is because it has lost its way from an authentic Italian coffee house (as late as 1988), to eventually become a proto fast food chain.

For a long time, Starbucks has effectively been a store selling coffee flavored deserts. A Venti Chocolate Malt Frappuccino with whipped cream, at 760 calories is equivalent to a BigMac AND Fries.

Despite the best intentions of a CEO inspired by a trip to Milan, a Starbucks Latte is a type and size of milk laden drink that is hardly ever drunk in Italy. By combining fat, sugar and caffeine into a beverage that is part of the cultural ritual of an American morning, they had merged the cravings satisfied by both fast food and soda into a liquid package that therefore seemingly didn’t count as calories, and created a business that would naturally become most profitable as fast food in disguise, due to customer demand rather than corporate conspiracy.

In New York, where foot traffic is high, the main ingredient of Starbucks reveals itself by the sickly smell of accumulated fatty milk spills, rather than fresh coffee grounds.

But the reason why Starbucks is shedding premises and staff is simple: a $5 coffee is an easily dispensable luxury in a recession, period.