Goodbye Starbucks breakfasts...

Howard Schultz, Starbucks founder, has retaken command at SBUX and one of his first edicts is killing their new breakfast sandwich program. Now, most of the country probably never even knew this existed in the first place since it seemed to be mostly a west-coast phenomenon. When I asked about these at a Starbucks in Memphis, the manager wistfully suggested that I might have to wait a decade or so...

Starbucks had introduced a collection of about a half dozen breakfast sandwiches. Some of them were reminiscent of McDonald's Egg McMuffins, but with a better taste. In fact, they had a taste. The bacon or sausage tasted like bacon or sausage and not just like some sort of synthetic made to look like those breakfast meats. And they were cooked (defrosted) in these cool fast-cooking ovens that produced a sandwich where the bread had crunch/crispiness. How great is that? My personal favorite was their spinach feta wrap that tasted great and was less than 300 calories. OK, so my Starbucks drink probably added 1000 more to that total, but we can all engage in soem level of self-delusion, can't we? And the prices weren't bad, given other restaurant breakfast alternatives.

Service was fast and contrary to Mr. Schultz's contention that it was distracting these stores from their coffee-serving mission, I never observed that.

The end result is that I will probably visit Starbucks less than before. I had already imprinted in my mind that "hungry for breakfast" and "in urban area on the west coast" equaled Starbucks. Now, I will have to find a reason to go to Starbucks. I'll have to be sleepy and thirsty at the same time. Before, I just had to be ready for breakfast.

It seems to me that there was more behind this decision than what the press releases have said.