What happened to Starbucks? How a progressive company lost its way

Without the third place vibe, they have to compete with a Keurig or espresso machine. I don’t think they have particularly good coffee drinks and I also think they are more interested in coloured or kiddy drinks. Coffee is expensive vs the rest and it’s a younger audience. Granted, they have a good market for people heading off on some kind of transportation but that won’t satisfy Wall Street. Habit and marketing only go so far.<p>And on holiday we want o sit and enjoy a coffee and nosh, so in the uk we could pick Costa or caffe Nero vs takeaway. Or a non chain shop that still cares.

When you&#x27;re the little guy, proclaiming yourself the plucky little hero (and acting as such) works pretty darn well. And little companies don&#x27;t attract too many Wall Street analysts or McKinsey consultants, pushing them to &quot;whatever it takes&quot; optimize for profit.<p>When you&#x27;re Goliath, what &quot;works best&quot; is rather different, and it&#x27;s a very different crowd whispering in your ear.

Starbucks has decent coffee, but I believe many are actually addicted to the sugary additions they put in their drinks.<p>I also don&#x27;t think you can be a progressive publicly traded company. The expectations have become so perverse that it probably is a negative to be traded publicly at all.

The company announced yesterday that its CEO of five years, Kevin Johnson, is stepping down.