Let’s face it, Starbucks isn’t doing so hot. Stiff competition, market saturation, a sluggish economy. So naturally, they’re trying to come up with more reasons for you to keep chugging their bean juice.
First, it was Pike Place roast, which guarantees a consistent (-ly bland) experience year-round. But not content with just that, they decided to cash in on the current Vitamin craze with “+Energy”. After all, even Coke and Pepsi are doing it. You’ve got vitamin water, vitamin soda, vitamin candy, vitamin-infused alcohol… So why not in your coffee, too? Because everyone knows you can never get enough vitamins (actually, yes you can).
For an extra fifty cents, just tell your friendly neighborhood Stabucks barrista to make yours “plus energy” , and they’ll infuse your drink with B-vitamins, guarana and ginseng. Let’s see, we’ve got coffee beans from Africa, Arabia and Latin America, ginseng from Asia and guarana also from Latin America.Drink the world in your cup!
Starbucks spokeswoman Bridget Baker said “It’s a perfect match for active lifestyles,” adding “It’s a way of meeting that demand and addressing that need.” Because it’s about time Starbucks addressed the public outcry over the lack of nutritional value of coffee.
Let’s face it, while it’s certainly a good idea to be health-conscious and to try and balance your diet, just tossing a bunch of vitamins into everything is not a magical solution. In fact, research is starting to show that vitamins taken without food might not even really be all that much use to your body (you end up peeing most of it out). And since when is giving your body what it needs to function properly considered a boost, anyway?
But then again, I’m not a coffee drinker, so what do I know?
Photo by rudolf schuba
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5 responses so far ↓
1 Eric Prince // May 13, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Ok, I am not sure what the gist of your post was? Do you not like the idea or not? Do you not like the fact that they are trying to improve business? Is this a rant? Help me understand…..
Eric
2 nicole // May 14, 2008 at 4:53 pm
eric - subtlety is lost on you. also you are obsessed with starbucks! crazy! thats like calling a mcdonalds your home office. weirdo.
this is the funniest thing since diet coke infusing their chemicle compound with “naturally” derived vitamins… drinking a diuretic (something that makes you pee - like caffeine) is the most useless thing you could do.
how about some water and an orange. or a salad… geez people! all of the afore mentioned items available at starbucks in addition to TERRIBLE coffee.
3 Eric Prince // May 15, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Now Nicole that’s not nice to call people names. My obsession is with the business process that makes a company grow from 5 stores to 16,000.
Weirdo isn’t a nice word to say to someone. Consider that Starbucks the brand, is taught in some of the finest business schools in the world.
Good coffee or not, they do know how to run a business.
4 Lindsey // May 17, 2008 at 8:38 am
I used to be a mad coffee drinker. Anywhere from 5-7 cups a day; it would kill my brain. Now I’m a chai enthusiast. It lets my brain be, because conveniently one needs it to function. A box of Tazo is $3.24 and lasts over three weeks; a venti coffee-of-the-day is $1.80 (2 years ago) and the headache lasts all day (a relative eternity).
I don’t know what the gist of my comment is, but I’d rather go the alternative route, and pop vitamins from a bottle. Or better still, from organic fruits/veggies. Coffee w/ vitamins does not scream HEALTH, it screams “help us achieve universal domination even more, why don’tcha?”. And I’m thinking no.
5 Followup: Why Starbucks + Vitamins Is Bad | LA.CityZine.com - Los Angeles // May 27, 2008 at 6:34 pm
[…] you may or may not recall, I made a little post a few weeks back about Starbucks latest gimmick marketing idea, “+Energy”; basically a vitamin boost in […]
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