The
Starbucks mermaid is swimming in unknown waters these days. The companies stock and profits have tanked off
during the down economy as people stop buying those $4 coffees. That being said, this self admitted coffee addict thinks
he might know how to save starbucks.
Free wifi.
Face it people. When you run a coffee shop you need butts in the door. Starbucks had done a masterfull job of creating a
C&C (coffee and chat) atmosphere. It became a place to be, and be seen. It became a place to hang out after school
for the kids. A place for the college kids to hang out and do homework. The place to have a date or that first F2F (face 2 face) with
someone you met online because it was public, and safe. Now what I see when I walk into my building every day, which
has a Starbucks in the lobby, is a customer line that is non-existant.
They need to get people wanting, heck, NEEDING to hang out in their locations again. Go back to basics. Give something away for free. In
this case free wifi. If I could hang out in their store in one of their big comfy chairs and surf the web for free
on my
iPod Touch, check the weather or just shoot
off some tweets on
Twitter I would probably do so. If you get people hanging
out, chances are they buy a second drink, or maybe a muffin to go along with that drink. When we go out to dinner, we have honestly chosen the
restaurant that HAS free wifi simply because we wanted to be able to surf. (Yes, that's pathetic....)
The reality is a simple DSL connection is $50 or less and you buy a wireless router and unlock it for everyone. With the amount
they charge for their drinks we are talking about what, 10-15 drinks and it's paid for?
Giving away free wifi also could bring in people that have had to cut back their own expenditures and cancel their internet connections. Now
they can come hang out at Starbucks and surf for free.
Sounds like a win win to me.
But last time I checked...when I tried to connect online with my iPod Touch at my local Starbucks, I had some popup hit me up for
buying a service subscription so I could access the hotspot.
Get a clue people, give it away for free. It's chump change to you and would help bring in much needed traffic to your stores.
- Scott
Posted May 12, 11:36pm
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