It’s been a long while since I’ve talked about MyStarbucksIdea.com in any way whatsoever. I noticed a few idea-threads that struck me as interesting, and decided to highlight them here.
Here we go:
1)
Daly City Starbucks Closing – Please Save Our Store – This idea thread is about a store in Daly City, California, which apparently is closing on January 26, 2012. When I saw this thread, my interest was immediately piqued, as I wondered which Daly City Starbucks, and wondered if there was a story behind this. I didn’t realize that Starbucks is still closing stores, though I suppose if a store is not profitable, that could always happen. Still, I wonder if any of my readers have more information about why this Starbucks is closing? Does anyone here have more information on this?
Here’s the full “idea” from MyStarbucksIdea.com:
2)
Bring Back Organic Shade Grown Mexico – Here’s someone who wants the whole bean coffee Organic Shade Grown Mexico to come back. I have to admit, I really liked that coffee too, and so I want to highlight this thread. I don’t think it’s coming back, but I can still wish… Now is a good time to mention an old blog post about Shared Planet, which talks about the early history of Organic Shade Grown Mexico coffee. Still, as a fan of this coffee, I want to put a spotlight on this thread.
3)
Why buck the buck at the bux? – You can’t really tell what this thread is about by looking at the title. It appears to be that a customer wanted to use a coupon for a $1.00 off of whole bean or Via and was told that they could not do so at the company-operated Starbucks. Given the mix of answers in the thread, I find it a bit confusing. As far as I know, the $1.00 off whole bean (or Via Ready Brew) coupons may be used at all “participating Starbucks,” which generally does include all company-operated stores.
Here’s the idea thread:
4) Graham Cracker Topping and Cheesecake Syrup – Here’s a partner who wants a cheesecake syrup and graham cracker topping for beverages. It doesn’t really appeal to me, but someone would like it. It’s interesting enough to point out here – That’s an original idea!
It’s been eons since I’ve talked about MyStabucksIdea.com, so here is a chance to chat about the idea site. Talk about anything MSI-related!
18 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Socialize
Is always sad to hear a store is closing, never nice for anyone involved:( but I LOVE organic shade grown mexico! such a fantastic coffee!!
Melody it has been a bit since I went to MSI as I have said and others the site just does not appeal to me anymore where once it was an interesting place to go to for info. However, I am glad you found some topics worth sharing. I wonder if these kind of topics are lost on the MSI because of the way it is being moderated and the kind of overall comments the site gets. I wonder why Daly City is losing a store. From what I remember Daly City is a pretty vibrant place and could support this store.
re: msi….as seen above, we can still use it as a place of info and sometimes, corrections of wrong info. There’s that at least.
In the bucks the bucks at Bux thread, it is confusing because apparently the “idea” was meant about a coupon from a newspaper. I never saw any of those and don’t know what they said. My rxn was to the $1.00 off coupons given with those 3 days of tastings, and yes, they are redeemable (as it states on the back) at ‘real’ Sbux and also, one still receives the free tall beverage reward.
I find msi especially helpful with these kinds of things…just this blog. It’s good to keep in touch, as consumers, (imo) about what’s what.
it is crazzzzzy over there alot of the time, but especially for the above reasons, I find it useful!
@MikeGilks – There are so many reasons stores close. Sometime the lease Starbucks entered into in crazy expensive. I’d love to know more, or even which Daly City Starbucks that is. Thanks for weighing in – I suspect if we ever see OSGM again, it will be as a “Reserve”
@DeniseR – One of the challenges of MSI is that there is no way to post a link, image, or anything but bare text. So the thing of it is, if someone is talking about a coupon, it can be hard to know WHICH coupon. I assumed that he meant the black one in the image above!! MSI really really really needs more moderators. You could manage links, and images if you had plenty of mdoerators all the time who were quick to remove user-content that violated the terms and conditions.
I do not get on as much as it is now a sea of pointless posts with few genuine ideas. However I do think it is a fabulous concept as I have helped implement ideas. Honestly, I find refuge on the partner side nowadays.
@Diele – I see it more as a flood than a sea. It is a great concept, and I recall hearing that the fall braille card came right out of the ideas there. I think there are a few trolls though, and I think newbies who think they have an original idea (please make a mini gold card, for ex) easily get discouraged and don’t come back when their idea gets a bunch of down votes. It’s a bit of a mess, with a few gems in a field of whatever. What is the partner side like? Angry? Or better without any trolls?
I have conversations with our customers here in southern ohio about msi almost daily. It is a very cool place on the internet, and I do think that it seems to get a lot of attention from people who make big decisions.
p.s. mel, just as an update on myself… I’m transfering to another local store that is very exciting. I would love for you to do a post on it. It’s part on of the largest international grocery stores in the world. Awesome place for a barista like me. They are excited to have me, and I’m excited to be coming there. Here is a link to the store… http://www.junglejims.com/
Im not a huge fan of the creme based frapps, but I could see a strawberry cheesecake frap with graham cracker topping being a hit with those who like the creme frapps.
@Christopher- I love Jungle Jim’s!
Melody, the partner side sees roughly 3-5 new ideas daily, so I literally keep up with every idea and add my input. It is mostly ideas in hopes of improving current practices or add things to improve what we already have. Sometimes we see a partner vent, but it is usually for constructive critism to improve things. I think it is a great outlet to voice how certain products function when implemented in stores and provide feedback on new products, routines, etc.
1) I didnt know that SBux locations were still closing as well, I live in ontario canada and havent heard about any stores closing near us, but we have such a small store population in comparison to the states that im not really surprised.
2) Im an Asian-pacific coffee lover but the Organic SGM was my all-time fav for latin american coffee. I will miss it, and I know that our customer base in ONT misses it as well. But Im sure the reason has to go with whether the blend was profitable or not. Starbucks as a company in whole is probably cutting the fattiest parts so we can all keep our jobs. Unfortunately, no matter what the news says, in this economy we all have to try to keep our heads above the water.
3) We accept it so I have no opinion 4) Ewwh another super fatty high cal drink 🙁
@KellA – Thanks for the fabulous conversation. I hadn’t even thought much about that, but yeah, a cheesecake syrup and graham cracker topping would have “nutrition facts” that no one would want to see! As to Organic Mexico – Seems like most of the single origin coffees are disappearing – Sidamo, Mexico. The answer is still the Reserve and Clover stores, it seems.
One store in our Area (105ish stores) closed last year. The store was 10 years old, and they decided not to renew the lease. This particular store was in a downtown area of a Central Valley city, and had numerous security, graffiti, homeless, and many other issues. Not to mention it was a (IMO) poor design shoe-horned into a redevelopment building that didn’t really redevelop the area.
Now that Starbucks is a mature company, there are going to be times where it will make good business sense to close down occasional locations as the situation directs. Sometimes a better location nearby opens up, sometimes it might just be time to leave the neighborhood, without more information I wouldn’t venture an opinion.
(Just zoomed in and read the MSI post above, the store I’m mentioning was right next to a movie theater, in fact, in the same building. All those regular municipal customers don’t make up for all the problems of loitering teens and other issues the proximity to the theater causes.)
I been to a lot of Starbucks, and this Starbucks is by far my favorite! We giggle a lot and very infectious that all the staff were laughing WITH us, so we came out of the store smiling and happy.
@Dinnes – Hi there! Welcome to the blog! WHICH Starbucks are you referring to? Would love to know! I don’t know which Daly City Starbucks is closing. Unfortunately, unless you (or the writer of the MyStarbucksIdea.com thread) write which Starbucks, there’s only just a lot of guessing that can happen, which is often wrong. 🙁 Come back soon!
Hi Melody,
We had issues scanning one of those coupons (in Ontario, CA) but the ring code worked just fine. Perhaps a barista was unaware of the second option to process the transaction?
@Hazelristretto – That probably is what happened. Thanks for weighing in. @ChrisW – Speaking of closing Starbucks, check this tweet out – https://twitter.com/#!/vurnis/status/162578230291857409 = First Starbucks on the east coast is closing per that tweet!
Thanks for your patience and ever-present cool, Melody — it’s always good to see you pop up on MSI as a rare voice of reason and good humor. The troll quotient on that site has gone off the charts of late — I just saw a thread chock full of completely insane Melody-bashing, with constant swearing and offensive language. Not sure what happened to the moderators on MSI, but they certainly aren’t taking user reports seriously anymore.
Hi Gobo! Good to see your friendly face (figuratively speaking obviously)! MSI is an odd place. Newbies have a hard time seeing who is a troll because of so many multiple ideas assigned to one single person. The Melody-bashing appears to be one (or two?) individuals who have a fixed (and wrong!) belief that I work for Starbucks. My god, it’s like as if they think the more they say it, that somehow it will make it true. Actually, I think if a partner had a blog like this, Starbucks would have a cow (i don’t really know that but they don’t want partners writing critical content really.) Even weirder, it just seems that some people don’t like positivity about Starbucks and so if you’re positive, you should be attacked. I’ve used the limited amount of resources that I have and complained about MSI. It got nowhere. NOTHING is going to change. That is a site that allows that trolling, for whatever reason it is. And I’ve learned that if I defend myself on MSI, I can be accused of taking threads off topic and/or causing the others to “react” to my comments (like as if I have control of others?). The upshot is this: I go to MSI and I try to find ideas and topics that I like, and I try to make helpful comments where possible. And I try (though it tests my patience) to ignore the rest. And it looks to me like you’re the same: You do a great job of leaving helpful comments where they fit, and then you ignore the drama. Thank you for coming by here too. You’re always welcome to join this little site.