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Starbucks' Latest Market: Starbucks Haters

Seattle's Best sticks brand name on middle-market brew

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted May 1, 2011 3:36 PM CDT

(Newser) – Starbucks is taking aim at a new demographic: those who avoid the brand at all costs. The chain is promoting a makeover for Seattle’s Best Coffee, a brand it acquired nearly a decade ago, in the hope that it will capture middle-market coffee drinkers. To that end, the subsidiary has cut deals with Burger King, Subway, AMC cinemas, and Delta Airlines, where it’s now served on every flight.

Seattle’s Best has 325 shops; it will soon open 10 more inside Canadian Walmart stores. It’s now sold in 50,000 locations, but Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz wants to double that. The goal: $1 billion in revenue. “People don't drink no-name colas, but lots of people drink no-name coffees,” says president Michelle Gass. She hopes to change that, seeking customers who’d like name-brand coffee without the “class statement” of Starbucks, Business Week notes.

The new Seattle's Best Coffee Level System.
The new Seattle's Best Coffee Level System.   (Photo: Business Wire)
Subway brews Seattle's Best Coffee.
Subway brews Seattle's Best Coffee.   (AP Photo)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 11 comments
LANmine
May 1, 2011 10:05 PM CDT
Seattle's Best & Starbucks aren't bad but what's with the numbering on the coffee? Is it that hard to print & read French Roast? Still, I prefer Trader Joes coffee but Starbucks & Seattle's Best are fine when I'm not home.
pg13
May 1, 2011 9:32 PM CDT
Hand grinder, $30. Cup drip funnel, $5. Electric hot water kettle, $15. Whole beans, $8/bag. Average price for a cup of PERFECT coffee: $0.30/cup. Chance Starbucks will EVER get me as a customer, even with their no-name brand: 0%.
gomer99
May 1, 2011 7:58 PM CDT
Starbucks and, more importantly, its customers, typify the tip of the trashing of contemporary society: Trendiness, superficiality, and high cost passing for quality. Those who drink -- and pay for -- Starbucks and their clones.........deserve it.

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