Most of you probably know about the woes at Starbucks. They have faced a significant amount of competition from unexpected sources (i.e. McDonalds). As a result, they have been struggling with ways to improve their fiscal position. Recently they listed all of their store closings. Because 2 Starbucks are overkill on CR 210, they opted to shut down the store outside of Johns Creek.
For some of us, that is quite unfortunate. I would much rather stop at that location than the one down by I95. As I need to travel northbound during rush hour, it is nearly impossible to get out of there and head north. Instead, you usually have to go up to the truck stop and make a u-turn.
While many people would prefer to use the drive thru, I do not. I would rather go into the store and get my coffee. I'm not one of those people that are in there daily where I'm automatically recognized by the team in Starbucks. But they are always friendly and quickly serve up my selection.
I wouldn't expect Starbucks to shut down the new store with the drive thru. But if I had my pick, I would have kept the one at Johns Creek. Then again, I wouldn't have built that close to I95 to begin with and I would have built the Johns Creek one with a drive thru.
One last thing about Starbucks. They build this brand new store with the drive thru. They put up a sign on a high post. But they don't advertise it on the billboards or other exit signs. If they really are trying to capitalize on the highway traffic, shouldn't they let people know that it is there before they go past the exit? Starbucks needs to find ways to drive people to the store and not chase them away. In a land of supply and demand, you need to drive up demand or else supply will kill you. This is what is happening with Starbucks. Instead of giving people more reasons to go there, they let their competitors get an upper hand. Then their overpopulation of stores inflates their operating expenses.
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3 comments:
More a question than a comment. Do you know why there are no plans for an exit ramp between I-95 and Racetrack Road? Seem like it would alleviate alot of the traffic problems on 210 and US 1.
Maggie,
The rumor is that the rest area is too close to Racetrack Rd. The DOT doesn't feel that it could a provide a safe entrance / exit at Racetrack.
I disagree with them, but that's just me.
(Sorry it took so long to respond.)
-- BD
I currently work at the 24 hours Starbucks and have since we've opened the store 2 years ago.
Number one there WAS a plan to make our store more accessible, before the road construction started, but the cleaners we are next to decided last minute not to follow through.
Secondly as for our advertising, Starbucks is a word of mouth company, if you haven't noticed we're not a company who has to advertise like McDonald's, the ways our stores run speak for themselves. Ever since we've been open we've been trying to get 2 billboards up on 95 its just a matter of billboards being available. I'm sure developers didn't expect it to be such a hassle when they picked our location.
Our store also receives compliments daily on how our customers would rather come to our store than any others.
The workers at the cafe only store (the store that closed) were very rude, even when I went in there dressed in uniform they didn't even acknowledge me.
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