Until now, the American oil price issue has hit every home and most small businesses. However, even the conglomerate known as Starbucks has been hit by it as well. Earlier this week, the company has noted that a receipt of a Starbucks coffee presented later in the afternoon will take two dollars off any other purchase. The idea is to not let the afternoon pick me ups be as expensive as the necessary ones during the morning; with a receipt from the morning, a pick me up later in the day will truly be that and not an economical let down.
Although the company is trying to look “merciful,” it is only apparent that profits are way down—the petroleum problem has now hit not only companies but culture. Because of how popular the coffee chain is, it will bring the message home even more that the rich have stopped getting richer, and that the gas issues are affecting America as a whole.
The company originally planned on this event to only temporarily hit the specific cities of Miami, Chicago, and Seattle—one at each ends of the nation as well as “rest stop” in the middle. However, America’s gas problem has gotten to such an extent that the company is to bring this deal nationwide for a longer period of time.
As noted in the article of http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/05/starbucks.deal.ap/index.html, Chief Executive Howard Schultz sees this as only a business plan, concerned if customers will still see Starbucks as a value for quality coffee. As if to deny the “whys” of the profit slump, he only shows business concerns. Although as a businessman he should, a better business man would not only see solutions, but the errors as well to figure out a better solution; Starbucks is presenting a band-aid with its two dollars deal to a blown off arm and leg by means of OPEC.