MILAN – Starbucks seems to have slowed down plans to open a thousand Reserve coffee bars. “One thousand was an aspiration,” said the company’s Ceo Kevin Johnson in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Instead, Starbucks will test six to 10 Reserve stores to see if they can generate the necessary returns before they go any further.
Schultz believed that the exceptional experience offered by high-end destination retail stores would draw back consumers who had abandoned malls, while the higher prices would also bolster Starbucks’ bottom line.
Johnson’s new, slightly more sober approach, acknowledges that Starbucks might not be able to conquer the third-wave coffee market after all.
