My Starbucks Idea

Starbucks announced today 5 major changes to the "Starbucks Experience."

Including:

• A proprietary and revolutionary in-store Clover® brewing system that delivers the best cup of brewed coffee available anywhere.

• A complete reinvention of brewed coffee in-store, that will be brought to life by baristas across the U.S., who will scoop and grind a new unique coffee blend, connecting customers to the early days of Starbucks.

• The introduction of a new state-of-the-art espresso system that provides the perfect shot every time and helps facilitate the critical connection between barista and customer.

• The first phase of a Starbucks Card Rewards program, rewarding registered cardholders and providing unique new benefits when using their cards in Starbucks stores.

• The launch of MyStarbucksIdea.com, Starbucks first online community, that takes the Starbucks Experience outside the store and enables customers to play a role in shaping the company’s future.

• An expanded relationship with Conservation International that enhances Starbucks 37-year commitment to ethically sourcing the world’s finest coffees and reaffirms Starbucks leadership position in sustainable sourcing and climate preservation. You can read the entire overview of new changes here.

My question - does it taste good? With all of the vacuums, suction, grinding, scooping and world travel.....will it make my coffee taste better? Part of me gets into this "romantic relationship" with Starbucks but the fact of the matter is: Dunkin Donuts has amazingly good tasting coffee and it cost $1.70. I don't know where the Dunkin Donuts coffee comes from, and I really don't care. Why? Because it tastes good.

More interestingly, Starbucks has also launch MyStarbucksIdea.com. This website will serve as a center for the exchange of ideas between consumers and guests who want to improve the Starbucks Experience. Beyond their attempt at improving their coffee this is also impressive as it offers a feature so you can "track" the progress of your idea. This is Starbucks attempt at trying to "connect" with guests on a whole new level.

Here's my idea: Make good coffee and stop charging me $4.

Starbucks: I don't care where your coffee comes from and if you didn't travel 3,000 miles to find coffee in the mountains of an unknown country my drink would probably cost half the price!

Also - why should I come to Starbucks and pay a premium price so I can walk over to the tiny creamer station and spill Splenda all over the counter as the guy next to me is reaching for the half and half?! At Dunkin and McDonald's for that matter they put the cream and sugar in for you.

The Idea: Reasonably priced coffee that tastes good and is prepared the way I like it. Oh wait, I can go to Dunkin for that.

What's your idea?