American Culture and The Organized Church Tom Lyberg on 02 Jul 2008 10:52 am
Starbucks Closing Parishes?
There is was this morning, Starbucks is closing 600 stores due to the economy and overexpansion.
I almost felt like a prophet when I read this in a Bloomberg story this morning.
Most of the 600 stores set to close were opened in late 2005 and 2006, Bocian said on the call with investors and analysts. During that time, more than 50 percent of the new stores had drive-through service, he said.
Consumers are driving less because of gasoline prices that have soared to more than $4 a gallon, according to separate surveys in the past two weeks by Mastercard Advisors analyst Michael McNamara and JPMorgan Securities Inc. analyst Himanshu Patel. (Full Article)
While the price of gas is certainly a factor, the drive thru customer base, I would argue, are not the people who are invested in the Starbucks vision or community. The drive thru undermined the core value of the coffee experience and now they are having to do what mainline churches have been doing for the last 20 years – too many locations too close in the same community to be sustainable. Downsize, close, merge, and see if you can recover your mission.
Interesting times we live in. It seems that the corporations that learned so well from the best of the church regarding evangelism, stewardship, and community are now reaping what went wrong in the church when it became “successful.”
on 02 Jul 2008 at 11:33 am # Kyrkans framtid » Blog Archive » Fortsatt om Svenska kyrkan och Starbucks
[...] bloggade både Tom Lyberg och Christoffer Levak om Starbucks, som nu lägger ner 600 kaffebarer och – drumroll, please – 50% [...]
on 02 Jul 2008 at 4:39 pm # Bruce Lanzerotti
Tom,
You sure nailed that one. Give us a call sometime we’re deep in the middle of the re-enacting season.
Bruce
on 03 Jul 2008 at 8:06 pm # Doug Dill
For sure Tom, you really hit it. It is just what we talked about a year ago. Yes, drive thru with high gas stops some traffic, but drive thru is a killer. I am guilty of using it, but by doing so, less is spent in the store and less community is gained. It is no longer a gathering spot. The same thing happened to gas stations with pay at the pump. You pay there and never walk in, and thus buy nothing else. What’s next? Drive thru Church? Oh, wait, that is there. No community in that. We need to drive them in, not out of the building. Community is what keeps them coming, and community needs to be built, a loving and caring community in Christ.