New York Times: Simon decodes Starbucks' image makeoverStarbucks locations around the country are being updated to make them feel more like a neighborhood shop. Some experts say the coffee giant will never regain the exclusive image it once had before it developed a reputation as a convenient coffee chain. "Has anybody said they came back because people love the coffee again?" asked Temple historian Bryant Simon, author of Everything but the Coffee: Learning About America From Starbucks. "When you're selling stuff people don’t need, you've got to be selling something else, and that's what Starbucks lost. There’s a kind of dissonance between the messaging and the actual practice."
March 12, 2011 | New York Times