FC NOW: The Fast Company Weblog
June 29, 2005
I Scream, You Scream
Starbucks is offering free ice cream today at 6,000 of its stores (I'm not sure how popular the giveaway is going to be at this one) as a way to drive sales at grocery stores.
Curiously enough, though, the company doesn't sell the ice cream, which it's been selling since 1995, at its retail stores. While this will surely be a nice little treat on a sultry afternoon throughout much of the country, how effective do you think it will be if you can't return to one of their ubiquitous stores for a scoop later on this summer? More importantly, what flavor to get?
Posted by Michael Prospero at June 29, 2005 12:41 PM | Category: advertising + PR |
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Starbucks has tested selling scooped Ice Cream and Ice Cream shakes at a handful of stores over the years. However, it never proved financially or operationally viable. For Starbucks to sell Ice Cream, each store needs a freezer and that costs money as well as takes up valuable front-of-house and back-of-house space. Also, stores haven't been designed to include room for a scooping station. In the pilot stores where Starbucks has sold Ice Cream, sales haven't been significant enough to justify the expense nor the hassle to work freezers and scooping stations into the store layout.
{This from an ex-Starbucks marketer and former Barista.}