Starbucks has never had a very appealing food or baked goods selection, despite the fact that one third of purchases made in its U.S. locations include food. But now the company has purchased Bay Area bakery chain La Boulange, and hopes the bakery will improve Starbucks' food reputation.
La Boulange currently has 19 locations in the Bay Area, and is known for serving salads and sandwiches in a casual sit-down setting. According to Starbucks reps, it's their hope the acquisition of the chain will "popularize the French bakery experience in the U.S. the same way it brought the experience of the Italian espresso bar to the masses."
The pastries and sandwiches from La Boulange will start replacing Starbucks' current lineup early next year, first in San Francisco and then nationally.
Read More: Starbucks buys bakery to improve food offerings at Yahoo
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(Image: La Boulange)
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It remains to be seen what the quality level will be once it's scaled up from local to nationwide - I really do wonder if they can pull that off or if Starbucks will begin cutting corners and dramatically dumb-down the quality of La Boulange's offerings.
I'm with Rucy on this. It's a huge corporate entity, and I doubt whether you can replicate that sort of quality on a large scale.
As luck would have it, we had this very conversation this weekend during our 5-hour commute to Grandma's house. Of course, we stopped at a Starbuck's midway for a bathroom and coffee break, and tried to combine it with food, but even the plain croissants were terrible -- mass-produced with trans fats.
It all looks good in their glossy advertising shots and in the display cases, but everything I've ever tried eating there has been awful.
The solution is simple -- do as the French do. Every small town in France (and in many parts of Europe) has a boulanger. They all do the basics -- bread, croissants. Some even branch out to sandwiches and coffees. In the years we travelled across France, we never had a problem getting refreshments... no matter where you were, you would just drive into a town, find the bakery on the main street, and you would have a delicious meal. You could also stop in a café. Why don't some enterprising souls recreate this business concept here?
Interestingly enough, when we got to Grandma's house, we found that some enterprising French baker from Lyon had done just that. It's a small town (population 7000), with ski tourism in the winter, but quiet the rest of the time. Yet, a baker has set up shop -- and has expanded his offerings to amazing pizzas for the evening crowd, and local and french cheeses to accompany his pain au levain and croissants.
(down with the poor quality and banality of franchises!!)
It will be interesting indeed.
Ironically, David Lebovitz posted an interesting article just this morning on the topic of this franchise conglomerate.
BTW, sometimes we need those franchises for pit stops.
I really have no huge issues with Starbucks, I like their coffee, it's better than just about all other chain coffee in Canada, and when I was finishing my undergrad, I knew that I could plunk myself down in a corner of my local sbux, and study or write a paper for HOURS, and the baristas were always cool with it. I've tried doing that in local, independent coffee places, and was often asked to leave after a couple hours. Most of the food at snuck isn't really good, so hopefully this means that they'll roll this out in Canada too, which will be nice when I need a place to study when I start Masters next fall.
I don't go to Starbucks for coffee, but I find when I travel that their "Bistro Meal" tastes good, incorporates fresh food, and is packaged to stay neat and compact for air travel. It's also an appropriate amount of food. The chicken wrap is good, with salsa that has avocado in it and a generous amount of lettuce, and the chicken is spiced and juicy. Am I the only one?
I recently started eating breakfast at home more often, but when I was grabbing it during my commute I ate at Starbucks occasionally. They were the first chain I knew of to offer oatmeal, and it was good. I also liked the sausage, egg, and cheese English muffin sandwich. Their bagels are awful though and I never eat them. Tough and served with a tiny cream cheese.
While I appreciate their efforts (their croissants are terrible), I wonder if they thought to work with local bakeries. I understand the idea of standardizing the experience - you get the same quality no matter which location you visit - but I think that working with local pastry shops would have been great.
@Lauren - most people don't realize that the standard serving size for cream cheese is about 2 tablespoons. While it isn't quite enough for an entire bagel (and people slather the stuff on), it is still a serving size.
I'm with Rucy on this, too. Maybe Starbucks' food quality will go up, but the La Boulange bakery might go down. I think I'm going to have to get one last prosciutto and fig "grab and go" sandwich before any changes are made.