The impending changes are part of the Seattle-based company's ongoing effort to cut costs and win back customers at a time of economic weakness and increased competition from less-expensive rivals such as McDonald's Corp. and 7-Eleven Inc., the report said.
A Starbucks spokesperson confirmed the changes, which will begin to be rolled out across the U.S. next month, she told the Journal. "We are pleased that these changes to our brewed-coffee process will ensure an even fresher cup of coffee," Deb Trevino said.
Two years ago, Howard Schultz, then chairman of the company he had led as chief executive, wrote a memo to executives blaming the chain's excessive focus on growth and efficiency for cheapening the coffee shop experience. He noted in the memo that an earlier switch to preground coffee had taken the "romance and theatre" out of a trip to Starbucks.
"We achieved fresh-roasted bagged coffee, but at what cost? The loss of aromaperhaps the most powerful nonverbal signal we had in our stores," he wrote.
Schultz last year retook the CEO seat in an effort to turn around Starbucks, where sales had begun slowing. To restore some of the theater, baristas began grinding beans in the morning and then scooping ground coffee as needed to make pots throughout the day. With the latest changes, customers will be able to hear the whir of grinders and smell the aroma of fresh coffee all day.
Starbucks has long aimed to refresh its available coffee every 31 minutes in a cycle that includes a minute of preparation time, six minutes of brewing time and 24 minutes of holding time, according to the company documents cited by the paper.
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