Starbucks Plans Selective Price Increase

Starbucks has made the decision to raise the price on some of its drinks after its announcement that it would absorb the rising cost of coffee.  The decision is due to the price of green Arabica coffee.  They said Wednesday that due to the near 13 year high on the green beans along with the rise in the cost of dairy, sugar and cocoa, they must raise the price on larger sizes and hard to make drinks.

“Over the last six months, a highly speculative green coffee market and dramatically increased commodity costs have completely altered the economic and financial picture of many players in the coffee industry,” said Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz, in a statement.  

The prices have been rising from the roasters for months  and Starbucks has resisted changing its prices up until now, but “the extreme nature of the cost increase has made it untenable for us to continue to do so.”

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Starbucks and Yahoo Team Up to Offer In Store E-Books and Movies

Starbucks has teamed up with Yahoo to offer their customers e-books and movies in an attempt to encourage them to “stay a while” and purchase more items at Starbucks.

Starbucks, who traditionally charged for wireless internet, began their free wireless internet campaign in July of this year.  Now when you access Starbucks’ wireless service, you will be welcomed to watch moves, read books or enjoy access to some paid sites  from their partners, some of which include The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, Apple’s iTunes, local news provider Patch, and Zagat.

If you want to read the books at home, you may purchase them through the internet service.  Starbucks makes a small profit from the purchase.  

The e-books on the network are being offered through the Bookish Reading Club, a partnership with publishers, including Harper Collins, Hachette, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster.

Some books will be offered as excerpts only – but the customer will have the option of buying the whole book if interested. Some material will be made available on the network before its release date. One of the first such offerings is a preview of Anita Shreve’s upcoming novel “Rescue.”

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