Why Starbucks is Losing Market Share

Author: Tommy Leung | 10.21.2008 | Category: Business, Life, Marketing

I had mentioned my switch from Starbucks to Dunkin Donuts for my usual coffee a while back. Since then, I had actually started buying coffee from Starbucks again. For the most part, it wasn’t the same pleasant experience I had remembered from when they were a company to be modeled after. The product was better and the staff was friendlier. I don’t know what Starbucks’ is doing since its fall in stock price and reduction of expansion but, it isn’t making things better.

The quality of the coffee appears to have gone down significantly. I have received less than preferable temperature for a regular tall coffee more than once. The Starbucks I remember always had their coffee at a certain temperature and the staff were well-trained to make sure that happens. The new pike roast is just not as good as what Starbucks used to have.

Last week, I had went into a Starbucks to accompany someone who was actually buying a cup of coffee. I had went to Dunkin Donuts prior and bought a medium cup of coffee and a bagel with cream cheese. We entered this Starbucks and the staff behind the counter proceeded to heckle me about the Dunkin Donuts’ product I was holding. It would have been friendly teasing if the barista had not suggested that they provide me with a paper bag with place my DD in as to not embarrass Starbucks when I walk out–how insulting.

The barista should leave the marketing to the marketers. Due to the barista’s faulty misplacement of brand image over customer service, I have since told many friends and acquaintances about this story. And now, I have made it available to the internet. This whole social network thing is a rather powerful means of spreading a message.

I am unlikely to buy coffee from a Starbucks again in a long time and I would suggest that when you have the option of Starbucks or some other coffee house, go with the latter. A company that is no longer operating in a fashion that justifies its price should be punished by decreased revenues and market share.

Christina Aguilera Keeps Getting Better

Author: Tommy Leung | 09.10.2008 | Category: Music

I didn’t watch the VMA’s. I have long since stopped watching much of what MTV does unless it shows up on YouTube. If it was that spectacular or newsworthy, it’ll find a way to reach me. I had no idea Christina Aguilera was going to perform at the VMA’s. I found out on YouTube a couple of days after the fact. I guess I wasn’t really checking YouTube that much.

Anyway, I’ve always been a big fan of Christina’s music. She is of the few modern pop artists whose albums I buy. So her VMA performance consisted of a renewed version of Genie in a Bottle. I thought that was awesome considering that was the first song I had ever heard from her. I was a kid in Junior High School at the time and I thought she was pretty good back then.

Surely, my musical tastes have changed and her albums after the first are definitely better. I personally love the way Christina evolves her music with each new album. It’s never the same stuff as the last.

Her new single–Keeps Getting Better–sounds different than anything shes done before as well. I’ve listened to it a bunch of times now–all on YouTube–and I must say it is pretty good. I don’t think I’ve ever been disappointed with her music so I might be a little biased. She also uses the word “super” in the chorus so how can I dislike that? It would be most fantastic if the radio keeps the phrase “super bitch” in their version–they probably won’t.

So if you haven’t heard it, listen below:

Blogging From Google Chrome

Author: Tommy Leung | 09.03.2008 | Category: Internet

I’ve been looking for an alternative to both Internet Explorer and FireFox. With the new releases of IE and FireFox, they have both gotten crappier–slower. So when I found out Google released Chrome–or some beta version of it–I downloaded as soon as I could. Now I am writing this post using Chrome. :)

I have only used it for a little bit. I tested from projects I was working on at work in it. I did find a problem with Flash that Safari also has except its even worse in Chrome. Flash’s Mouse.hide() doesn’t really work very well in Safari and it works even less well in Chrome. I have no idea why this is the case but, someone should really look into that–works perfectly in IE and FireFox.

Chrome is a lot faster than IE or FireFox. There is much less clutter. The design is clean and simple–very Googlesque. I have only visited a handful of sites and most worked flawlessly. I’ll probably continue to use Chrome for a while longer to see how it fairs against the other browsers. I’m hoping it turns out to be the browser I’m looking for: light-weight, fast, doesn’t crash, and works.

AS3 Calls to JavaScript

Author: Tommy Leung | 08.26.2008 | Category: Internet, Programming

I don’t write nearly as much programming help posts than I could be. There seems to be so much of them out there as it is. However, when I come across something that I think isn’t all that well known or clearly discussed, I feel compelled to release that information into the great unknown of the Internet.

So, I was doing a project that needed a Flash movie–coded in AS3–to make some calls to JavaScript for functionality that JavaScript is more capable of doing. There are various FSCommands that you can use in ActionScript but, nothing really suited my needs. I had some JavaScript functions that needed to be called when certain things happened in the Flash movie.

The quickest method I found for doing this is simply using navigateToURL(). You simply make a call to javascript:FUNC()wth target of _self. More specifically:

navigateToURL("javascript:FUNC()", "_self")

That’s it. :)

Sixx: A.M.

Author: Tommy Leung | 08.25.2008 | Category: Music, Videos

I went to see Motley Crue this weekend–Saturday, August 23rd, 2008– at the PNC Bank Arts Center. The Crue put on a great show. I personally love the sexual images mixed in with the political messages. What I took away most from the show was from one of the opening bands: Sixx: A.M. I knew nothing about this band until I went to see the show. Trapt, Papa Roach, and Buckcheery also opened but, they didn’t leave quite the same impression. Sixx: A.M. is Nikki Sixx’s–of Motley Crue–band. They played some great music and I went to find some more when I got home. They are pretty awesome. If you’ve never listened to them before, go do it now. :)

Here is a taste of their 1st single: Life is Beautiful:

Silly Olympic Math

Author: Tommy Leung | 08.18.2008 | Category: Sports

The IOC can officially report that He Kexin of China won the Gold in the uneven bars event finals but, without some meaningful sudden death scenario, He Kexin and Nastia Liukin of the USA should both have received Gold. Liukin and He both scored a 16.725 in the event–creating a tie–but, with some illogical mathematics, Liukin fell into second place and a received a Silver.

The first tiebreaker scenario made sense. The competitor with the higher execution score would place ahead. That makes sense since execution is meaningful in gymnastics. However, He and Liukin had the same execution score.

The second tiebreaker scenario didn’t make sense. The calculation of the execution score takes into account 6 deductions. The two extremes are dropped and the four remaining deductions are averaged and then subtracted from 10. This second tiebreaker drops the next highest deduction and averages the remaining three.

Do you see the ironic and illogical reasoning behind this? The Olympics is a competition to find the best athelete or to put it a different way: an athlete who makes the least mistakes. Deductions are bad. This tiebreaker takes the highest remaining deduction and gets rid of it. The person who made a bigger error benefits. Does that really make sense?

Read More >>

The Georgian/Russian Truth

Author: Tommy Leung | 08.15.2008 | Category: News, Politics, Videos

I put up a video at Tommy Liberty about a 12 year old girl who was in the area where the conflict between Georgia and Russia is occurring. She squarely places the blame on Georgia for attacking South Ossetia and causing all the death and destruction–she was actually thankful for the Russians. Watch it.

Knowing what we know, do we really want to get involved in this conflict? I’m saying that we should not put a base in Poland and send aid to Georgia.

US Women’s Take Gold, Silver

Author: Tommy Leung | 08.15.2008 | Category: Sports

About time! Our women’s gymnastics team took the gold and silver in the all around finals. The Chinese had won gold in the men’s team, men’s all around, and women’s team. The Chinese national anthem was becoming quite common in the gymnastics arena. We finally got to hear a different tune.

Nastia Luikin and Shawn Johnson took the gold and silver respectively. Yang Yilin of China took the bronze.

Tommy Liberty

Author: Tommy Leung | 08.14.2008 | Category: Internet, Politics

Isn’t that catchy? Tommy Liberty. In line with mission to create focused blogs on topics that I like writing about, I have launched Tommy Liberty as the place where I will keep my political writings. I’ve also put a tab in the menu above alongside my fitness blog. :)

Don’t Blame Sacramone

Author: Tommy Leung | 08.13.2008 | Category: Sports

Gymnastics is one of the events that I watch every Olympics and this time is no different. While our men’s team took the Bronze and were ecstatic about it, our women’s team took the Silver and the reaction was completely different. I’m not saying we should accept Silver and be done with it–our team is damn good and we should be aiming for the Gold. The Chinese team so happened to have been better on that day.

Alicia Sacramone would be the easy target to pick out and blame for our loss to China. NBC’s Johnny R explains why Alicia should not be blamed. She didn’t have her best performances at the team finals but, I’m sure she wanted to have done better–her reactions tell the story. There are still more events coming up for Alicia and other members of our gymnastics team. What we should be doing is supporting our athletes in their upcoming events.

There are still more Gold medals to be won and while the Chinese surprised us this time, we’ll be ready for them next time. :)