Key Observations

Hello, hello!

I had a great weekend here in London and was able to spend some time sitting in Starbucks observing the locals. Some things that I was looking for were the ratio of men to women, the number of orders for tea opposed to coffee and how many people purchased items in addition to a drink. After sitting in Starbucks for an hour and enjoying my delicious breakfast, I had compiled a number of key observations that will allow me to draw some conclusions. During the hour that I sat in Starbucks, 20 people came in and ordered a drink. Out of these 20, 13 were women and only seven were men. I must say, I expected to find more men in Starbucks. This may just be my perception, but I always picture men as big coffee drinkers and women liking tea more. From my small observation, my theory does not seem to hold true. Another reason I expected to see more men at Starbucks was because London is such a large business district. Even though women are now in the business world, it is still heavily dominated by men. I should know by now, after living in diverse London for two weeks, that the traditional gender stereotypes that I know in the U.S. don't hold true here in London. I was astounded by the fact that out of the twenty people that ordered drinks not one person ordered tea. Being here in England, where tea is so popular, I anticipated that a number of people would order tea from Starbucks. I quite like tea from Starbucks, but maybe the tea isn't authentic enough for these Brits. Here in London, the Starbucks shops offer a plethora of sandwiches and treats as you have seen from my photos. With a selection of over ten sandwiches, I was interested to see how many people actually purchased the savory treats. During my one hour observation, four out of the 20 people bought a sandwich. While this may not seem like a large number on the surface, I need to tell you all that it was only 9 am. I have no doubt that if this many people purchased a sandwich prior to lunch that a greater number would indulge in one around lunch time. In addition to the aforementioned observations, I also noted that very few customers ordered plain "filtered coffee". Most customers at Starbucks on this fine Sunday morning ordered Frappuccinos or some type of flavored latte. I have noticed that other coffee shops that I have visited, Cafe Nero and Costa, do not offer many flavored drinks. I think that Starbucks has found its niche here in London by serving flavored coffees and I think that is what will allow Starbucks to remain quite popular. Talk to you tomorrow.

AM