Starbucks seems to be in serious trouble. The Seattle Times reports that Starbucks is dropping its ubiquitous name from some of its stores and re-badging them with a different name and serving alcohol. The first store will have a nice "community" name: 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea. Furthermore, it will "sell espresso from a manual machine rather than the automated type found in most Starbucks stores".

In other words, Starbucks will be pretending to be anything but Starbucks. But it's Starbucks by stealth.

In the blogosphere, the strategy has gone down like a lead balloon. The Slog blog says it won't fool anyone. "It's like they listened to all the complaints about Starbucks closing local businesses and sapping the flavor from neighborhoods and then took the most dunderheaded, obvious action to take advantage of those complaints ... If this is Starbucks' way to try to address complaints that it's grown too big and too impersonal, I have little hope for the company making a successful financial turnaround."

The Seattlest blog says you can't expect Starbucks to be creative and come up with an idea of its own. "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It's not like Starbucks can come up with an original concept that works. That's why they rip off other people's."

This blogger says the strategy is just plain stupid. "So dumb. They spent so much time becoming the Walmart of coffee shops, now they want to try and develop "indie cred". Too late…. time to jump the shark."

Still, I have to say I find the strategy intriguing. But it raises another question. When Starbucks sells you a coffee at its US stores, it's highway robbery. Given the enormous money Starbucks charges for a cup of coffee, it will be interesting to see how much they charge for a beer or a glass of red. Just wait for a $20 glass of wine!