It’s impossible to ignore a comment from Starbucks.

It’s been a long year for Starbucks. Everyone has a story about what was and what is. Actually its decline was as much a mirror image of the whole economic nightmare as it was a response to its own growth pattern: The Starbucks on every corner mentality! As the reality of negativity set in, the company started to do the fixes, and there have been many.

Just this week there was another thought that hit the brewing machines: Hey, why don’t we make a fresh pot more frequently. Yikes, we’ll give off the aroma of a real coffee shop. The place will smell like beans–that’s the thinking. That’s the kind of thinking that may actually work if there is a real way to bring customers back to Starbucks. As they have been fleeing, they were going somewhere. It’s the where and the loyalty factor that may determine Starbucks’s future down the road.

The biggest problem, that in many respects is harder to fix, centers around service, consistency, and  training. You can close the shops and train, but when you open, the early evangelical spirit needs to be there. It’s not. The attitude is more of a “NEXT” philosophy than the old days when the message was: I can make you an espresso you’ll remember. It will be like yesterday’s, and tomorrow’s will be just as good. Inconsistency has become the reality. No two cups now ever taste the same or even look the same.

People like Starbucks, but Starbucks has to like itself and return to what worked. Not just a new thought an hour.

I continue to wonder: How often can they reinvent?

Just a double shot, please.