A interesting thing happened on my trip to Allegan, Michigan over Thanksgiving (yes that city again). While driving there, I stopped at a McDonalds for breakfast in Portage, Indiana (not far from the Chicago Skyway.) This particular McDonalds is built into a bigger gas station rest stop so there is a convenience store and a Subway sandwich shop in addition to the McDonalds.

While eating my Big Breakfast (highly recommend this as it’s eggs, sausage, a biscuit and hash browns for only about $3.50), I overheard a fellow traveler sitting at the booth behind me with her children lamenting: “if only there was a Starbucks within ten miles of here.”

I wanted to interrupt her and say, “there is- about 3 miles up the road” but I didn’t. (I was driving east bound on 94 she must have been going west bound because I clearly saw the Starbucks logo on the restaurant signs on the side of the road about 3 miles before I got off to eat at the McDonalds.)

Why did she so desperately want her Starbucks when McDonalds now offers what everyone has said (I’m not a coffee drinker myself) is delicious coffee?

Maybe she wanted a latte instead (which, for now, McDonalds isn’t offering.)

But that could be about to change. McDonalds is apparently trying to convince its franchisees that lattes and other high priced coffee drinks are the way to go. From the Associated Press:

“We want to move from beverages as an accompaniment to being a beverage destination,” Don Thompson, president of McDonald’s USA, said in a recent meeting with analysts. “Our speed, our convenience, the value that we can afford to customers” without compromising quality will make McDonald’s a formidable player, he said.

Restaurants will offer lattes, mochas, cappuccinos and espressos with a choice of different flavorings and milk. Industry watchers say the drinks will cost about 50 cents less than at Starbucks.”

Should Starbucks Be Worried?

If given a choice, this woman traveler would have been in a Starbucks and not the McDonalds. But I’m not so sure that McDonalds doesn’t beat out Starbucks in other locales.

In the city

McDonalds has added things like couches to some of its restaurants but I’ve never seen anyone sitting on one. Nor have I seen anyone sitting with their laptop open and hanging out in a McDonalds in the city (like you do at Starbucks.) Starbucks still has the edge in the big cities. It needs to return to being the community meeting place. People still have dates at Starbucks. They meet for job interviews or to meet with headhunters at Starbucks. They hang out at Starbucks after school or in between classes. These are Starbucks strengths.

On Starbucks website, they have a search feature where you can find out about Starbucks “events” near you which include music, Starbucks book club and things like that.

Great! Making Starbucks a part of the community. That’s what they need.

Only when I searched for “book club” in the entire state of Illinois, I found no events. So then I searched using the “find all” feature and discovered that there is only one upcoming book event in the entire country- in Dover New Hampshire. Most of the other “events” were hiring fairs or where Starbucks’ Angels were giving out free drinks at some holiday parade.

This “events” feature could be a great thing- but the company isn’t using it correctly. What a drag.

Otherwise, in the cities, they have to make sure that the coffee is darn good. They’re competing with lots of the local cafes now for taste and ambiance.

In the suburbs

Starbucks has been adding drive throughs to its suburban stores. Smart. But now that McDonalds is getting into the latte business, you will be able to go through the drive through and also get your McMuffin, one of the most popular breakfast items in the country. McDonalds will have an edge in these suburban locations- especially if they’re charging 50 cents less a cup.

In small town America

Stabucks is underrepresented in small town America. There is no Starbucks in my grandmother’s town of Allegan (and likely won’t be for another decade or more.) McDonalds didn’t even come to Allegan until 1984 or 1985. There are two or three freestanding Starbucks (outside of Meijer or Target stores) in Holland, about 16 miles to the north.

It’s hard to get any brand loyalty in these small town locations because most of the people have never tried your brand.

But for McDonalds, it’s easy. Allegan actually had a parade for the first McDonalds opening over 20 years ago. (It was that big of a deal. The closest McDonalds before it opened was about a 20 minute drive.) They recently tore down that restaurant and built a new one- complete with a drive-thru. Progress!

According to my grandmother, the local retired women go to McDonalds every morning for breakfast. And they go for the coffee. They RAVE about the coffee.

Who would have thunk it?

McDonalds has strong ties in small town America

Brand loyalty. McDonalds has the breakfast AND the coffee. Deadly combination. In ten years, when Starbucks does finally open in Allegan, they won’t be able to compete with that unless they have some new breakfast offerings or something else to bring people into the store.

Or darn good coffee and atmosphere (aka, meaning far better than McDonalds.)

Starbucks has a challenge ahead. But management should welcome it. As McDonalds grew stale in the 1990s, after it rose to the heap of the burger chains and wasn’t challenged, so Starbucks has also rested on its laurels in recent years. The McDonalds challenge is just the kick in the behind the company needs to rise to new heights.

Honestly- who drinks V8? Maybe it’s just me but when I was growing up my mother used to drink it and just the smell of all those tomatoes made me run for the hills (or in my case, to the backyard.)

Yuck!

Clearly, the company that makes V8 realized that there are lots of people like me in the world (anti-V8 people) and decided to do something about it.

Introducing…Fusion.

From their website:

V8® V.Fusion™ is a breakthrough juice that gives you a full serving of vegetables plus a full serving of fruits* in every 8-oz. glass. The result is a nutrition-packed beverage made of 100% juice that’s also delicious and refreshing!

So while you’re enjoying the delicious fruit taste – your body is getting nutrition it needs. V8® V.Fusion™ even includes the powerful antioxidants A, C and E – plus, it has no added sugar. Who would have thought that something so nutritious could taste so good?

It comes in four flavors: Pomegranate Blueberry, Strawberry Banana, Peach Mango and Tropical Orange.

A few days ago I actually gave into my anti-V8 bias and purchased the Pomegranate Blueberry.

My review?

It’s delicious! You can’t taste the nasty vegetable taste AT ALL. And none of that tomato-y smell either.

It’s genius- I tell you. And the price wasn’t that bad either (I paid around $4.00 for a 46 fluid oz. bottle.) That’s cheaper than the Odwalla healthy drinks and cheaper than the Minute Maid antioxidant juices which also just came out.

And you get not only the fruit- but a half serving of vegetables too. What’s not to like?

It left me wondering, just who makes V8 and V8 Fusion anyway?

Believe it or not, Campbell Soup (they go by CSC Brands now- probably so you’re not getting confused by the soup in the name.) Their ticker is CPB and they’re trading at around 17 times earnings.

Campbell also owns Godiva- which they’ve said they’re looking to sell or spin-off. Yum, yum. Godiva AND V8 Fusion. Now there’s an interesting combination.

I was in a Staples in downtown Chicago the other day buying some office supplies and remembered that I needed some glue to fix a broken hairbrush. Staples had all of their “back to school” supplies laid out so I quickly located the Elmer’s Glue, which, honestly, I haven’t bought in many, many years and looked quickly at the attached sign for the price.

How much was glue going for these days?

Apparently…5 cents.

I looked at the sign a second time, this time a little more closely, thinking my mind was playing tricks on me and it was really 50 cents.

But no. .05 is what the sign said. It was on “sale” - reduced from 79 cents.

When was the last time you bought anything at a legitimate retail store for 5 cents? Heck, not even a gumball out of one of those machines is five cents anymore. Those are at least 10 cents and usually 25 cents. Even the dollar stores are, well, a dollar.

5 cents.

Was glue even 5 cents when it first came out in the 1940s? Maybe they were having a 60 year anniversary sale price on the product. You know: “Buy it for the same price as 1947!”

I went to the check out with my other two items (a stapler and some envelopes) and even the cashier did a double take on the Elmer’s Glue.

5 cents.

I smiled at her. She smiled back. I knew what she was thinking: What can you buy for 5 cents these days?

(By the way, what kind of tax is there on 5 cents? I bought other items, so I have no clue. A penny?)

Then it got me thinking. Clearly, Elmer’s isn’t behind the promotion because how do they make money off of the item when it’s five cents? What is in Elmer’s Glue anyway?

Turns out it is a “secret recipe” that is guarded- kind of like the Coca-Cola recipe or the Colonel’s Original Recipe at KFC. From Elmer’s Glue:

Elmer’s Glues are chemical based. They are made or formulated from chemicals which are synthesized (created by Man). These chemicals were originally obtained or manufactured from petroleum, natural gas and other raw materials found in Nature. The exact formula and specific ingredients used in making Elmer’s products are considered proprietary information, therefore, we cannot share those with you.

If it’s chemical and petroleum based, well, it’s certainly got to cost more than 5 cents to produce given the current prices of most chemicals and crude.

Clearly, then, this was a Staples promotion just to get you to buy the glue. Why not just give it away for free then?

I suppose a freebie giveaway might not go down well with Elmer’s other customers.

Elmer’s by the way, is one of America’s great companies. Founded in 1947 in Ohio, they’ve been making glue ever since and also own the Krazy Glue line- another genius American invention.

Don’t you just get all warm and fuzzy inside when you think of Elmer’s Glue? I always had to have a brand new one for school- not my last year’s used one. Something about the new glue.

And for 5 cents?

Even better.

The IKEA Catalog. Did you get it recently in your Sunday paper too? Mine came wrapped in plastic to protect it from the rainstorm we got that day.

IKEA sends out copies of its catalog every year in major metropolitan areas through the local paper. I’ve gotten copies of it when I lived in San Francisco (and got the Chronicle) and this year’s copy came with the Chicago Tribune.

Why do I get so excited when I see the free IKEA catalog pop out of my Sunday newspaper? I don’t really go to IKEA that often (although I do go there.) If I wanted to look at their products, I could go on their website at any time.

But there’s something special about holding the catalog in my hands. It’s not small (as I’m sure the newspaper delivery people were cursing its weight.) This year’s catalog is 370 pages.

It has, however, shrunk in size in recent years. It used to be the size of a magazine and now it’s a slightly larger version of the old TV Guide. (Even IKEA likes to save money and trees.)

Maybe I love it because of the way they layout the pictures and the “ideas” I get from flipping through its pages.

Either way, their marketing does its magic on me.

And they are, as far as I know, the only major furniture or department store company that is still putting out a yearly catalog (kind of like the old Sears one.) Remember getting the Sears Catalog with the Christmas Wishbook?

As a child, it was a dream come true.

Apparently, I’ve replaced Sears and the Barbie townhouse with IKEA and the adjustable shelf bookcase.

IKEA has figured out that there is still joy in these catalogs. The feeling it invokes can’t be replicated with on-line browsing.

Come on, admit it. You gasped with delight too, and a smile crept over your face, when you saw the IKEA catalog with your Sunday paper.

It’s okay. I understand.