Monday, November 24, 2008

SBUX: The Movie (?)

On March 29, 2006, over two and a half years ago I wrote a blog post about Tom Hanks and director Gus Van Sant (director of many films including this years Milk, Finding Forrester, Good Will Hunting and My Own Private Idaho) working together on the film called How Starbucks Saved My Life.

They day I wrote that post, Starbucks stock (SBUX) closed at $37.53. Today after almost an 8% increase, Starbuck's stock still closed at 8.45 per share. Down, more than 75% since I wrote that post 2 and half years ago.
As mentioned March '06, the film How Starbucks Saved My Life
is based on the memoir by Michael Gates Gill, who's book carries the subtitle "A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else."

In the film Tom Hanks would be playing Michael Gill who gets laid off as a high level ad exec, and ends up getting a job as a Starbuck's barista.

The reality is, the film could really resonate with a lot of people who have been/are being laid off from there jobs across the globe. Granted, they probably don't have the disposable income for a movie ticket, when the cost of a ticket is more than the starting hourly wage for a Starbucks barista.

All the same...with the weakening of the Starbucks brand, you have to wonder if this is really the type of project Gus Van Sant and Tom Hanks are interested in pursuing right now. I really haven't heard any news on this film for the past couple of years since the news first came out about the project.

I'm sure Starbucks and their Public Relations group would love to see this film made and come out ASAP, but it certainly doesn't look like that's happening any time soon.

Have you contributed the decline of Starbucks? Have you gone to Starbucks less in the past year then you did in 2006? I'm positive I have*...how about you?

Do you think they should make this movie?

*although a Venti Starbucks double shot on ice, substitute the classic syrup with hazelnut syrup, sounds delicious right now

8 comments:

Geosomin said...

"Have you contributed the decline of Starbucks?"
Yes...as actively as possible :)

Anonymous said...

Their coffee is quality and better than folgers. Over thanksgiving, I've found I like to sit in the store and get on the internet while the wife sleeps. That said, I've only ever bought coffee and a snack. I also refuse to use their words for small, medium and large.

Dad said...

I think I've been there twice as much this year as last year. Four times! I've bought stuff from them every time I was given a gift card. Of course with a $10 gift card I can only get about two cups of coffee.

Its hard to imagine that there are (according to the website) 9 places where you can get SBUX coffee within a 20 mile radius of our church. 9 places for like 50,000 people. I know there are more than the nine listed. I can think of 4 that are stand alone or storefront coffee shops. One of these was opened soon after they announced they were closing a bunch of stores.

If you do a Google search for coffee shops in our area there are 59 hits. There are more coffee stands here than there are taco stands in Ft. Worth (maybe). All I know is, if people stop drinking coffee, our local economy is doomed.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I have contributed to the decline of Starbucks. The combination of being pregnant in the last year, with trying to save has led me to have less of my favorite beverage, much to my husband's delight :-)

Anonymous said...

LET'S GO GET SOME COFFEE SOMETIME SOON!!!

Daniel said...

I certainly have. We have one of the strongest independent coffee markets in the country here (Minneapolis). I'd have to go out of my way to even find a Starbucks, believe it or not.

Either way, something about Tom Hanks in this doesn't really knock my socks off. Somehow it seems like I've already seen him in this role before.

write my assignment said...

I was able to re-think differently, and whether I worked, I realized that some things new to me. From the article got a lot of information

how to write academic essay said...

movie? LOL) never thought that it could be a good idea for an whole movie