Venti Via ... hopefully

After picking pockets of willing customers for years, Starbucks now finds itself threading troubled waters. Let's face it, there is a glut of Starbucks. Just by my workplace, there are about 5 Starbucks retail outlets within a 5-minute walk. Same-store sales are dropping, and HQ is culling low performers to contain the damage of over abundance. Now with a recession and people being more cost conscious -- $4 for every coffee adds up pretty quickly for wallets running low on caffeine. What to do? Go instant. Yes, Starbucks has created an instant coffee, named Via, and like everything else Starbucks, it will be more expensive than other instant coffees. Surprisingly, Starbucks has decided not to give it a pretentious, multi-syllable name.

They're putting a good spin on marketing it -- it's the holy grail of coffee, apparently -- but I'm just not buying it -- especially if it tastes like Starbucks coffee. I can't stand the stuff.