Sign of the impending yuppie apocalypse?

Posted By Blake Hounshell Wednesday, January 2, 2008 - 6:37 PM Share

Here's a graph, via Google Finance, of the price of Starbucks shares (SBUX) over the past 3 months:

Overall, Starbucks shares fell 42 percent in 2007. More here.

UPDATE: Reader Jose Nestor Marquez writes in:

Is the title for [this post] a bit misleading? [...] [T]he Bloomberg article to which you link suggests that investors are worried, in part, that Starbucks has "expanded its customer base to include 'less affluent' coffee drinkers" while noting that this "great brand…has much growth ahead' outside North America."

[I]'m sure you were joking but maybe it's not an apocalypse so much as a global triumph?

Yes, I was mostly joking. But let's think about this for a minute. Premium brands rely on maintaining an upscale image. If Starbucks extends its customer base too far, that image could change (remember TCBY?), and competitors might sweep in and take away market share. So, in a way, high prices could be returning the coffee chain to its yuppie roots.

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