Make drinkable coffee?

Starbucks success imho was due to their having a sufficiently well controlled process to make a consistently decent (if not excellent) cup of coffee in _all_ their stores. Their competitors are all over the place in both the time and location axes.

The question remains...

They were the first to bring espresso and espresso drinks to a lot of locations. Plus their coffee, while not the greatest, is pretty standard across locations and is a "predictable" product.

That and the interior of the stores are typically more appealing than McDonalds.

$6 for a cup of mostly water.

Not burn their customers so badly they were put in the hospital.

You still believe that take on the story?

Absolutely

OK that's weird. I was wrong to dispute it, but I think the story has gone around and around on my radar so many times that I was confused as to which was the right story. Kind of an "eggs are bad" "eggs are good" depending on which decade you're talking about. Mea culpa!

Comfortable seating.