When you are as big as Starbucks it becomes difficult to innovate. Everything is on such a large scale that even the smallest of changes become an exercise in change management. In July 2009 Starbucks set up a testing ground, to enable them to test out new ideas, work out which ideas can be scaled to a global level, and to relearn what people value on a human level.
The testing ground was http://www.streetlevelcoffee.com a friendly, down to earth cafe focused on great service and even better coffee. There is a great commentary on http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/brandautopsy/2011/01/a-lesson-on-scale-and-co...