Starbucks Plays Catch-Up With Food Offerings

(MoneyWatch)  Starbucks announced earlier this month that it's revamping its menu. It's adding new salads and baked goods, all with a new health focus, under the campaign "Real Food. Simply delicious."

It's actually kind of surprising to me that Starbucks has managed to be as successful as it is with such limited food offerings. As one blogger put it, "Unlike the greasy looking fast food joints, Starbucks looks like a sophisticated cafe where you might find something reasonable to eat - except that's totally not the case." But now McDonald's has become a major competitor (though Starbucks is still officially in denial about this), and the company needs to step up its game.

"Food has been the Achilles' heel of the company," Starbucks marketing VP Michelle Gass told Reuters. "That statement will be long buried after we launch this program." The new items are slated to roll out at the end of June.

Starbucks recently started offering coffee-and-breakfast deals for $3.95, which has reportedly given the company a boost. CFO Troy Alstead told Bloomberg that existing customers are now buying food along with their lattes, though he didn't address whether the offer is drawing in new customers as well.

Starbucks' existing food items haven't earned much praise online. A writer at the Atlantic called Starbucks baked goods "embarrassingly sawdust-y" and comments at Starbucks Gossip were even less kind in their assessment.

The new Starbucks baked goods will use fewer ingredients and cut down on artificial additives. The company is also eliminating high-fructose corn syrup, as I wrote about last week.

Critics point out -- rightly -- that "natural" does not mean "healthy," but my guess is that the new items will be healthier in other ways as well.

For one thing, the new items will have fewer calories than the items they're replacing. I stopped by a Starbucks when I was in Manhattan recently, and I was rather shocked to read how many calories were in a single slice of frosted lemon cake. New York was one of the first places to institute calorie-labeling laws, but the trend has gathered so much steam that even restaurant groups are getting on board and supporting federal legislation. No doubt that's a factor in Starbucks' decision -- customers are much more likely to think twice about an item when the words "650 calories" are posted right next to the price.