LA Times: Starbucks' 'venti' problem: Expanding too far too fast can turn companies from offbeat to bland.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-gross4mar04,0,2819241.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
"COFFEE ADDICTS WERE SHAKEN, and stirred, recently when a memo written by Starbucks Corp. founder and Chairman Howard Schultz was posted on the Internet. Noting with a mixture of pride and horror that Starbucks has gone from 1,000 to 13,000 stores in 10 years, Schultz expressed regret over a "series of decisions that, in retrospect, have led to the watering down of the Starbucks experience and what some might call the commoditization of our brand.""