Why Starbucks Failed in Switzerland: A Lesson on Business Model Misalignment
A few days ago, I walked past the Starbucks at Stauffacher in Switzerland—and it was closed. For a brand that has dominated coffee culture worldwide, seeing an empty store in a prime location is striking. The problem isn’t the coffee. It isn’t the price. It isn’t even brand awareness. The real issue lies in the (outdated) business model and how it interacts with customer behavior.
For Swiss business leaders, this is a perfect case study. It illustrates what happens when a global formula meets a local reality, and when companies miss the real jobs their customers are trying to get done.
The Job Customers Really Hired Starbucks For
Most people think Starbucks customers are “buying coffee.” In reality, in Switzerland, many visitors were hiring Starbucks as a space—to work, study, or socialize. They didn’t just want a drink; they wanted a comfortable environment where they could spend hours.
Here’s the catch: Starbucks’ global business model relies on high turnover per seat. Revenue is driven by the number of transactions per square meter. Every seat has to generate multiple orders throughout the day to cover rent, wages, and overhead.
Swiss customers, however, weren’t following this pattern. They stayed for long periods, often with one coffee or a snack, sometimes sharing a table, sometimes occupying space for hours. The very behavior Starbucks encourages—making the store a comfortable place to linger—clashed with the economics of the Swiss locations.
In short: Starbucks attracted the wrong kind of customer from a business model perspective—high dwell time, low transactional frequency. Large, fixed-cost spaces filled with long-stay customers became a financial mismatch.
Business Model Misfit
Let’s break down why the Starbucks model failed in this context:
Revenue depends on turnover. Large stores and premium pricing assume that many customers will cycle quickly through the space.
Customers stayed too long. Remote workers, students, and social visitors lingered, ordering little over extended periods.
High fixed costs. Starbucks’ Swiss stores occupy prime locations with high rents. Long stays without multiple purchases quickly undermine profitability.
Local competitors adapt better. Smaller cafés with flexible seating, local flair, and more efficient space utilization can accommodate long-stay visitors while remaining profitable.
The outcome: Starbucks’ formula, successful in dozens of other markets, was incompatible with the Swiss reality. The brand had created a low-turnover, high-dwelling customer base, a perfect storm for financial inefficiency.
“Starbucks didn’t compete with other cafés—it competed with living rooms and every co-working space where people could work or study in an enjoyable social environment.”
Lessons for Swiss Business Leaders
This isn’t just a story about coffee. It’s a cautionary tale for any business aiming to scale, innovate, or expand. It highlights the importance of aligning your business model with how customers actually use your offerings.
1. Don’t confuse product with the job
Starbucks didn’t fail because its coffee was bad—it failed because the job customers hired Starbucks to do (social workspace, study hub) didn’t match the revenue model.
Similarly, companies often focus on what they sell, rather than what progress the customer is trying to make. Misalignment leads to wasted resources and unrealized potential.
2. Global formulas don’t automatically translate
What works elsewhere may fail locally. Swiss cafés are smaller, more flexible, and better at serving long-stay customers. Starbucks tried to apply a global formula, but the local customer behavior didn’t fit.
3. Observe actual behavior, not assumptions
Starbucks assumed Swiss customers would follow the global pattern: grab a coffee, sit briefly, and leave. Reality: they used the space as a remote office or social hub. Businesses must understand how customers truly interact with their product or service—not just what they say in surveys.
4. Design your business model around the real job
Every element—pricing, space, service, processes—must align with the customer’s job-to-be-done. Misalignment creates “zombie revenue sinks,” where operations continue without generating real value.
5. Flexibility matters more than scale
Independent cafés quickly adapt to local needs. Large chains face inertia; high fixed costs and standardized processes make adaptation slow and expensive. Swiss SMEs can learn from this: smaller, adaptable models often outperform rigid, high-cost structures.
Applying This to Your Business
For Swiss business leaders, the Starbucks case raises critical questions:
Are your business model and processes aligned with how customers actually use your offerings?
Do your high-cost investments assume short interactions when customers spend hours with minimal revenue contribution?
Could a more flexible or modular approach unlock better economics and customer satisfaction?
Answering these questions can prevent wasted budgets, zombie projects, and stalled growth. It shifts focus from busywork to initiatives that generate tangible business outcomes.
Want to deeply understand what your users are trying to get done and build solutions based on these insights?
Book a Jobs to be done training with me and get a 20% discount: https://www.artinyan.com/en/innovation-kurs-bootcamp-workshop
Innovation Isn’t Just Activity—it’s Results
Starbucks’ Swiss experience highlights a fundamental principle: success depends on delivering real progress for customers, not simply offering products or services.
Too many companies invest heavily in initiatives, workshops, and programs without verifying alignment with customer behavior. The result? High activity, low results—resources consumed, expected growth absent.
Embedding the Jobs-to-be-Done mindset into strategy ensures that every decision, investment, and innovation initiative moves the business forward rather than filling hours with busywork.
How I Can Help
I work with Swiss SMEs and business leaders to ensure that innovation and business design are aligned with real customer behavior.
Together, we can:
Identify the true jobs your customers are hiring your products, services, or spaces to do
Align your business model, offerings, and operational processes with those jobs
Stop zombie initiatives and redirect resources to high-impact projects that drive measurable outcomes
The result is innovation and growth that actually works—turning every effort and every franc invested into tangible business value.
If you want to ensure your business model is aligned with how your customers truly interact with your offerings, and stop wasting resources on misaligned projects, book a consultation with me today. Let’s design a system where innovation becomes a measurable growth engine, not a costly experiment.
