Today, Starbucks announces its latest innovation: Becoming McDonald’s. Starbucks will offer “value” meals that combine coffee and breakfast foods for $3.95. The company isn’t calling them “value” meals – that would be unseemly – but Starbucks obviously realizes that people aren’t going to keep paying $6 for a hard boiled egg and some grapes. And McDonald’s is clearly putting it to them with their cheaper “premium” coffees. This whole thing just reinforces my prediction that Starbucks and McDonald’s are hurtling toward some kind of galactic war in the year 2030. Either that… or a merger.

(Scott Eklund, Seattle Post-Intelligencer)