Starbucks Could Be Making The Same Mistake As McDonald's

The expansion, which mostly includes food, is supposed to draw in new customers and drive sales, reports Julie Jargon at The Wall Street Journal.

Starbucks is adding dozens of new menu items at a time when McDonald's and Burger King are paring down their offerings.

McDonald's recent woes show the dangers of expanding too fast.

The fast food chain's menu has grown 70% since 2007, a move that eventually caused more harm than good.

The overloaded menu became a burden on employees and have helped contribute to long wait times, CEO Don Thompson said in a recent conference call with analysts.

Franchisees were also angry about the overloaded menu, saying that the extra ingredients and equipment cost too much money.

Thompson stressed that the restaurant was going back-to-basics.

"We are streamlining our merchandising menu board and product offerings and in addition to making it easier for customer to order their favorite products, this will reduce complexity in our restaurants which in turn should enhance accuracy and speed of service," he said.

Starbucks told WSJ it is combating customer service issues by retraining workers to make beverages more efficiently. The chain has also stopped offering to heat up pastries.

Burger King CEO Dan Schwartz told WSJ that customer service suffered when the menu was too large.

"Anytime you launch too many products or products with too many [ingredients] or complicated procedures, you'll impact your operations and speed of service, and we did," Schwartz told WSJ. "Since then we've shifted our approach, and it's helped us grow sales and keep operations simple."