• USA Today, Monday, February 9, 2009 10:32 AM

Starbucks is unveiling its first value menu today, and $3.95 will get you a latte with coffee cake or a drip coffee with hot sandwich. The deal includes one of four hot sandwiches currently sold at half of Starbucks's U.S. locations. Also offered for that price is a tall latte and either a slice of cinnamon swirl coffee cake or a bowl of oatmeal.

The food and drink "pairing" program -- which Starbucks refuses to call a value menu -- rolls out March 3, Bruce Horovitz reports. It will be offered all day at company-owned U.S. stores and will be marketed as: "Hello to a New Day."

The move is glaring evidence of how retailers and marketers have been forced by the economy to rethink game plans and long-held strategies. Additional price-cutting is expected at Starbucks soon. "Starbucks doesn't have a choice," says marketing consultant KD Paine. "If you don't have a stimulus program built into your marketing, you're in big trouble."

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