Zerohedge- Starbucks Can’t Get Customers to Stay, Despite Costly Cafe Makeovers
CEO Brian Niccol made longer in-store visits a core piece of his turnaround plan when he took over in September 2024, promising better service, faster drinks and a return to the “warm, cozy, comfortable environment” Starbucks once championed.
Silly me…here I thought it was the prices. In the big scheme of things no one gives a sh** about your “warm, cozy comfortable environment”. If it mattered, Hooters wouldn’t be filing for Chapter 11.
I was perusing Starbucks share price over the years…it’s obvious that what they need right now is another pandemic.
From the comments:
“It’s the $6.00 regular coffee, stupid!”
“Burnt coffee”
Grande – believe that is large coffee in Edmonton $3.47. That was today.
When you sell horse PISS and call it coffee!
As a horse’s arse, you should know.
Not serving burnt coffee would be a good start. Respecting customers regardless of political affiliation and evicting squatters might also contribute to a positive customer service. But what do I know? I’m not the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company.
L- “Respecting customers regardless of political affiliation”
What a radical idea ! One would think it would be understood as a corollary of how to generate profit and more so how to increase profit. #1. Generate enough revenue to cover operating expenses. #2. Generation in revenue above costs is profit. 3. Since costs are already covered and some profit is being made, any further increase in revenue e.i. 10% equates to a significantly higher than a 10% increase in profits. 4. In businesses operating on a lower profit margin, any increase in the volume of production/sales is a big deal. 5. Selling even a little more of a higher profit item is celebrated.
Making America Great Again involves many things but boosting the income of the marginal consumer is huge. Being anti-MAGA is bad marketing in a way that a neutral but hearty welcome is not. Identity politics is designed to create social conflict and reduce social cohesion.
Go woke, Go broke is a meme for a reason.
The only place I’ve been in less than a timmy’s and I can count those times on one hand!
I have real coffee at home, Kicking Horse (owned by Lavazza now), I have internet at home and I have snacks at home. I don’t see the need for coffee after breakfast, maybe camping and there isn’t any coffee houses in the woods!
Also, you can’t get real Bailey’s at the coffee houses!
timmy’s?
Don’t you mean Parbinder’s?
Yep, last time I was there with some workmates on break, ( I didn’t buy anything), the old East Indian lady that handed my buddy his coffee over the counter, RIPPED ASS!! Don’t even know if she noticed, be we did!!
That was it for me!
Maybe try putting that Bud Light saviour on your cups?
I avoid all places that have LGBTQ+ decor and lefty baristas with multi-colored hair and multitudes of tattoos and facial piercings. Also, I don’t want to pay $6 for a coffee, and a tip on top of that. Not to mention the cheap ass leeches who take up space so they can spend the day on their free internet. I haven’t been to a Starbucks in decades.
Geez lot of hate for SB. Live in Edmonton in an area that has at lease 6 coffee/cafes within easy walking distance. So choice.
For us coffee is a personal, for example I dislike Tim Horton’s coffee, never go there. We enjoy dark coffee, SB offers dark brew until 1pm, for large paid $3.47 today. Our Saturday go to dark coffee spot was Remedy – a local brewer – for some reason they stopped their dark roast, so go elsewhere.
For me SB is like McDonald’s, like it or not it is always going to taste the same. Not so with the smaller cafe’s.
Years ago SB was a big part of the cafe scene, now there is lots of local competition, not easy to get lost customers back.
At home coffee bean choice is Kicking Horse dark blend, although there is lots of good choices – usually buy what is on sale.
Gotta love that morning coffee.
Yeah, my issues are the same as demonstrated above. The pride flags everywhere, the nose rings, the purple hair, the 50,000 tattoos per barista. It’s clear these people hate people who think like us. And oh yeah, the prices have always been insane. I think i’ve purchased maybe two coffees and one hot chocolate there in my entire lifetime.
…… I will say, though that they make a mean grilled cheese sandwich. I help my buddy out once in a while with construction jobs and he buys me lunch. This is the only reason I know this. lol.
I buy a road coffee when my work shift is over and I might have a 2 hour drive home.
I don’t know why anyone wants to lounge in a coffee shop – probably mostly a woman thing, with a lot of inane chatter about their overpaid parasitic jobs with a sprinkle of TDS nonsense.
“I don’t know why anyone wants to lounge in a coffee shop – probably mostly a woman thing,”
Yup. Old women. Around here it’s retired farmers and mechanics. Gossiping about who is screwing and getting screwed.
Was once very happy to see a Starbucks.
Had landed in Wellington, NZ late on a Sunday. Hotel had instant Maxwell House in the room. There was an SB on the mall behind the hotel. Gladly paid the price for a large Americano. To go. Had to ask what a normal coffee was called, nothing but strange names and mixtures.
Other than that, nope.
I kinda like Starbucks Coffee. People say they over roast. Maybe they do. Don’t know. The closest one to my home is about 35 miles away.
What I do know is the changes they made over the last couple of years piss me off (not sure if this is universal or just my neck of the woods). I’m very particular about what I put in my coffee. Just the right about of cream or sugar if I’m not drinking it black. I like to do it myself. Some genius changed the in-store process to take away the self-serve sugar and cream station (probably to save money on employees) , and instead rely on the employees to ask “do you want cream?” “do you want sweetener?” And then they put it in before handing you the coffee. This has a number of problems. Amounts applied. Type of creamer. Type of sweetener. Added time for the “barista” to prepare drinks in a quick turn around business. It, also, encourages the drama queens (and kings) who make a production number out of their order with explicit instructions.
Starbucks is a very sporadic visit (always has been) for me. I prefer the battery acid convenience store stops for coffee when on the road. It might not taste very gourmet. BUT, it does have health benefits. LMAO. Those convenience stores rarely clean the percolators. When they do, it isn’t exactly sterile. So, each time you get coffee you are giving your self an oral ingestion of minor bacteria build-ups. It’s nothing your body can’t handle…and, in fact, you are likely building up a natural immunity to a lot of crud as a result. Sort of like the snake charmer who allows himself to get bit over time to build up a tolerance.
I usually get my morning coffee at A&W. Partly because they have surprisingly good coffee, but most places do at least as well; mainly it’s because their standard double cream, double sugar always comes exactly the way I like it, so I don’t have to waste time treating it myself. I used to like Starbuck’s hot chocolate but I never cared for the coffee. Here in Calgary Rosso, Alforno and Anagram all give you better coffee (and they’re probably not alone), and you’re spoiled for lovely pleasant locations in which to enjoy it.
I like the idea of cultivating crud immunity through septic coffee. We need a low-hygiene chain of Mithridates Coffee. “We wash less. You pay less. We all thrive!”
“crud immunity”
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Hahaha You are a wordsmith. I’m using that.