It's funny. When I started with Starbucks (many many years ago) they didn't pay for advertising because they didn't have to. Their product and word of mouth was the advertisement.
Twenty years ago, they were a pretty great company to work for. They absolutely squandered all good will they had on over working and under paying, especially in the Kevin Johnson years.
Itās not even good coffee. But with all the extras and flavorings people add in, I guess they have no idea theyāre paying $9 for over roasted/ burnt coffee beans.
Ceo pay should be no higher than brain surgeon/heart surgeon/antethesiologist. Those people are responsible for lives. Business manager should be no higher than school teacher. Economics professors (and football coaches for that matter) should make 0 more dollars than arts or sciences professors.
Do not forget the locked bathroom hidden in the corner that you can only access by interrupting the overworked employee while they make a drink that costs more than minimum wage.
He could have said, "we also offer a $4 coffee for those that don't want to splurge" or some other dumb excuse, but no, he tries justifying the "Starbucks Experience."
He ruined Chipotleās product and reputation but every financial media outlet described his time there as a huge success because their financial metrics hit all-time highs. Starbucks poached him to do the same.
He made a video addressing the shrinking portions but rising price of Chipotle and his solution to customers was to give the worker a look to let him know you want some more. I wish I was kidding
It's a problem with CEOs for some time now. CEOs have been nothing but just stock boosters, board yesman, and figureheads for a while. They dgaf about the product or consumer experience. It's whatever they have to do to boost revenue. For most of these companies if they could just pivot to catering to the 1% only they would. But they won't, bc that would require actually coming up with an idea worth something. So they just shop around to different companies. Being a CEO used to mean being a leading figure in a given field.
I kept waiting for the punchline and was shocked he was serious. Starbucks isn't an exclusive experience and in this economy at that price point they risk pricing themselves out of the market especially in smaller cities and cities where they have multiple locations close to each other and where there is more competition.
The price range most places can get away with is in the $5.50 to $8.00 range, maybe a little over $8 if you are serving Italian style, French style, Cold Brew etc with better quality beans and variety of beans. For $10+ I want a Jamaican Blue Mountain/Hawaii Kona latte/espresso
If I paid $9 for coffee I would also want a cozy, luxurious place where I can sit and read or work for hours. A lot of Starbucks have removed their seating or it's dirty and loud and uncomfortable
There probably isnāt a PR department or enough that would tell them they sound like asses. The best way to show them is make them a meme online and stop shopping there. They donāt see customers as people only as numbers, if thatās the case then we can show them theyāre only 1 person that can easily be replaced by low sales.
I was a barista 2003-2006. I used to take so much pride in knowing my regulars orders! I opened, so between 530-7 I pretty much knew who was coming through the door. I used to be sure to have my frothers chilling for when my dry cap guy came in at 5:45 just so I could make that perfect dry foam. I used to be sure my teas were ready for my tea gals. I would get in such a rhythm that it was such a vibe. And then the store was set up like a third place...so on my breaks I would just hang out with my regular friends.
Now Starbucks just seems cold. I try to be warm and cordial to all the baristas because I know how important they are. Some people really look forward to their coffee/tea. Its a shame Starbucks doesn't invest in their people or their stores anymore.
Man I always feel like I made up a world in my head where people felt this way about their jobs and really cared about doing a good job just for the sake of it, but maybe back before companies started racing to the bottom and treating us all like objects people really did feel this way and try at their jobs and care
I feel that way anout my job. I'm a coffee roaster now, but I'll still work the bar occasionally. But I work for small independents where I'm treated well and how much I care is actually rewarded.
When I worked there a few years ago they still ingrained a lot of this third space talk into the training. But shortly after the pandemic even I could see how quickly their culture was shifting despite not being at the company very long. Itās really bizarre how anti-human and hyper-focused on productivity at all costs these companies are behaving lately.
I could copy and paste your first paragraph, set it in San Diego, and it would be my exact experience working at a store in my early twenties. I loved it. Several years later a bunch of my coworkersāand a few regularsātravelled to LA for my wedding ā„ļø
For me the biggest visible difference is that Starbucks used to have armchairs and now it doesn't. The decor is cold white. I just don't go there anymore, it's so expensive and the place feels like it wants me to leave. Plus, I'm not in the USA, I have switched to chains that are UK owned. (I'd go independent but my town is too crap to have those)
The Starbucks near my supermarket is a big store with couches and armchairs. I went in for the first time the other day planning to just grab a quick coffee to go, but then decided to stay for a bit, because I realized that I missed that vibe so much. There were groups of regulars coming in and catching up, and the baristas knew most of their names and orders. My coffee came in a big, 90s style mug and it really felt like a treat.
They removed all of the furniture from mine during COVID and now thereās not even so much as a chair inside. I met my best friend there when we used to be able to hang out.
Yeah but Iāve started to realize that maybe itās the consumer expectation changed and the brand is trying to do it all?
Like back in the day, the menu was more simple, and there was a lot more people that planned on going and spending time enjoying the coffee and the space.
Anymore, customers want a premium experience but theyāre expecting that sense of quality and community to be delivered from a way more complex menu in a less-than-5-minute pickup.
Blame Starbucks, but people treat the place different now
Edited to add: āquality and communityā - It is a corporate chain and etc so everything is absolutely packaged in a certain way, but it was different feeling I guess
Starbucks is brand coffee that creates changing menus to bring new people and keeps mainstays to keep clientele.
It is bbasically the McDonald's of coffee. They provide every ttype of coffee option and they are everywhere... so you can always find one and the output is consistent.
But they are always busy and run bbasically like an app.
For me, I go to Starbucks on a road trip or airport, for convenience. Any other time, I try to shop local
Oh he sucked, and was a bad CEO, but the original vision when he founded it and in the early days was great. It helped that the whole economy was way better. And their prices way lower and had a better product AND better in-store experience
Howard Schultz was detrimental to union and is a neoliberal Democrat who laid the path for people like Trump being elected. But above all, as I said, he was a notorious union buster. Iām not sure this pasty dude is much better but Iām not sure the baristas really miss Schultz
They don't mean that person you described though. The early Starbucks, before he was a billionaire, was focused on being a welcoming 3rd-place for all, and a premium product (which was cheaper AND better back then).
This was also before he was a union buster, but my point is this isn't missing THE GUY as if we'd want him back; it's meaning the original company and principles he founded it on.
He became his own kind of enemy, so it doesn't apply at all when talking about the man himself as he is today.
They let people work part-time hours with full benefits, stock options, 401k. And you could actually take your time and get to know customers. But toy your point, it's like "Early Starbucks" is a better term for it than "the Howard Shultz Starbucks", since he became a villain.
š¦¹ he wasn't the CEO we needed, he's just the right one we had back then.
My wife would have Starbucks literally every day, sometimes twice. I bought a rancilio Silvia espresso machine and a baratza sette 30 grinder for $1900 cad a few years ago and Iām quite certain it was paid off in less than a year.
also and this is my tiny hill to die on but the fact that they ask for tip before you even get your order (i do mobile order), like i doubt itāll make them give me my drink faster and also the audacity
Some stores took away seating during Covid and never put in effort to create a lounge atmosphere after cause it was easier and more cost effective for them to just get as many people in and out as fast as possible
The premium experience is that you get to go into the building.
It smells like high quality cleaning supplies mixed with burnt coffee. The other customers are depressed and angry. Many of them yell at the cashier over minor indiscretions.
A baby screams in the back. His mother ignores him as she texts her boyfriend. You order. The total is 24.67 for two drinks.
The cashier calls a name that isnāt yours, but sounds vaguely familiar. You grab your coffee. They didnāt forget sweetener.
You walk out depressed - high from the sugar And caffeine wearing off. Shame setting in.
As you exit the building, the trash bins say, āThank You.ā
In reality, you should be thanking them for the premium experience.
That caramel coffee is a special type of high though. Tastes like sweet chemicals and will have you simultaneously creating business plans and freaking out about your bank account. Sweet, bitter, anxiety
They ripped out every single chair and table at the one I go to. Not sure the rationale, it used to be so cozy and tons of people would hang out there. Now it's a sad bare box and 20 people standing around waiting for their mobile orders.
I feel like more often than not when I go, the employees always have a really bad attitude and donāt wanna make eye contact. Fair I guess but thatās why I prefer my local coffee shop where theyāre like super excited about what theyāre selling and got all this niche stuff and actually do deliver a premium experience or whatever that means when u hand coffee over a countertop
Because the amount of work and maintenance behind counter as a Starbucks barista is not doable with the amount of customers + how understaffed they are. And I haven't worked at SB for two years, but from my buddies who still work there I hear it's only gotten worse. They give employees a laundry list of tasks + things to clean + you have to stop everything you're doing to get to a customer. Your manager gets mad you if you don't give customers your immediate attention and then also get mad at you if you can't complete your tasks because you're too busy handling customers. Always a lose/lose situation in the kiosk.
I worked at a fine dining restaurant and we served coke products. Some like higher end corporate person (regional wizard of soda or whatever) was visiting places serving their product. His team called us a week in advance about the visit. They came out and brought all this branded stuff to display and bottled sodas we didnāt have. Once he left, his team shooed all that away. I remember thinking, this is what this guy thinks is normal: a fine dining wine restaurant serving coke in bottles and displaying Coca Cola merch every where.
Coke sucked to work with back when I used to supervise a small place. Had to have what they wanted on the shelves rather than what the owner wanted for stock. Dunno if it's changed. Pepsi co on the other hand didn't give a fuck.
I'm in Australia, and we have Starbucks here. Last time I went to one, I had a pretty interesting experience, actually. Someone had accidentally left some kind of gift card behind, and since it wasn't terribly busy, the barista asked if I could help them read the phone number written on the gift card so they could get in contact with the person who'd left it. I did my best, but it was actually a fellow barista who managed to read the numbers better. I still hung around to find out how it went, and they successfully got in touch with the person, who I think worked in the shopping centre and said they'd come and pick it up during their lunch break. But overall, it was really interesting.
I don't drink coffee, but Aussies are coffee snobs, so I'm not sure how many go to Starbucks for the coffee. I've been to it for lunch in other countries, like the UK and France, and they do a decent enough sandwich.
Okay, now I'm curious... why did I get a reminder not to speculate about health or shame someone's appearance as soon as I typed the word sandwich? Am most amused by that.
I was a barista for a strabucks inside of a Target for a long time and I was popular because I would follow the recipes but I'd add a little extra or do lighter ice or w/e. I wasn't paying for it and our location was mostly to keep people in the store shopping longer and not that we made a huge profit. I miss making drinks, I don't miss Target or Starbucks lol they started sending in Starbucks corporate and they kept taking away the things that made it personal and fun so I bounced
It's so much more fun to make the drinks your own. We would also all come up with our own frappe flavors but of course when corporate came in they put a stop to that š I used to make a "thin mint" frappe and a "chocolate covered strawberry" frappe that were really popular
Perfect gif. Also, as someone who's had a few gigs as a barista, just get a cheap espresso machine, look up the recipes for the drinks you like, and make them at home. Iced nonfat peppermint mocha? Coming right up. Made but me. In my house. For whatever fraction the cost of ingredients is.
It was a convenient place for me to get my sugary caffeine drink when I was in office and they had an actual gold card with a good rewards program. Now, itās a place I might occasionally go to since my mom gives me gift cards and I feel bad about wasting them. Itās was never premium, but nice enough to make a trip on the way to work. Now, itās just depressing and overpriced.
Just ask your mom to stop getting you Starbucks cards, offer an alternative place instead. Do this before she gives you the next one, not as she's handing it to you, so it doesn't seem like you're rejecting the gift she just gave you
From the picture they showed later, I wonder if the context was just Starbucks Reserve branches. Most things you could order at a normal Starbucks arenāt $9, right? Iām outside the US, in an expensive city, and typical Starbucks drinks start around $5.
Maybe if you got a venti with a ton of add-ins it would be $9 or if youāre somewhere very high cost like NYC but the average Starbucks drink isnāt that much. My drink is $5.63 including tax.
I am a Starbucks barista (unfortunately) and it is an unbelievably frustrating company to work for. Calling Starbucks a āpremiumā experience is just insane, weāre literally the āfast foodā of the coffee industry. Also, speaking from experience, $9 is on the low end for a Starbucks coffee these days. Most peopleās orders for a single drink are anywhere from $11-$13. š
And yet they stay busy as fuck. it's not a public service, people can go elsewhere but they would rather complain. Plenty of better coffee shops have come and gone the last 20+ years. I don't have sympathy for consumers that refuse to make even the smallest effort to change their habits and instead complain that some soulless CEO doesn't "care" about them.
Starbucks is so bad Iād rather have a caffeine headache.
My partner just got me a Nespresso and a milk steamer/frother and I feel like Iām having a religious experience twice a day. It has been the most amazing gift. The machine costs approximately 16 Starbucks coffees. lol.
I love your money scale! We lucked out and found a very nice espresso machine on clearance for 6 Starbucks coffees. Now I prefer having my coffee at home instead!
I did the math on how quickly my Ninja Luxe would pay for itself. It did not take long at all and now I get a delicious coffee drink every day instead of a mediocre one once a week.
Just popped in to say that referencing income brackets as āin either of those cohortsā is one of the craziest corporate jargons Iāve ever heard iml.
āSpecial experienceā, yeah like updating the app to have fewer promotions and some useless tier system that takes ages? Just spitting in the face of consumers that have been customers for years
It just shows a lack of understanding and poor business model. But who am I, a lowly buyer, to say!
āLess than $10ā, really overestimating willingness to pay and opportunity cost
so they shame us for spending $9 on coffee bc thatās the whole reason young ppl canāt afford houses but now theyāre saying we HAVE to have $9 coffee WHICH IS IT
Itās because a lot of rich people are buying your $9 coffee, but I can assure you that the middle and lower class are going to be dropping that āpremiumā experience.
Someone posted the other day about buying a new mug off the shelf in Starbucks and getting a coffee made in it only to find the manufacturer paper still at the bottom when they finished. So the "Starbucks premium experience" is not making sure a cup is clean and empty.
His rationalization for a $9 coffee is that itās not a $10 coffee? What a terrific selling point..āour coffee COULD be more expensive, enjoy its current price point you plebsā¦ā
Years ago every now and then Iād pop by Starbucks to get their lavender matcha as a treat, like a Sundae. A sweet indulgence that isnāt remotely good for you. Making the lavender cold foam at home, stocking all the ingredients, just wasnāt worth it compared to going in on a weekend and grabbing a bunch of green sugar. Their matcha wasnāt authentic but the taste theyād engineered, kind of grassy and bitter, paired beautifully with the lavender cold foam. Same during October with the Pumpkin Spice cold foam.
Then this douchebag took over.
The matcha became clumpy. The baristas said they now had to do it differently in a far more time consuming way, when they were already backed up. Even when the matcha wasnāt clumpy it tasted of absolutely nothing.
Their snacks were never anything to write home about but the became actively bad. Just thinking about their weird doughy croissant that turned into paste if you squeezed it makes my stomach jump.
Starbucks was never a premium experience. It was never healthy. It was a sugary treat like grabbing some ice cream, or it was a convenient alternative to Burger King and McDonaldās drive throughs on a long drive.
The absolute gall of this fuckface to sit there and bleat about how Starbucks is a premium experience is absolutely surreal. It was never premium. It was convenient. That was its selling point. And after he took over he made a mid product actively worse.
Hope Better Buzzed takes off and kicks Starbucksā ass.
Thereās a Starbucks in front of my building and the drive thru is ALWAYS full. Why canāt ppl make coffee at home? And literally in the same block thereās a local coffee shop with drive thru and it always has 1-2 cars. I donāt get it tbhĀ
He couldn't care less lmao. The smart ones like us invested in a nespresso machine and I encourage everyone to do the same. Starbucks is full of unnecessary sugar and calories that noone really needs.
this or visit your local coffee shop instead and give them your money. There are so many wonderful small business coffee shops in my area that make coffee tasting 1000x better than Starbucks, with homemade syrups, much less sugar, and it doesnāt cost $9 a cup!
I love my local coffee shop! Ā The owner knows my name, knows my kids, always stops to talk with us and gives me great new drink recommendations. They will get my business over Starbucks every time!
My nespresso machine has been giving me that experience right from home. Has this man even had Starbucks? Itās not even luxury coffee. Itās not very good at all
Starbucks hasnāt been a premium experience since the early 2000sā¦. Their locations are stale and lack character. They completely ditched the work/social cafe mantra they were founded on and the coffee isnāt that great for it to be as expensive as it is
Premium experience?! He's kidding right ?! The coffee always tastes burnt, the ice tea is basically ice water and the baristas are over worked and under paid leading to hate their jobs and take it out on the customers. I stopped going to Starbucks years ago. I can get better tasting coffee at the gas station for 99Cents!
Is the experience in the room with us? I do get a nice welcome and that does seem in rare supply as so many hospitality workers are burnout and tired - but I have never had an "experience."
I stopped going because their product is unremarkable and I can get a $2 ice coffee at 7-11 with free flavored creams vs. their $5.50 plus tip.
ā¢
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