It’s not even good coffee…
Starbucks is not coffee, its a sugary mess with some coffee involved somewhere
I’ll go to my local coffee shop if I want a good coffee experience. Starschmucks is a last effort if I am traveling and I really need coffee (think in the airport terminal), otherwise, I go without until I can get something affordable like a gas station with decent drip coffee or a coffee machine. These CEOs are so out of touch it isn’t even funny.
A $96-million dollar douche defends a $9 cup of coffee
This guy is delusional, saying a $9 cup of coffee is affordable has “it’s one banana, Michael” energy.
A barista would need to serve like 2 coffees to cover their wage
Prioritizing “experience” over coffee itself is not new for Starbucks. Even before the $9 price tag, their prices far exceeded their (low quality) coffee because they’re selling the experience.
Coffee roasters sometimes refer to them as “Charbucks.”
Income cohort…
Gaslighting. If he says it enough, he hopes we disconnect with reality and believe him.
Starbucks coffee is shite. The main reason many people go there is because of the image of status symbol, especially in many parts of the world. The chain also ruffled feathers here in Ireland for setting up shop everywhere, driving down prices of their coffee to force local cafés to close. Then, when local competitions are gone, Starbucks raise prices to extortionate level. For these reasons, I boycott Starbucks. Thankfully, what Starbucks did in Ireland was nipped in the bud, locals prefer their local cafés.
Besides, countries with older café culture rail stronger on the overgrowth of big coffee chains like Starbucks. For example, the coffee chain in Australia never became popular enough. Because Australians see cafe culture as being more community based, where they chat to neighbours and baristas, a habit picked up from Greek immigrants to Australia long before coffee chains took the world by storm.
It’s sad to think there are people in the world that think Starbucks coffee is nice.
The original Starbucks was pretty good and even for a while after they started the franchise they were still a bit above average quality. They’re crap now, but that was a slow decline over the last decade. So they can coast on the reputation the original built and rely on their current customers either not ever having had good coffee or not noticing the slow incremental decline.
These people mostly like star bucks sugar syrup and pretend it’s coffee that they are after
Yeah, Starbucks finally has a few places here in Copenhagen, but that was after a few years of simply not getting a hold anywhere; shops that opened, stayed for less than a year, then closed.
The competition here is Joe and the Juice, a local company, and various small privately owned baristas.
Starbucks has some permanent places right now, but they’re still not big. Haven’t heard many people say positive things about them.
I just want to say your city is awesome. That is all.
It’s “coffee” for people who don’t really like coffee and want to drink something warm with cream, sugary syrup and artificial flavoring.
I don’t give a fuck how much they charge for coffee. I don’t know why anyone would. You buy it, or you don’t. It’s not fucking insulin. No one needs to buy their shitty products.
This is really all that needs to be said. Nobody needs Starbucks coffee, so either pay the price or don’t go.
The only reason I would care is to compare it to how much the baristas are getting paid. How many cups of coffee can a barista afford from a single shift, purely from wages? Can a barista even afford a single cup of coffee per hour with their hourly wage? And no, don’t start with the “but it’s a tipped position” stuff. How much does the company pay the barista?
I use this comparison because the McDonalds in my area starts pay at ~$10 per hour before tax, while a Big Mac Meal (arguably the most iconic and popular item on the menu) costs $11.25 before tax. In an eight hour shift, after taxes are factored in, the McDonalds worker can barely afford to buy five meals from the place they’re working at. But how many meals does that worker prepare and serve in a single eight hour shift? Definitely more than five. Probably by several orders of magnitude. So how much profit has the worker brought in, compared to how little they were paid?
To bring it back to the original point, how many $9 drinks does a barista prepare in a single shift? How much profit is made per drink? And how many can the barista afford? This is a video of a man who infamously “commutes” to work across the country via a private company jet, because he refuses to move closer to where their corporate HQ is located. How much company profit does this man consume, simply by traveling to and from work? How much profit from $9 cups of coffee could have gone towards higher barista pay, instead of paying for this man’s commute?
starbucks has a tendancy to shut down coffee shops if they even hear a word of unionization being mentioned. i noticed like 2 of them near my work that were suddenly closed not coincidentally when unionization in another state was being mentioned. and this was a starbucks that was in a pretty high traffic area, tech conferences center is nearby , i always see it packed.
The coffee sucks, the tables are all filled or dirty and sticky, the outside seating is in a parking lot, baking in the sun, the drive through is backed up to the interstate, the food is re-heated trash that costs a fortune, the atmosphere is boring factory produced trash, and the wifi is so slow it’s like it doesn’t exist.
Why. Why on earth would I go to starbucks
People are absolute zombies for it. In the airport, there’s always a line into the concourse for that overpriced burnt shit. There are other coffee and bagel and donut shops mere steps away whose coffee is cheaper and better.
I was in fucking midtown manhattan last week, with amazing coffee shops on every block. Still a line out the door at Starbucks. Like what the fuck, people.
And yet they are still making loads of money. Mind you I’d kina hope they start to die so I can get one of their machines for home from liquidation auction.
They’re making so much money that they’re still opening Starbuckses across the street from Startbuckses. Make it make sense.
The line must go up
I’m in India, and when I was in college, first Starbucks in the city was opened and a few of my friends including me wanted to try it. We all spent 500-600 INR ($4-5) which was a lot. After taking the first sip, we all came to the conclusion that the coffee sold at the college canteen for ₹20 was better than this overpriced slop.
I make coffee at my home for less than a dollar and I love the taste and I love the experience.
ITT: people saying they still won’t go to Starbucks as if this CEO gives a shit
OK, don’t go. You didn’t go before you’re not going now. Nothing has changed.
Hm… Well, I for one did go to Starbucks. A LOT. For 20 years of my life. And I’m done with them.
Now I’m not going to pretend that the CEO cares at all about me. I’m also not going to pretend that their coffee was bad or that things are going to change because I don’t buy their product or that I’m some great moralist for quitting Starbucks. I just don’t like Brian Niccol and I don’t want him to have any fraction of my money. Dude’s a piece of work and the market of other options for coffee is more saturated than the caffeine content of my bloodstream.
You are 1 of 3 people I see in this 50+ comment thread saying you were going to Starbucks prior to this statement. The rest of the thread is the type that says movies are dead because theaters charge too much for candy, as if they’re forced to buy candy to watch a movie.
Yeah, and I mean Starbucks used to be a staple for me; I’m not gonna deny that. Back when the original customer loyalty/gold card program existed, the entire chain was setup to be a daily experience, not a premium experience, and I was there daily. Plus, I swear I remember the coffee tasting better back then. But the movies aren’t dead because of candy sales and Starbucks won’t die for adapting their business model to the times. I suppose I’ve just been around long enough to mourn how things used to be.
Yes, and I appreciate that you have relevant input. I didn’t like Starbucks coffee all that much before, but I figured that’s just the flavor they choose. I guess that’s the charred flavor. I don’t choose it, but if it’s the only feasible option, I hope they have cold brew because while also unique, it tastes fine.
I’m just tired of the boring rhetoric on display here about how it’s “not real coffee” and “everything is a dairy sugar hijink”. No one is being forced to buy a triple whip frappe soy milk unicorn latte. It has 4 shots of espresso. The market continues to buy it. Plus, I swear, there’s a constant underlying masculinity thing berating women for buying what they want.
Side note, for movie theaters and mourning what’s lost. I enjoyed the drop in crowd size at first in the post-covid slump, but damn, I miss the parasocial community feeling. The buzz as everyone walks up, the chatter as everyone leaves. Plus, I know dwindling crowd size means dwindling theater options and amenities.
did not know sugar got that expensive
I’m surprised he didn’t mention the “sense of pride and accomplishment” buying a $9 coffee would bring -_-
