Starbucks is reeling as customers go elsewhere, sales decline
The company’s same-store sales fell 3% in the quarter, fueled by a 5% decline in transactions.
They should try making good coffee
And not supporting the RNC.
How do they support the RNC?
https://content-prod-live.cert.starbucks.com/binary/v2/asset/137-78795.pdf
My sister used to manage a coffee shop and says they would never hire former Starbucks employees because they are trained to make it very poorly.
Also, good pastries again.
The good cafes next to me all have fresh baked pastries from a local bakery. Not Starbucks. 7-11 has better food than Starbucks.
They never will though. Recently, they had "expert tasters" test how long their espresso shots tasted good, and their result was that "Starbucks espresso shots last up to 90 seconds." This just so happened to take place right as they started introducing a new system on how to sequence drinks while on the espresso and cold beverage bars lol.
(Also, as a footnote, Espresso shots die after 5-10 seconds; the crema just dissipates after then, making the shot taste acidic)
(Also, as a footnote, Espresso shots die after 5-10 seconds; the crema just dissipates after then, making the shot taste acidic)
Espresso shots "dying" within 10 seconds is a myth, apparently started by Starbucks' training funnily enough. The flavour of a shot definitely dies down as it gets cooler and the crema dissipates, but it's a matter of minutes rather than seconds before a shot tastes bad.
Heck it takes more than 10 seconds to get the drink to the clients in every café I've worked in. If espresso dies after 10 seconds, I have never served a good espresso. I've also apparently never had good espresso at work, because I swear every damn time I pull a shot for myself a client comes right in before I can take a sip :P
When your coffee tasting notes are "burned, charcoal, ash", and you make up for it by offering £7 worth of sugar, it's not surprising when people only shop there for so long.
Why would you go to Starbucks if another local coffee shop was nearby? Their coffee is fine, but it loses taste tests to McDonald's. They're anti union. They're too expensive. You can usually get a better coffee elsewhere.
That's crazy. Someone told me McDonald's coffee is pretty good for the lower price range. I tried it a few times since you never know if it was just a bad batch, and I gotta say it was pretty awful, not for me. I just avoid starbucks because they think they can charge you the most ridiculous price I've seen for ok coffee. I have a few local places I will go to if I need something. Sadly, they are pretty expensive as well these days, but they are still cheaper than starbucks.
I wonder if the people who claim that only order the sugary stuff. I tried McDonald's a couple of times recently after reading online that they got the Tim Hortons OG coffee provider and it was awful. I'm not a fan of Starbucks but at least they serve consistently good coffee (not great). I only get it if I'm on company expenses
I like MacDonalds coffee, but it is acidic, which I equate to the 'breakfast blend' Latin American type coffee that I assume it is. I can absolutely see that as tasting awful to some palates.
Also has been some years since I had the hot coffee. I did have their ice coffee a few years ago, and it was solidly okay for 1 CAD.
I love the Starbucks sugar and fat loaded frappucinos.
Fortunately, there's a unionized Starbucks near me! A little out of the way but I make the trip. I feel ok supporting that branch and only that branch.
The reason is the app. If you’re in a hurry, being able to walk in and have your coffee ready is huge. I love to support the local coffee shops and I do on weekends, but it can be risky in the middle of the week if you’ve got to get to work and the local place has a long line or someone ahead of you orders a fancy drink and all you want to do is grab a cup of coffee, pay, and leave.
Starbucks, do you remember when the German government lowered the VAT in July 2020 for restaurants when COVID hit us? The intention was to make food cheaper for the consumer to prevent restaurants from going bankrupt.
That’s the month you increased your prizes to sell your stuff for the same prize including VAT as before and making more profit, giving your customers a huge middle finger.
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
I'm fron Germany and have never bought anything there. There tax evation strategy is disgusting. They use our roads, our people, our country and pay close to 0 taxes in Luxembourg or Panama with money earned in Germany.
Wow that's BS. I don't pay attention to them because I don't drink their garbage coffee, and as an American this never crossed my radar from this angle either. Screw Starbucks.
It wasn't just starbucks. Also, people still went there to get coffee. I do not like those people.
Started going to a small local coffee shop a little over two years ago, and I'll never go back to the giant chains. The people working are always happy, greet regulars by name, always go out of their way to interact or talk with me- usually remember something we talked about before, comp my orders every now and then, host little events, etc. It's not just them either - I always have a way better experience going to non-chain coffee places. Oh, and the coffee is always waay better and priced better.
Sometimes I'll work out of a small local cafe that roasts their own beans on site.
It's insane how much better the coffee is for the same price, and they know my order before I even say anything.
Plus, I can get excellent beans from them to brew at home, and I'm supporting a local business instead of a megacorp.
Dutch Bros is where it’s at. Actually good roasts and the same price or less. That said, I make my own Americano at home in about 2 min while making breakfast and it’s consistently great.
Dutch Bro's has some rule that the staff has to flirt with the customers. Creeps me out.
I bought stock in them during their IPO and want them to succeed as a company since they're from my home state, but honestly their coffee is terrible to me. I used to go there all the time but dislike it now after branching out more.
Dutch Bros. has been good every time I've tried them. I don't believe their coffee is markedly better than any other coffee chain. It comes down to how much you pay your staff, so that they give a shit about their jobs, so that tasks like roasting beans and cleaning equipment is done properly and regularly.
Bullshit on it being priced better. Provide examples, not anecdotes. Where are you located?
Yeah! What's your shoe size, OP? You got a dog? A cat? A mother? "Everyone" has one, right. You seriously expect us to believe that? Prove it! Come on, what's her maiden name? Her date of birth? Her routing number! Where was she last thursday night, out back of bakers garage like she was supposed'ta be? Better make sure you get your facts straight OP, or me and my partner Flippy "The Iceman" here will show ya what we do to commenters down in jersey what don't put up with our unreasonable demands, capiche?
The first thing Starbucks did when they bought Teavana was increase the prices by 25 - 50%, despite them already being on the upper end of local looseleaf tea shops.
Combine that with the change from actual tea to sugar-added, Oprah approved crap signed the death warrant for that chain.
Only down 3%? I was hoping more. Still, fuck em. Maybe fewer consumers want to pay out the nose for a cup of flavored sugar with coffee?
Overpriced cafeinated milkshakes for adults makerating masquerading as "coffee".
When you demand infinite growth any decline in growth is a catastrophe.
We raised or prices and consumers stopped buying! What is the invisible hand of the market doing? We were promised everlasting growth!
Raised our prices while not just union busting, but outright trying to make them illegal.
Honestly, it wasn't the $7 coffee that turned me away from starbucks. It was the $7 coffee that taste like toilet water, when there are no shortage of local, cheaper coffee shops with amazing brews made by people who actually want to be there, who also won't be fired for unionizing.
We are laughing at your misfortune, you fucking ghouls
For granted, there's no shortage of coffee shops in my city. Locally operated and owned, and they have better coffee at better prices. Starbucks isn't even a reasonable choice with so many better options available.
I'd always choose a smaller spot anyway. More casual and less crowded, but still doing good business.
More casual and less crowded, but still doing good business.
And probably better value for money as well.
I suggest a community owned and operated service where we can offer Starbucks and McDonald's words of support during these especially difficult times..
But exactly because the times are difficult for them right now, WE CAN CHARGE THEM SURGE PRICING for the supportive messages!!! Let's also fire conduct an employment status reassignment activity for 60% of the human message writer workforce and replace them with AI and cheap offshore call centers!!! Also, let's sell our now collected sadness data on Starbucks and McDonald's to our third party partners like Kleenex so that they can also charge them surge prices for tissues as we have reliable data to show that they are crying right now!!!
Lol reverse enshittification! Can I credit you as this concepts inventor?
We did this together... You and I.
Good. I hope every single company that took advantage of the inflation by raising prices to the fucking moon goes under.
Good
I started boycotting Starbucks when I learned they had partnered with Nestle for store-bought products - their Sumatra and Komodo Dragon coffees were pretty good.
I send an email every year or so to let them know, since boycotts aren't effective if the group being boycotted doesn't know why, with predictably apathetic responses.
Anyway, if you're a no-Nestle person then Starbucks is on the list...
Thanks! Did not know about the Nestle connection. We stopped going to Starbucks when it moved to a fast food type experience vs the cafe feel it had at launch here.
Will be verifying they moved the hell away from Nestle before we consider returning.
Awesome. Unfortunately the agreement was made "in perpetuity" so there's no obvious route to them leaving Nestle.
That's part of why I actually email them, and in the first email I said that I'm bothering to send anything because I do really like their stuff, and I think their other charitible actions mean I can hope they'll take customer feedback. As opposed to Nestle which I expect to tell me to gfm.
I've steadily leaned away from that belief as the company digs farther in to being every crappy anti-labor chain.
I stopped going there when I realized it's all just sugar. All the yummy drinks are just sugar.
My husband and I started going to the co-op and getting fancy coffee beans and make drip coffee each morning. Cheaper, just as delicious (if not even better), and we don't have to go out
Well done, definitely better!
Have you stumbled across James Hoffmann's videos perchance?
Stopping by to declare that James Hoffman is the best ☕
We love him!
Coffee shop? More like a dessert-in-a-cup emporium! Finding normal coffee on the menu these days is like a treasure hunt. ha.
Personally I resent how they redefine sizes.
I want a coffee I don't want to have to read in English to twat translation guide to be able to order one.
This! God damn I'm so sick of asking for a large and they give me a Venti (aka extra large) telling me "oh thats what you asked for"
You do realize your shitty size names actually have some meaning in other languages right? Grande = Large. Also 16oz = large.
That said, I think I go to them like 2 times a year now when everything else is closed and I have to choose between them and Tim Horton's.
Also, fuck corps and their decision to upsize a large to 20oz in other companies. Can't remember exactly when that started (15 years ago or so?) however I think the first ones to do it were McDonalds and Tim Horton's here in Canada.
Just makes me recall Super Size Me.
THe one or two times a year i go, i just say "That one" and point or touch the bottom of the cup.
I'm NOT calling it a venti, this is AMERICA, we speak AMERICAN. i don't want your frappe latti sugar drinks. I DEMAND my AMERICAN coffee AND YOU BETTER SPEAK AMERICAN.
In my experience most Starbucks workers will just let you say small/medium/large without questioning it.
The sizes pales in comparison of the redefinining of a coffee based drink.
Watching them trying to bust unionization efforts in their shops just totally turned me off the brand. I haven’t been into one of their shops or bought any of their products at retail since.
At this point I’ve found better local places but mostly I just got used to making my own iced coffee and it would be silly to bother going back.
Yep, this too. They used to feel cool despite being a large corporation. Now they feel like a corporate cesspool with Apps and anti-unions and $10 sandwiches smaller than the size of a drink coaster. It's not fun anymore, and it's not fun to just be there, especially with people running in and out with the App to just grab things.
But look in the positive side, although they probably lost or will lose 30% of their customer base, at least they can increase profits by 1 percent by having more back-end tracking data to sell from some remaining customers willing to download a shitty ad-infected closed source App!
Good! I boycott Starbucks because of their underhanded business practices.
Same here! Too much union busting for me to feel comfortable buying things there. I'm sure they've done other stuff, but that alone was enough for me.
Outside of North America, same-store sales slid 7%. In China, Starbucks’ second-largest market, same-store sales tumbled 14% as both average ticket and transactions shrank. Starbucks has faced stiffer competition in China from local coffee shops that undercut the coffee giant on price.
And that is the problem. Starbucks is not offering anything that doesn't already exist. It pretends to be a coffee shop for the upper class because it sounds "sophisticated" to say grande instead of medium.
I no longer go there. I know local coffee shops that offer a much better selection of coffees at a good price. And their atmosphere is authentic.
On reddit maybe be 12 years ago was a post about what it’s like to work there and apparently employees will straight up rage hate you if you say you don’t speak Starbucks.
The longtime running critique of Starbucks was that they were already an expensive luxury. Why push it and try to raise prices even further? That takes some serious delusion.
The funny thing is that Starbucks isn’t even “luxury”, their product is mediocre at best and mostly mocked by coffee enthusiasts
The sugar filled drinks are an insult to coffee.
It's affordable status.
I doubt say, a Gucci handbag is of significantly greater quality than a handbag one might buy from target, but the former has that sweet, sweet logo.
Also, see Payless sold discount shoes at luxury prices — and it worked
Are we going elsewhere or are we just too broke to grab a $7 coffee every day?
Maybe because we're too broke for a $7 coffee everyday so we going elsewhere.
Or maybe we are just annoyed and crabby.
The only time I ever go to Starbucks now is if I'm traveling and don't want to stop and run in somewhere and it's the only real option at the exit.
Their coffee is god-awful and always has been.
I will always go to local places before Starbucks. And even if I don't want to get out of my car, local places with drive-throughs are becoming pretty common now. There's several here. There's a guy in a small town nearby who owns a tiny drive-up kiosk with a Starbuck's on one side of town and another chain called Biggby's being built on the other side of town. I talked to him about whether or not he's worried. He's not. He has a ton of loyal customers and offers a bunch of stuff that the others don't, like a huge number of smoothie flavors and multiple types of cake you can get slices from. There's even a fresh vegetable stand a friend with a farm set up next to the kiosk so you can get some fresh produce after you get coffee if you're so inclined.
If you scorch coffee beans, all the nuance of their flavor is destroyed, leaving you with beans that taste like shit. However, the beans will also all taste the same no matter where they're sourced from. I'm convinced this is why Starbucks coffee tastes like shit. They want it to have consistent flavor no matter where in the world you're getting it. If you cover that with enough cream and sugar and artificial flavoring, you can make it palatable again.
Considering, like any other major fast food corporation, they likely have a large number of food scientists on staff who could absolutely make a better-tasting cup of coffee if they were tasked to, I think you're on to something there.
McDonald's is similar with pretty much all of their food. No, a Quarter Pounder doesn't taste like a normal burger, but it essentially tastes the same in New York as it does in Vancouver or (I presume) Mexico City.
Fast food is where the pushback is beginning. Consumers NEED to push back on greed-flation for things to change, especially in areas of elastic demand. Hopefully, this trend continues and the companies react the right way (I know, that’s overly optimistic)
Omg, the consequences of all the giant corporations inflating prices for the last 4 years
My local cafes are just better, and they’re just as close as Starbucks. It’s not that they aren’t busy, their sales just aren’t growing and shareholders don’t like it when the line doesn’t go up.
Americans learning why Starbucks struggles overseas. I'm guessing the maturity of small coffee shops has caught up to the rest of us, so better coffee at better pricing is more abundant.
Struggle overseas?
I guess if you exclude Asia, UK, Canada, and Turkey...... maybe
When people on lemmy say "overseas" or "the world", they really only mean Europe.
Latin America is also obsessed.
Good news! It's the Dacia Sandero.
The real surprise is how burnt coffee every became popular in the first place
Why is it consistently burnt? It’s the worst coffee around. Is it actually the coffee that they burn or is it the milk?
Anyway never supporting those genocidal freaks again.
Because it's a massive franchise. When you go into a Starbucks they want it to taste the same no matter where you get one. People are creatures of habit and it's easier to get someone to get the same thing than it is to try out local shops wherever they go because it might be bad or too different from what they normally prefer. It's one of the reasons fast food chains are / were very popular in the US. It's not about the quality, it's about the consistency
I've only had it black as I always take it, there is no coffee I've had that tasted more over-roasted so consistently. Its like they made a mistake the first time, and just kept going with it out of tradition. Its vile.
Wait, isn't espresso supposed to taste like a tire fire?
Ton of sugar. It disgust me but apparently pepole dont like unsweteened cofee .
Because in a lot of places, it tastes like rubber smells.
I've come to love that type of coffee because of cheap breakfast restaurants after a night out, but I can understand why most people put sugar in their coffee.
Maybe it's just my city but Starbucks isn't expensive any longer, as every coffee shop increased in price to match Starbucks.
A black coffee for $4 both local places and at Starbucks.
Isn’t this because they were supporting Israel?
Maybe it's because their coffee is garbage, their prices are high, and many people have less disposable income than they used to.
Whee hee! Look! Another signpost for a recession. McDs also are taking a hit bc of pricing and such
Everything is soooo sweet
I think it's just a combination at this stage. Something for everyone to hate about them.
They're anti-union. They're meme levels of expensive in an era of strapped cash. People are conscious of "local" business over something they know is a chain. Brand reputationn for low quality for the price has set in. And lastly people are aware of their stagnation. There's nothing "revolutionary" going on in the coffee industry to draw customers who have been turned off back to them. Even McShungles can draw people back to them with a special sale on something. Starbucks never does that I'm aware of (and if they do they're doing a shit job of advertising as evidenced by my lack of knowledge)
As much as I wish it was, it's more likely people are cutting back spending across junk food, see McDs having the same problem.
I haven't gone to Starbucks for a regular coffee since they changed to only serving Pike's Place Roast (like 10+ years ago).
It should tell them something when you go to the grocery store, Starbucks is on sale, and they are out of Breakfast Blend, House Blend, and Veranda Blend, but they have full shelves of fucking Pike's. There are several gas station brand coffees better than that swill.
They actually don't just serve PPR, generally, every store will have Veranda (Light) and either Verona or Sumatra (Both dark) depending on the week you visit. Some stores even have decaf Pike now.
At all mine, they'll only have the other roasts you mention for a few hours in the morning. I'm usually away from home when I want my noon, 3pm, or 7pm coffee.
The other day I was walking around, thinking about all the different coffee shops I could see, and wondering why people waste their money on starbucks and their burnt-ass coffee.
For the desserts-masquerading-as-coffee.
The Starbucks in my area removed all their seating. I would go for the 3rd space aspect but they got rid of it.
Dystopian. You are a cafe!
First McDonald's falling sales. Now Starbucks falling sales. Hmm.... I wonder if there's a trend going on here.
We're all maxed out and broke!
How much of this is a combination of Gen Z being health conscious, and getting old enough to to have to start paying for things themselves instead of having an personal expense budget like when they were in high school or university?
Their prices are so expensive. Corporate executives do whatever they need to in order to increase profits right now, even if it destroys a customer base.
Starbucks also often don't have bathrooms anymore. Starbucks used to be a place you could go to, sit down, use a bathroom if you wanted, use the Internet, and then buy something reasonably priced if you felt like it, but also just be there without buying anything.
Now they want KYC through an App before you buy a $20 Latte so you can get a QR code in the App to use a bathroom, if they have one. The enshitification is real and then they are shocked-gasp, shocked!-that fewer people are there. "Why don't they like the QR Codes?"
I live in Seattle so I'm obviously not going to visit them when their are a dozen good small cafés within a stone throw of any Starbucks. On the few occasions that I have been there recently, the specialty drinks (I drink the occasional latte) are terrible. That should not be surprising since they are made by minimum wage teenagers. The food is crap. All of it is overpriced.
Also, fuck Howard Schulz.
I love telling people that it’s not actually the first Starbucks after all…
Starbucks used to be a pretty decent place. I mean, your preference for how the coffee tasted aside…they used to have newspapers, magazines, couches and other comfy furnishings, nice seating, the pastries were fresh, pretty damn good, and there was a decent variety. Decent coffee-making merch for sale, too. Their menu was coffee and espresso drinks. None of this choco-frosted-sugar-ice-bomb with coffee as an afterthought - if there’s any in the drink at all.
Now? Cheap-ass furniture that invites you to take your coffee and gtfo. Buy a mug or insulated plastic drink glass. Pastries? Let’s pop those out of a plastic bag. Coffee? Minimal. Now it’s the aforementioned sugary drinks or other fruity drinks that have no coffee at all. There is no reason to go there unless your diabetes needs a challenge.
Literally the only thing keeping me buying Starbucks is the loyalty app that gets me a free bag of coffee a couple times a year. Otherwise I’d go elsewhere. Once the loyalty program stops paying out, I’m gone.
Starbucks wants to be a drive thru paradise
I like some things from Starbucks, but ever since the manager tore into an autistic girl for having the gall to have boundaries while being sexually harassed, I stopped going. I even reported that POS manager to the DM. Fuck that guy. Girl did nothing wrong and got shit on for "not reporting it the right way", "not working it out like an adult", and "being mean". FFS, the person she was training was the damn poster child for Sexual Harassment and she told him no, she did not want to be touched nor hit on.
I much prefer my local coffee shops, but they are all ~15 minutes away. Only one of them has a decent amount of seating with outlets. The rest are small and don't really accommodate people who want to work for a few hours, which is the main reason I am going to a coffee shop in the first place. The only close one was that Starbucks.
I just doing drink coffee so that solves that problem. The last time I went to a Starbucks was when I was on vacation in Florida in 2012
Lol
Delonghi bean to cup machine has paid for itself £10 of beans a month I have an an aero press at work. It's ruined the thought of paying anything more than£2 for a coffee
Traffic to its U.S. stores fell again [...] dropping 6%. Domestic same-store sales fell 2%, boosted by an increase in average ticket.
So they had less people come in, and their response was to raise prices.
Last quarter, executives discussed plans to revive the lagging U.S. business that included leaning on discounts
Ah, yes, temporarily lower prices that you'll need to install their tracking app for, I'm sure. They'll use it to dial in the price-point at which each customer is willing to buy, offer "discounts" to just above that price, and then boil-the-frog until it reaches a price acceptable to corporate ...
I have learnt coffee oxidizes quite fast giving that horrible burnt taste, which even milk won't hide. The longer it has been in a open-to-air-pot, the worse the taste gets. Storing in an air-tight container (thermos) it stays "ok" for days. So actually, I think all such servings from the coffee shops are thus inherently worse than brewing your own coffee.
(There are no starbucks in my country, but I think McDonald's coffee really is somehow heated past 100*C and it's the first sip away to burn your mouth, so you wouldn't taste it anyway.)
It is technically possible to heat water beyond 100° and I wouldn't put it past McDonald's to do it for no reason at all. I'm not a big coffee fan, so I don't drink a lot of it but from what I've heard McDonald's coffee is actually okay.
If anyone remembers the McDo hot coffee lawsuit, 85°C is enough to cause serious burns and permenant damage (McDo was found to be at fault)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald%27s_Restaurants
Starbucks gives me apple fanboy vibes..
I like good tea, not coffee.
So, you know, I have technically always been boycotting Starbucks I guess.
If people really want a caffeine and sugar fix I can't wait till someone tries a chain of yerba mate places. North America is gonna be wired.
Well, anyone who wanted good coffee wasn't going to Starbucks either.
Does chai tea latte count as coffee or tea? Love those things. Also just chai tea too though. Coffee is pretty gross IMO but ive never had good coffee.
I go to my kitchen for coffee. Fuck Starbucks.
1/4 teaspoon ground tumeric 1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger 1 tablespoon coco Thoroughly mix with ground coffee Brew in French press You're welcome.
Cardamom coffee is where it's at!
Donut shop style medium roast in a percolator, add 1 serving powdered Mexican hot chocolate to your cup. Mmm, yeah.
The chairs in that picture are peak 2010s.
Damnit, they're Union Busters? Fuck man, there goes my adult sugar drinks D=
Workers are trying hard to unionize
Cool, union busting is unfortunately one of my own battle lines, so hopefully this means I wont have to avoid Starbucks for long! (Because yeah, I guess I am avoiding them now)
On the other hand you can now support local businesses instead of Starbucks!
Ideologically thats nice, real world logistically, it was nice being able to easily track down a liquid snack on my normal commute to work, a timeslot which usually doesnt give much room for investigation and testing
and further, it being a chain meant if my commute ever changed or I wasnt in the area for whatever reason, I could still hit up another location easily and get the same treat
I’ve seen a few of these articles and everyone is missing the bigger picture. Yes making better products will increase sales. However the main point that people don’t understand is that companies are recognizing that their prices are too high to drive sales and as such prices drop to reflect that. Meaning that inflation is shrinking. This is a huge win for Americans and I hope voters see that and vote accordingly.
I want planning to go back to Starbucks but it turns out they didn't actually sponsor the RNC convention https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/jul/24/facebook-posts/starbucks-was-an-official-sponsor-of-the-rnc/
Now I don't know, coffee bean and tea leaf have a nice Colombian coffee
$3/coffee or some shit. Versus like a buck for a whole fkn pot of coffee at home.
Try $6.75 for their new refresher drinks. Flavored water over ice. No wonder sales are declining.
I get free starbucks at work. It has to be pretty good to make it worth crossing the street to the main campus.
