11mo ago

Starbucks’ CEO is out. Chipotle’s Brian Niccol is taking over

www.cnn.com

Starbucks’ CEO is out. Chipotle’s Brian Niccol is taking over | CNN Business

The struggling coffee chain has tapped Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol to be its new chairman and CEO, effective September 9. Starbucks’ stock soared more than 13% in premarket trading, while Chipotle’s dipped 8%.

Niccol has been leading the Mexican-inspired food chain since 2018, with Starbucks saying he has set “new standards in the industry and driven significant growth and value creation,” pointing to its revenue growing nearly 800% during his tenure.

101 comments

Starbucks closes shops that vote to unionize. Boycott Starbucks.
- Support local independent coffee shops.
  
  My local coffee shop donates all proceeds to orphan cage fights :(
- Thank you!
  Anti union parasites get no profits from anyone with half a brain!
- And you get the added benefit of not overpaying for shitty burnt coffee.
  
  benefit of not overpaying for shitty burnt coffee.
  Sir, this is a Tim Hortons. If you want unburnt coffee, the McDonalds is just over there.
I used to love Starbucks because it was a great place to get coffee and chill. Then the whole anti-unions thing, and local coffee shops did it better making me drop Starbucks.
I used to love Chipotle because of their quality and price. Then portions got weirder. Every week was a new food recall. The ones near me look filthy and sad, and that made me drop Chipotle.
To see both of their names together... Yikes.
- For Mexican food, try your local mexican Doña or Don.
  
  You're looking for the place that uses paper plates, has a website, but clearly took the picture of their food 10 years ago with a Motorola Razr.
- local coffee shops did it better
  I wish! We have a "TimeOut!" coffee shop down the road, and they've got the attitude and they price their thimbles-worth like it's the airport, but I really didn't go in for the show so much as a decent frothy cuppa; and I left feeling just as lacking and a little less valued.
This dude ruined chipotle in so many ways. Cutting serving sizes, using lower quality ingredients, reducing employee count and training quality, just letting everything slip. He took that chain from one of the most reliable to somewhere I refuse to set foot in.
But line went up, clearly he's a genius, fail into the next role!
- I agree with all those points except the serving size one. I remember reading recently that the CEO was upset about some locations skimping after people complained and sent corpos out to retrain them.
  
  According to their PR statement.
  
  Doesn't seem like that training stuck, at least as of June it's still wildly inconsistent.
  I don't have empirical data, but I do know in 2016/17 at the height of my chipotle addiction I could get a bowl for lunch, be filled, and have enough left over for a late night snack. Last time I was there it was all "are you asking for double protein? that'll be extra"
  
  None of it matters if they don't train them to wrap the burritos well
I prefer just black coffee. No milk, sugar.
Out of all chain coffee places (in the UK, so costa/nero etc), starbucks has the worst tasting coffee
- This goes into great detail about exactly why Starbucks coffee is so shitty.
  And if you guessed a big part of it is about saving money, you win the teddy bear.
  https://coffeeinformer.com/starbucks-coffee/
- Yes, true of most any national/international chain.
  It's because they value large volume, year round availability, and high consistency from their beans and roasts, so that no matter what location you go to it tastes exactly the same.
  To do that, they select and blend several bland varieties of coffee bean, put them through an aggressive industrial cleaning and drying (which reduces the natural fruity and funky flavors but minimizes costs) then roast them in huge batches to several steps past where a normal roaster would stop for a given roast (a darker roast gets rid of more of the unique flavors of the coffee cherry and brings out more uniform roast flavors instead).
  Again, not something exclusive to Starbucks at all, and plenty of small coffee shops don't bother with the hassle and just buy cheap bulk coffee pre-roasted by large scale operations and will have similar results.
  But man, when you get coffee made in small batches, with natural processing or even fermentation and gently roasted... It's an entirely different experience.
  
  It's just weird that any chain would opt for consistently awful instead of just settling for slight variations. It's also weird that people still buy it despite the fact it is objectively and consistently bad.
  
  Any time you blend beans from different places together, you get a bland coffee. I don't think any mega size coffee shop can ever beat locals just because scale demands won't allow non-blended beans in the supply chain.
- In the US, it is mediocre. I wouldn't say it is terrible and if I am in a different city that lacks local shops, I'll get it. But it is definitely not my first or even 10th choice. And no, the light and medium blends do taste burnt like everyone and their mother thinks it is cool to say. Those people are almost certainly getting dark roast.
  Luckily I live in Seattle and have no issue finding good roasters and cafés that are not anti union.
  
  I've enjoyed many a cup of Starbucks coffee in the past, but I've also tasted Starbucks side-by-side with fancy coffees, and it doesn't even taste like coffee in that context, more like water that has had charred wood steeped in it. I think it must have gotten worse over time.
  The lighter roasts may be better by the standards of lighter roasts, but I much prefer darker roasts, so I want them done right. Fortunately I also live in Seattle.
- McDonald's has better tasting coffee than Starbucks since they swiped Tim Horton's vendor a few years ago.
- Their coffee in the U.S. is the worst too IMO, aside from the occasional awful gas station coffee and I wouldn't be shocked if they were buying Starbucks roast since they also sell it in bags in supermarkets. But, of course, it's like McDonald's- no matter where you go, you know what it will taste like. So people rely on it.
  I avoid it as much as I possibly can (it doesn't help that I used to work on a show in L.A. that was partially sponsored by Starbucks and it was that or our other sponsor, Red Bull, if I wanted caffeine while working). The only times I go when I'm not traveling and have to make a caffeine pit stop and there are no other options is when all the other local coffee places are already closed since they all close earlier than Starbucks and I want to sit somewhere not at home to do something.
  Other than that, I always go local. And here, a lot of the local places have drive-throughs, so even that convenience Starbucks offers is unnecessary. They're usually cheaper than Starbucks too. And, of course, better coffee.
  
  McDonald's coffee is awesome.
  
  Their coffee might be bad but people like them for their other drinks, or fancy coffees.
I hope Starbucks fans like waiting hours to get the wrong order.
- That already happens at busy locations
Strange that I am in active boycott of two restaurants, and it happens to be both of these places. Not for anything high minded - they both discontinued their chorizo offerings, the only thing I liked on either of their menus. Happened 7 or 8 years ago now, and I won't go back.
- Chorizo is serious business.
Zbxbx
- lack of options
  That's just the way they want it. Kill all competition by operating at a loss and offsetting losses over the long term
- Chipotle was good years ago.
We can now get e.coli at an anti-union coffee grift establishment?
Sweet!
From one bean company to another. I hope everyone calls him Mr. Bean.
- I'm now hoping he looks like a Wish Mr. Bean.
Load up on e-coli at Chipotle, then make that supersonic by getting Starbucks.
Starbucks is sugary, trash water. Brew your own coffee at home. Costs way less, tastes much better, and it's significantly healthier compared to the flavored milk they sell.
- Meanwhile, what they serve at Chipotle is not worth even half of what they charge for it.
  
  Yeah both these companies have been run into the ground in my opinion. They're just coasting on inertia at this point.
- But if I brew my own coffee at home, how will people know I'm writing a screenplay?
  
  In my experience, anyone I've ever known who is earnestly writing a book or a screenplay doesn't shut up about it, regardless of whether they go to Starbucks or not.
- And if you make cold brew in advance, it's saves a lot of time in the morning. It's even good heated up in the microwave, but I drink it iced year round.
- Costs way less, tastes much better, and it’s significantly healthier compared to the flavored milk they sell.
  I don't have the machine at home. Or that other machine. Nor can I make a fern leaf with the milk. And where'm I gonna get a lip piercing at this time of night? Be reasonable, man.
Drink local.
- Just make coffee at home before you leave. 10 minutes versus however long the coffee shop trip costs in time and money. Even faster if you get a basic coffeemaker that has a clock that can be set to start up automatically.
  Coffee shops are overpriced for the mediocrity.
  
  Ok but I don't have any teenagers at home who will make whatever they want instead of what I ordered and take 20 minutes to do it.
  
  While I agree, part of it is the experience. Some people want to spend time away from home, and for many families that is a way to buy one drink and get alone time or a place to sit with friends for a while. Sometimes it's also the skill in the drink itself (not Starbucks, though). So in those cases, drink local.
- Yes. This way, the local guy I'll never know, who employs dozens of local people, will get his profits; instead of a remote guy I'll never know, who employs dozens of local people. Help me understand which stranger is more worthy, then, based on the zip code of their house?
  
  There are plenty of tiny coffee places (and other small businesses) near me where the owner is there all day, every day with just one or two employees. You’ll get to know them if you want to. You might also bump into them around town. If they suck, patronize a different place.
  Theoretically, most of the money that I spend there stays in town, helping to keep other businesses and families going. They probably sponsor the local animal shelter or little league team. I like that.
  I’ve worked in small businesses and corporate America. In my experience corporate America always sucks, small business only sometimes suck. I don’t like supporting large corporations and especially not their admin and C-suite. Those vampires are why the wealth gap is growing so quickly.
  Corporate food is boring.
  Some people argue that all of the transportation involved in moving around product and people for multi-national corporations is worse for the environment. I don’t care about that personally but it seems like a reasonable conclusion.
  
  Have you been to local shops? Usually local owners participate in the business, we see ours roasting all the time. The last place we went when traveling was opened right next to the AT by a hiker who runs it by herself with a friend.
  If you haven't met the owner, you probably haven't tried to. But my guess is, you don't go there anyway out of some weird spite.
E. Coli stock prices are up 20%
Schultz came out of retirement just to shit on unionizing efforts and then pass it along. Just a little union busting, as a treat.
One thing that confounded me when I went to Starbucks for the first time. Asked them for a large black coffee. Since their coffee is way overbrewed so it can be mixed with stuff, it was super strong super hot garbage.
Someone later told me to order it with a little ice to make it drinkable and dilute the flavor.
My question was: why can't I just buy coffee at a coffee place?
Have a stack of 5-10 year old Starbucks gift cards I've collected from various work functions that are still valid. I still haven't gone back. They can't even get me as a free customer.
- Why don't you give those cards away to homeless people or food banks? They could use it
I don’t understand the obsession with either of these restaurants
- Caffeine is addictive,
  sugar gives you the zoomies, and
  frothy milk is delicious.
  That's the coffee part handled, anyway. The only improvement would be allow for alcohol, I think, as I'm really sure an irish coffee all day would improve my morning commute -- the bus driver would be so much more relaxed!
- It's strange how the Internet turned on Chipolte. When they were first expanding, everyone raved about how great they were. Then there's a few very public food safety issues, which certainly doesn't put them in a good light. They didn't make any particular changes to their recipes AFAIK due to that. If you thought they were tasty before, then that opinion should be the same now even if you avoid them due to untrustworthy food safety.
  I dunno; the Mexican fried rice they use tends to sit heavy in my stomach, so I avoid them, anyway.
  
  Moe's Southwest grill is exactly the same as chipotle but their food is higher quality and they give you free nachos
Is that the guy that turns his head sideways for more rice and chicken on his burrito
I can't wait for the al pastor frappechino to be back in season 😻
Nepotism engine shifts some wealthy dudes around.
I’m don’t understand how they can have a level of food that is so trash that even subway is better. McDonald’s is better. The frozen aisle at the supermarket is better. I don’t know how they managed to be so bad.
Was the revenue growth because of his guidance, or despite it? The boom of pickup and delivery in the past few years for places like Chipotle couldn't have hurt. I haven't been in one of their places recently without wondering how they're staying in business, or why people keep coming back. That's true of a lot of fast food places though...Carlin was right, we love to eat. Anything.
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