Starbucks CEO defends a cup of coffee costing $9
2d 20h ago by lemmy.zip/u/Valuy in mildlyinfuriating from cdn.imgchest.com
Has this man even been inside a Starbucks recently? They used to be loungy places people could chill, now they're all bland, sparsely decorated, dirty, and uninviting. There is absolutely nothing premium about Starbucks, it's basically a fast-food chain. Once again demonstrating how far removed CEOs are from reality
Fast food is expensive too. And it’s hurting their sales, and they can’t figure out that they need to slice profits, not the product.
Burger King is just inedible now. And by that I mean twice now I've eaten there, and then within an hour my stomach upset. Then followed by 12 hours of what can only be described as "VIOLENT DIARRHEA". Yes, all caps, because thats the urgancy that situation called for.
Two different locations too. Plus the first time I went with a friend, and she got it too. The first time I chalked it off to being that particular location. Then, nearly 8 months later, different location, different city. Same result.
After that, Burger King is officially just as banned from my diet as taco bell is. Inedible.
Inedible Now? Your same experience was mine over 15 years ago. I was getting stomach pains and shitting really bad every single time I had BK. He’ll even towards the end I couldn’t even swallow a fry. I had started switching to onion rings cause the fries left a wax taste in my mouth after.
I haven’t had BK since then. 2010 ish. I ended up dropping all fast food after Covid cause the prices just don’t match up with quality anymore.
I heard a single combo meal at McDonalds clocks in near $20 these days. Fuck that noise. Not for a thin, dry “meat” patty that gets microwaved and then thrown between a pair of bread slices. No sir. No thanks. I rather spend that $20 on take out from a real restaurant.
Chipotle is still the king of food poisoning. They have a proven track record in toilet-related war crimes going back many years. Guess I'm adding BK to my no-go list now too.
Whereas I’ve never had food poisoning in the 10ish times I’ve eaten at Chipotle, Cici’s pizza is 3 for 3 for violence out both ends for me. The third time I was practically fooled into it, but I’d rather just starve next time (there won’t be one).
The issue is that you went to a fast food store location in a city. I have never gotten edible food at an urban location of a fast food chain, even in the 90's.
Hey buddy, those yachts aren't gonna buy themselves. What do you expect them to do, live on less?
It doesn’t help when a good chunk of their customer base still goes on a regular basis. I often see long lines at drive thrus in my area despite combos costing $10+.
The profit is the product
Came here to say this. What ‘premium’ experience is he talking about?
Something tells me that the only Starbucks he actually has used recently is likely a very high-end version for the C titles in HQ, meters away from his office and for employee use only.
They're calling it an experience becuase consumers are indicating they are willing to pay for experiences while pulling back spending on daily expenses.
Consumers mean concerts and vacations and this douche knows he isn't actually offering an experience so he does the mind trick where he says the term over and over to associate in the consumers mind the idea that drive thru coffee is an experience.
Absolutely. It was a clear attempt at adding ‘perceived value’ by using the word ‘experience’ so many times. He knows what type of consumer he’s speaking to.
These interviews are really just PR opportunities for guys like this (in their perception).
The interviewer should have pushed back and asked what made it premium.
He's talking about the Starbucks experience he has. Headquarters will always be the perfect Starbucks, and if he goes to a real shop, it'll be a newly opened one with a new special item. He doesn't go to the actual shops people probably associate with Starbucks.
Aren't they all just like this? /s
https://www.starbucksreserve.com/locations/chicago-roastery
I was able to walk through that premium experience for free. I'm not sufficiently bougie to appreciate investor grade coffee, tho.
The ones in asia are well decorated. People go there to take video calls.
When I want to lounge at a café, I'm expecting a warm, inviting interior, some plants, bookish decor, smooth jazz, hip staff, and a coffee that could only be produced by coffee geeks with attention to detail at every step of the process...
You walk into a starbucks today, everything is cold and industrial, they've got pop music blaring on the radio, and the staff all look miserable. Oh, and the coffee sucks.
Look at the clip without sound. It's like a rubber doll, no emotions what so ever.
I'm happy to drink a $2 coffee from the gas station (probably a half gallon of it 🙂) and set the remaining $7 aside. Then again, I only get drip coffee and not any of the milkshake-y stuff Starbucks specializes in.
I remember 90's era Starbucks and a bunch were still pretty grungy corners of strip malls. But the point was they were still coffeeshops, despite being a chain that went corporate.
Now they're glorified coffee stands with real estate baggage and little sandwiches. And zero of that 'third place' shit they used to dominate the market.
Why should he go to a place for the rabble?
They should have sent the manager and crew to the thrift store with a corporate CC and a box truck for furniture. Instead it's bland, depressed, "I can't believe it's not cardboard™."
I hate this trend of putting shit at the beginning that I then have to hear again less than 10 seconds later. Like I get it's for grabbing you but the second I start hearing the same thing again I immediately close the video.
It matters a lot more on platforms like TikTok, where there's no title, no thumbnail, all you have is the first two seconds of the video before someone swipes away
So, the problem isn't the video, but the fact that places like tiktok exist. Even worse is that they're spreading
Fuck Starbucks. It’s not the first time I mention this, and I’ll keep mentioning it: When Corona hit Germany, the government reduced the VAT to prevent restaurants from going bankrupt in 2020. Starbucks gave every customer the finger and did not lower the prices, keeping the difference for themselves. I was never a regular customer but this made me blacklist them for life.
Pepperidge Farm remembers
Pfeffergrat erinnert?
My country reduced European VAT tax on coffee and nearly every coffee shop kept the prices at the same level. The government raised them back again later. I'd say this is not starbucks-specific, reducing VAT to lower the prices just doesn't work.
Prime example of: "capitalism breeds innovation"
The taste of their coffee is what made me blacklist them.
The petrol stations are currently doing the same.
The interviewer's inability to hide his reaction is priceless
Wow that guy doesn’t even look human. No wonder he had no issue mandating all employees return to the office while he flew a private jet from California to Seattle every day.
Its also hilarious he has that ear piece in his ear so that his PR team can feed the machine the 'correct' focus-grouped response to every question.
He doesn't even look to the camera. He's looking to some script that is behind.
I’m pretty sure the earpiece is so he can hear the interviewer.
Makes sense. I was assuming he was sitting in his quiet office and using the laptop speakers but I suppose that would create feedback for the microphones
He's the same piece of shit that fired all the corporate Chipotle employees in Denver to move their headquarters to Newport Beach, because that's where his house is.
Premium my ass.
I love our local coffee place. We bring our dogs. The baristas bring them cups of whipped cream. The place is cozy and they sell art from local artists. And the coffee is actually good and doesn't taste like someone burned it. I usually make my own coffee, but it's nice to go there once a week and just enjoy being there. That is premium.
I love making my own coffee, but I also love going to a local shop every now and then (at home and when I'm on the road)
Whereas I don’t love making coffee every day, it’s a fair sight cheaper and quite a bit faster than even just pulling off into the drive through at my local coffee shop, let alone a Starbucks. It’s boiling water that’s been steeped through ground, roasted beans folks.
Be careful with the whipped cream cups.
This was/is a starbucks thing and it's really fucking bad for the dogs. It can be a huge amount of fat the equates to a human eating multiple big macs.
Good tip, thank you. We do keep an eye on our dogs' diets and weights, generally.
Let's just pretend Starbucks coffee didn't taste like cheap, crusty asshole for a second... Fuck you, Brian!
I think most of their "coffees" are caramel flavored milks
It's crazy how they can make their coffee taste like they simultaneously undercooked and also burned their coffee beans.
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
It's sad to think there are people in the world that think Starbucks coffee is nice.
It's "coffee" for people who don't really like coffee and want to drink something warm with cream, sugary syrup and artificial flavoring.
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.
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
"Starbucks CEO, easily replaced by AI. Here, we'll show you why that's the case."
I mean the sterility of his appearance could’ve fooled me.
Calling the stuff you buy at Starbucks coffee? What they sell is all sorts of sugar in a cup. This is not a coffee place, it is a diabetes hole.
you are allowed to get a black coffee
The most over roasted slop around, sure. There's a reason why that place serves pure diabetes, their black coffee is kinda gross.
maybe the coffee is gross so that it can pair with the diabetes. That much sugar needs a very strong flavor to offset it.
Or Starbucks just uses the absolute cheapest beans on the market and then burns them for that truly consistent char flavor, which they then have to turn into diabetes to make palatable.
Either way, it's just not good.
No one does that though, because Starbucks coffee is terrible. It’s over-roasted charcoal crap. If you order a black coffee, do yourself a favour and get a nice, light-roasted pour over from an independent cafe serving locally roasted, single-origin coffee. Good coffee should smell like a mix of dried fruit, floral perfume, and toasted nuts, not burnt rubber.
Listen man, I get it, you don’t like dark roasts but you don’t have to yuck other peoples yums. Could they get a better one than at Starbucks? Sure. Is there anything wrong with a nice dark roast? No.
I buy dark roasts from a local coffee roaster in my city. They don’t have any fruit or floral notes, but they taste like dark chocolate, not burnt rubber. They’re good dark roasts. Starbucks is still crap. It only tastes good in a giant cup of milk and sugar and caramel sauce.
That wasn't about dark roasts, that was about Starbucks' coffee and roast. There's a big difference. Starbucks goes darker than most specialty roasters' dark roasts.
Also, "burnt rubber" notes often come from robusta coffee. Robusta is cheap, easy to grow, and has a long shelf life. The darker it's roasted, the less it tastes like burnt rubber[^1]. But Starbucks claims that they use 100% arabica. If true, then it's almost impressive that they made it taste like that.
[^1]: There are some amazing, exceptional robustas, but you won't find them in commodity coffee or Starbucks
They do have light and medium roasts, too. I'm not saying their coffee is great, but it's not all burnt either.
Yes, and all of their roast levels are darker than what you'd get from most specialty roasters
If you pay 9$ for that it will just make you sad. Let them pour some sugar milk foam in it so at least you don't know that you are drinking burnt mediocre coffee.
I don't know, mediocre is a stretch.
you're talkin to a guy who dumps instant coffee into cold water. starbucks cold brew black is at least vaguely ok. plus its way less expensive to get it without all the fixins. and yes, still infinitely more expensive than brewing your bean water yourself
Which statistically is likely the least selling menu item at a Starbucks and probably also tastes like shit
I had a Starbucks franchise owner tell me that Starbucks doesn't sell coffee; [they] sell an experience.
Then improve the experience, I told him. I seriously have no idea how they're still around.
Starbucks doesn't franchise FYI. They have places that sell coffee "Proudly Serve Starbucks Coffee" as well as licensed stores, but those are typically mega corps like Safeway, Target and HMS host.
https://www.tastingtable.com/1633136/we-proudly-serve-starbucks-explained/
Oh, interesting! I didn't know that!
End of the day it is on us to actually use the tools of haters and trolls to fight back against any of this stuff. But we police ourselves. They trained us to police ourselves away from the tools.
We created the internet. We learned we can use it to shape culture and push back against these rich interests but they also learned it at the same time. So they covertly used bot accounts to push us away from ways to shape our world and instead trained us to use this stuff to post about beans and "its morbing time"
They need some way to pay for the year he commuted to Seattle by private jet.
Also, he is the asshole who said to keep raising the prices at Chipotle.
Fuck him. I will drink Folgers (and I do) before I'll drink your shit.
I work an a facility next to a few fast food joints, a Japanese restaurant, an Indian restaurant, and a Chipotle. Pretty much the only restaurant we don't order from is Chipotle.
... Chipotle is real restaurant prices for a fastfood experience.
yeah, it's hardly worth the price, and honestly, I haven't liked their roast since the 90s. nothing worth this bullshit.
Friendly reminder that during 9/11, Starbucks in NYC charged firefighter $5 for tap water.
Now, I realize $5 today doesn't sound like much, but to put it in comparison, at the time a bottle of 20oz water ranged between $0.50, and $1.25 at grocery stores.
So here's these men, saving lives, risking their own, covered in asbestos and other soot, desprate for a drink to keep saving lives, and the manager of that starbucks decides thats a good time to gouge them for tap water. BITCH THAT SHIT SHOULD BE FREE!!! Especially for these guys! Many of whom died when the towers collapsed. Their last drink for some of them was a price gouged starbucks tap water.
Edit: I just thought of another way to put it in perspective. I remember in 2000 my dad would give me $5 occasionally to get dinner from McDonalds so he didn't have to cook. It was at the time enough for a medium size double quarter pounder meal. Large or super size would have taken me over the $5 mark, but the medium would just barely cover it.
So now next time you're at McDonalds, look at the price of what that is today, and imagine being asked to pay that for a plastic cup with tap water.
Yes. Starbucks. The McDonald’s of coffee shops. High class. Premium.
Do they still over-roast their beans to hide the low quality?
Yes
Ooooh, is that why they do this?!
To be fair, McDonald's also does coffee, but you can get any size there for a dollar in the morning which is hard to beat for a shitty cup of coffee.
Look at the wording- 'premium experience'. He's not selling coffee, he's thinking big picture of the whole experience from the moment you walk in the store. He's not even wrong here. This is good business management- that he's taking charge of everything about the store from the decor, the furniture, the colors, how the employee talks to you, etc. That's all part of the experience.
What's wrong is that people keep going. Most people don't give a fuck about the experience, they just want a tasty coffee. Our economy is based on competition and free choice. If he makes his coffee cost $8 or $9 or $15 or $50 that's his right and his company's right. Just as it is your right to go elsewhere, which you should be doing anyway.
The thing is- IMHO, Starbucks coffee isn't worth anywhere near $9. Here's a challenge- go to Starbucks and order a double espresso shot. Now find a local artisan coffee place, like the type with a chalkboard that says where the beans they're brewing today were grown. And get a double espresso from them also. Compare the two.
What you'll notice about Starbucks is that it's burnt. And that's because it's literally burnt- the typical Starbucks bean is roasted MUCH darker than average, so the resulting coffee flavor is dominated by a burned smoky bitter-ish flavor.
Compare that to your local artisan coffee place- you'll notice it's NOT burnt, the flavor is NOT dominated by smokiness, but you have a lot more layers of flavor. Then order whatever drink you want- better coffee in means better drink out.
Keep in mind also most of what Starbucks sells isn't really coffee, it's milky sugary drinks that incorporate a few drips of espresso. So you're paying $9 for a sugary calorie bomb made from overly roasted coffee that just makes you fat.
Also- if you usually order the same thing at Starbucks- just learn to make it. Even if you throw $1000 at a nice fully automatic espresso machine, taking the per-coffee cost from $9 to $1 means you'll break even on the machine in 125 coffees. For most people that's less than a year. And you can do it yourself- next time you order, watch what the barista does. They are not wizards and nothing behind the counter is magic. An espresso machine and a blender will make like 95% of the menu. Here's a guide
Even on a shoestring budget you can get far. My equipment:
10 euro 'grinder' 30 euro moka pot (bialetti) Decent beans (segafredo, lavazza) about 10 euro per kilo (on offer), lasts my family about a month.
I like late macchiato, which in my case is about 2 thirds milk heated in the micro, 1 third coffee.
I know the above will horrify real coffee enthusiasts, but I can tell you it's a lot better than starbucks, and a lot cheaper too.
I'd throw a couple more bucks at the grinder, but I've had moka pot coffee and it's surprisingly good. Granted I'm only a low-level coffee snob but I've always been of the opinion do what works for you and screw the haters. And while someone might make fun of your setup, from where I sit you are getting a cup of coffee you like better than Starbucks for less than €1 per cup. Sounds like a win to me!
If you have decent coffee, you get the grind dialed in, and a half decent sub 300€ expresso machine, you can get very very good coffee.
I have owned a small resto in Spain, so I kind of know a bit about expresso.
The coffee experience is 100% subjective, anyway.
Some like light roasts, dark, some Arabica, some robusta, some espresso, pour over, some percolated (I just barfed a little in my mouth here).
There is a lot of bullshit being peddled by coffee influencers who every week have to make a video about the same subject to keep making money, anyway.
Yeah the problem with espresso is once you have good espresso you really can't go back to drip coffee. It just tastes like bitter colored water :(
But you also make a good point, Starbucks sells a ton of different drinks but the shot that goes into them is always the same. If you put in a little time to experiment and dial in it's easy to find something that fits your taste even better.
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.
Absolutely zero light behind those eyes. These people really are just biological robots.
We WANT this to be Worth Your While so we're Paying our Baristas enough to Make It Worth Your While! Buying only the BEST Coffee Beans! Creating NEW Techniques to make your Coffee even MORE Enjoyable! Investing in our Stores so there COMFORTABLE! Giving me, the CEO, a Private Jet!
Yep, he commutes by private jet to Seattle from LA every week.
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.
He’s not saying it’s affordable though. He just said that it’s 9 bucks and we have to make that be worth it
A barista would need to serve like 2 coffees an hour to cover their wage
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.
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.
This is really all that needs to be said. Nobody needs Starbucks coffee, so either pay the price or don't go.
Anti union piece of shit
Also interview only included CEO, no labor representation
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."
They know climate change is about to destroy the coffee industry so they’re getting ready to pivot
IDGAF. Why are you buying Starbucks anyway, their coffee is just flavoured, caffeinated sugar water. I don't see a big deal with $9 for a cup of piss. Rich people will pay even more if you tell them some lies about the water being shipped from the Himalayan mountains to make the coffee. Charge them whatever the fuck you want. Rich people ripping off rich people is a win win.
Are people really so addicted to Starbucks that this is a big deal? And there's no better and cheaper coffee?
Haven't willing gone to a Starbucks in years. There is nothing premium about Starbucks.
TBF the only people that have to answer for it are the ones still buying them.
Like, he may literally have been thinking "because you dumb bitches will pay that", but obviously couldn't say it.
Bingo.
I haven't had Starbucks in 14 years, even then I would get one on occasion only because that was the coffee shop on my work campus.
It's not like it's a unique offering at this point either. Everyone and their dog has complicated syrupy coffee/tea drinks on their menu.
I don't know, maybe the busy-but-nicer-than-McDonalds ambiance is worth it to some people. If it's anything like Tim Hortons, lots of people just buy out of pure habit as well. Either way, that's their business, not the person selling it.
A bag of locally roasted coffee is $12 and lasts me two weeks. It used to be $9, before the orange shithead but let's ignore that. A pot of coffee takes about as long as it takes for water to boil. I'm clearly not the target demographic, but still. Nine fucking dollars for a cup?
I'm surprised he didn't mention the "sense of pride and accomplishment" buying a $9 coffee would bring -_-
a great moment with a barista.
Hahaha. Good one. Literally a great reason to buy independent.
I have friends who are super into roasting their own beans and curated coffee experiences...
Starbucks is far and away from being premium or even...good. They're all marketing and accessibility, not quality.
or go to any other coffee store. phillz, peets(maybe), theres some that are specific to our city that also seells the product to stores. of course make your own, french press or carefe.
I mean, let's be real, how much does a banana even cost Michael? Twelve dollars?
The average coffee drinker doesn’t buy coffee to get a great seat and have a moment with a barista lol. They want to get their coffee as fast as possible and be out of there as quick as possible. Just like the average office worker doesn’t take a private jet to get to work. I guess that’s where his logic is coming from. He spends the fuel and CO2 not for the commute, but for the great legroom and moment with the stewardess.
I mean, I am relatively ok paid, but $9 would be about 1-1.5 hours of my wage before tax. If I want to live in a both economy and ecology wise manner, I had calculated it to a cup of $4 coffee every two weeks, IF I don’t eat out and instead use frozen home made lunch boxes every work day.
If I can skip a coffee a week and instead donate to a charity or local homeless person of my choice. Or save my money for the LGTBQ+ scouts. That’s way better.
Haven’t had Starbucks in over a year, maybe three, the coffee wasn’t worthwhile of the wait or money and the last time the barista gave me oat milk instead of almond. No faults to the barista, I think the chain stresses them out.
I’m struggling with your math here… $9 is 1–1.5 hours before tax—so you’re paid between $6–9 per hour? Did you mean after tax?
Either way, that doesn’t sound like you’re paid “relatively ok.”
You’re right, my math was way off. I shouldn’t reply to posts while on migraine.
With that said, not ever drinking from Starbucks ever again.
Oof, I can relate to struggling with writing a migraine. I hope you are feeling better!
this has the McDonald's CEO eating vibes all over again.
Labeling Starbucks coffee as a premium experience is a bold statement. Did he never drank real coffee? "Oh but it's premium because our coffee tastes so bad, we just add a lot of sugar and flavors to it so you won't notice."
I would actually pay $9 for the premium experience of seeing this CEO getting a cup of boiling hot coffee in his face.
probably not, hes probably like mcdonald ceo, he likes this "product"
The coffee is not the experience. Everything around that coffee is. The mug, the barista with a smile, the friendly words, the lighting, the music there, the seats, the flower pots, …
Labeling all of that a premium experience is a bold statement when talking Starbucks.
Ok, I can get that at every single other cafe bar in town, but with a genuine smile instead of an American one.
Sure. But that is what they mean with the experience. It is not about the coffee itself.
That's what I don't want to understand. The experience is not premium, it's like any fast food joint. Standardized, quick, efficient.
You'll get a better experience at almost any small café next door.
I got an espresso machine a few years ago and learned to make a proper latte with it. At this point, a $9 cup of charry sugar water made by a teenager in a fast food restaurant doesn’t really appeal to me.
My coffee experience is fine thank you. Every morning I boil the kettle, hand crank the grinder while it’s heating. Combine in the French press, wait a minute, stir, wait 4-5 more, press and pour into my mug.
It’s a great morning routine, less than 10 minutes, cheap and results in a great cup. I have no interest in the coffee flavored milkshakes they serve so why would I ever set foot in a coffee shop?
I'm surprised they let him in front of a camera again after the Chipotle backlash.
It's not even good coffee...
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.
But how much is the avocado toast? A low toast cost would offset a high coffee price.
Income cohort...
Damn I haven't had Starbucks in like 10 years because the hit or miss quality wasn't worth <$5, people are paying that much now?
I think you meant the greater than symbol... Though, I suppose you could argue their coffee IS worth less than $5.
Perhaps they meant to use the ~ symbol instead, to indicate approximately?
Perhaps! (...But then I couldn't be pedantic.)
It's worse than that. Obviously he's not talking about the coffee. He doesn't even paint it as good-quality coffee. He's saying people go for the experience of enjoying the coffee in a pleasant environment. He actually believes people go to Starbucks because they like being at Starbucks.
That used to be their whole shtick, the third place experience. They wanted people to treat Starbucks as where they go when they want to relax or meet with friends, a place outside of their home and work, where the baristas knew their names and would chat and make them feel welcome. Especially a lot of older folks liked that, and would make it part of their routine. Starbucks threw that all away when they went to prioritising drive thru and mobile order/pay systems. It's a shareholder business and this is capitalism. It's either neverending growth or death.
I don’t even think he’s wrong
https://static0.simpleflyingimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/51908914020_27f6e1e90b_4k.jpg?q=49&fit=crop&w=500&dpr=2
He gets away with this just fine.
He looks like someone that would make me cross the street if he was on the same side as me while I'm walking my fur baby. Rex don't need to smell that shit.
Not actually Starbucks related but the other day I wanted a coffee so I bought a $5 48oz bottle of cold brew at the grocery store and helped myself to a courtesy cup, lid, ice and straw so I could drink it right away. So for the same price as probably a 16oz cold brew I got that and the remaining ~3/4 of the bottle to take home.
Now defend a decline in sales to your board.
LOL, I buy an entire pound of green coffee beans for $9 or less, roast them, and then I've got coffee for like 2 weeks.
I do the 5 lb bags it last like 3 months for me
Same logic for using drugs.
“I can’t afford anything actually nice but I do have 20 bucks.”
Honestly there is a lot more value in a 20 sack though.
He can try to defend it, doesn't mean I'm paying for it. I could buy a civet to shit in my cup for $9!
I always price my coffee by weight, so making my shit at home is a no brainer, that way if I'm out with friends I can order out with no guilt.
But even then, Michigan's own Biggby Coffee and other local spots make $tarbucks irrelevant.
If he loves this "experience", good for him. Who cares...
Well it's not $10. Hah! You could excuse any price like that, "well it's not $1 more than the currently listed price" What a deal!!!
So they think I want a 9$ premium experience with a Batista who the mselves could likely not afford that experience. Yuck.
We should really stop paying attention to what CEOs and other parasites have to say. They only serve the shareholders.
What the fuck is premium about Starbucks?
It's seen as a premium or at least different experience by some people here because you generally gotta sit on a boat for 16 hours to get to Starbucks (or now I think you can also get it on the boat to Stockholm or Helsinki, at some point you actually had to go to Stockholm). But also the people who see it as a premium experience normally just drink coffee at home, or from a crappy machine at work, or grab one from a gas station (which is already better than what most people make at home. I mean average people, not coffee fans. Coffee is just a tool for most). Not at a nice cafe here in Estonia. Anyone who does that probably doesn't see Tarbrush as a premium place.
The price
Gaslighting. If he says it enough, he hopes we disconnect with reality and believe him.
I drink black coffee only and their black coffee tastes like shit. Always burned. No wonder why people fill it up with all kinds of sugars and creamers. That shit is fucking gross, and they charge like $3 for a small cup of it. Went a couple of times there because I had to and just never going back there.
Starbucks is awful all around
Buck Starfucks!! Upstate NY here. Stewart's 4ever, bitches!!
Never mind the coffee. I'm not a coffee drinker. But their hot chocolate sucks too. If you're a cafe type store can can't get hot chocolate right...
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.
Wake me up when we drone this guy
Thanks for making that a direct file to a video.
Who goes to Starbucks anyway? That place would not know what a coffee bean looked like if it rained beans. I'm lucky to live in a place where there are the most coffee shops in the world; over 9000 independent coffee shops with some amazing beans.
Shanghai?
Indeed.
I am so tired of seeing this guy’s smug face at the top of my feed…and it’s only been like a day.
did not know sugar got that expensive
The labor for serving the cup alone is worth $5 alone then the labor to cut the beens is another $5 then the labor to run the factory that's another $5 then the labor to drive the truck that's another $5 that's a $20 cup if we weren't using slave labor.
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.
there was a stereotype that people go there to act like they are screnwriter or a novel, who stay there for hours.
A cup of coffee is never an experience you dense POS. It's just a beverage and a terrible one at that.
Oh I beg to differ. It's not a $9 experience, but it is much, much more than just a beverage.