I agree fully with your observations and ideas about what has happened to Starbucks. But what surprises me is their locations seem to be busier than ever. Even though most people I know, do not even visit Starbucks, many other people do go there. It seems like there is a large segment of population that, when they are out, and thirsty, they simply think Starbucks. They don't think gas station, or fast food place- they think Starbucks. And that is where they go. There is no other consideration. And they think nothing of paying $5+ for a simple beverage (when they could obtain a similar beverage at a gas station for $1).Alpha8472 wrote: ↑March 25th, 2022, 9:29 pm Starbucks is doing what it can to draw attention away from their failing business operations. This EV charger pilot is just a distraction. Starbucks cut staffing several years ago. This caused a major change in employee attitude. Starbucks used to schedule plenty of labor and staff. The employees were cheerful and happy to go to work at Starbucks. They could devote their time to making high quality hand crafted beverages and deliver great customer service. Then they cut hours and staffing. The remaining staff was overworked and underpaid. Employees quit like crazy. Starbucks used to be a long term career that people enjoyed. That joy was lost when Starbucks decided to focus on the bottom line and overwork their employees by understaffing.
Many long time employees are no longer working at my local Starbucks. The once friendly employees that I had known for years quit. The joy was no longer there. Now Starbucks is racing towards the fast food style of passing out low quality food as quickly as possible to make a buck. The teamwork and camaraderie is gone. Starbucks used to have meetings where the entire staff would get together and learn about coffee and customer service. Those meetings are few and far between. The best employees quit rather than work under the low staffing conditions.
Starbucks used to want to be the third place. A place apart from home or work where you felt comfortable. The closure of the indoor dining and the switch to drive thru just to get more profit was a bad decision. Starbucks was all about a pleasant place where you wanted to go to get great coffee, great customer service, and feel better. It is now all about a fast food style transaction that lacks all of the good qualities it used to have. Starbucks stopped treating their employees well and ended up with the lowest quality workers who are bringing the company down.
Starbucks needs to get back to basics and ditch all of this talk about EV chargers and environmental awareness. Great coffee, friendly motivated employees, and a pleasant welcoming environment are what Starbucks needs to restore.
I think Starbucks is being set up for a major "refranchising" program where they start to sell off territories to franchisees. The corporation will make a fortune selling franchises to various debt-financed investor groups and can set royalties so favorable that they would likely make more money this way than they make operating stores (given how inefficient their operation is). It is not a question of if, it is a question of when. Maybe it'll be another 10 years. Maybe longer. This will be a big shift for Starbucks in the US but the ground work is there with the licensee program in place.
People I know who used to frequent Starbucks now go to Dutch Bros.