A major shift at Starbucks is changing its personality | CNN Business
Starbucks shifted from being a nice sit-down spot to enjoy coffee, meet with others, or may be work on a project while drinking coffee. Today it’s 70% mobile orders – and the former customers who stopped in to sit for a bit are no longer key, so Starbucks has made the in-store experience worse for them.
My local stores removed half their seating and tripled the size of the mobile pickup counter. The atmosphere has become cold, with hard surfaces that reflect and amplify sound making it noisy. It is no longer an enjoyable experience for staying. For some retailers, that is now their goal – they want to kick you out as fast as possible to rotate the space on to the next customer!
Unfortunately, that customer rotation eventually becomes permanent – I have not been back in months!
A few months back, during my last visit, I learned our local stores almost never carry decaf beans anymore – and even more surprising, have discontinued making decaf expresso entirely. I don’t usually drink caffeinated coffee (it raises my BP) and I do not drink caffeinated coffee in the afternoons. In fact, Starbucks is not so much a coffee vendor now days but a sugar vendor – take a look at their popular drinks.
A poor in-store customer experience and no longer serving decaf – and it not the place for me. And possibly many others as they’ve seen sagging demand. They could solve this if they want to – but do they?
What’s your experience at Starbucks?
