Starbucks felt pretty confidant on May 4, when CEO Kevin Johnson posted on its website that Starbucks “will not just survive, but with adaptations and new routines, it will thrive.” But a day later, the company's COO Roz Brewer sent a letter to its landlords that said, “Effective June 1 and for at least a period of 12 consecutive months, Starbucks will require concessions to support modified operations and adjustments to lease terms and base rent structures.” Well, demanding reduced rent for one of the world's largest coffee restaurant chains is one way to thrive.
According to The Seattle Times:
Starbucks wants landlords to give it a break on rent for at least a year as coronavirus social-distancing measures batter sales at the Seattle-based global coffee chain...
Starbucks demanded the rent relief one day after the company announced it would reopen 90% of its 8,900 company-owned U.S. stores by early June. In a May 4 post on Starbucks’ website, President and CEO Kevin Johnson wrote that Starbucks “will not just survive, but with adaptations and new routines, it will thrive.”
The letter to landlords struck a more dire tone, asking them to “adapt to new realities” — including an anticipated $225 billion hit to the American restaurant industry over the next three months.
The company called the closure of many businesses to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus “a staggering economic crisis,” adding that “the psychological and economic scars will last for months, if not years.”
Details about how much of a rent reduction and which specific locations would get the reduction haven't yet been hammered out. Read the rest
In Hong Kong, the protracted pro-democracy uprising has triggered a local economic recession, especially as businesses and Hong Kongers seek to boycott mainland Chinese businesses and products.
Read the rest
Starbucks has apologized after two Riverside County sheriff's deputies reported that baristas ignored them when they waited to place an order. This comes just a couple weeks after an Oklahoma Starbucks employee was fired for printing the word "PIG" on a police officer's hot chocolate order label (above). And back in July, a Starbucks barista in Tempe, Arizona requested that six cops leave the store because their presence made a customer "not feel safe." From CNN:
(Of the Riverside County incident,) Starbucks spokesman Reggie Borges told CNN the deputies were ignored for nearly five minutes -- and there's no excuse for that.
"We are deeply sorry and reached out to apologize directly to them. We take full responsibility for any intentional or unintentional disrespect shown to law enforcement on whom we depend every day to keep our stores and communities safe," Borges said.
The deputies were "laughed at" and "completely ignored," (Riverside County Sheriff Chad) Bianco said in a video. "They tried to get served, they asked if anyone was going to help them," he said.
Eventually, they left, Bianco said.
Read the rest
UPDATE: A Starbucks spokesperson tells Boing Boing, “We are always looking at what we offer our customers in our stores and making adjustments to our portfolio based on changing customer behavior. As part of our continuous efforts to enhance the overall experience in our stores for both partners and customers, we are removing select fixtures from our retail lobby in September. In addition to Newspaper Stands, we have also removed shelving fixtures that display whole bean coffee and different grab and go snacks.” Read the rest
The coffee chain Starbucks today announced plans to close 150 locations. Read the rest
Filmmaker Stanley Nelson created The Story of Access, the video shown to all Starbucks employees on the day the store closed for racial sensitivity training. Read the rest
This is a pretty amazing thing for a company as big as Starbucks to do. Read the rest
A little birdie sent me this photo and said I couldn't reveal its source. It's the recipe** for the new Crystal Ball Frappuccino drink, which debuts in Starbucks shops March 22.
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We see some deliciousness in your future ?♀️ #starbucks #crystalballfrappuccino #lynbrook
A post shared by Lynbrook Starbucks (@lynbrook_starbucks) on Mar 19, 2018 at 11:33am PDT
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Coming this Thursday... ?
A post shared by Florence Alabama | Starbucks (@florence_alabama_starbucks) on Mar 19, 2018 at 5:04am PDT
**Well, most of it. You'll need an actual crystal ball to fill in the details on the rest of the page.
Thanks, little birdie! Read the rest
YouTuber Dave Lee starts off his video review by saying that he went into Starbucks during the holidays to get a cup of coffee and was soon persuaded by their heavy advertising to buy an $80 Ember mug*. Read the rest
A woman was escorted by police out of the Walnut Creek, Cali., Starbucks after berating a Korean student there for speaking her own language.
Read the rest
https://youtu.be/53EgSWqQOwE
With Christmas quickly approaching, the imaginary war on everyone’s favorite imaginary holiday always helps me get in the spirit.
The latest Christmas offense is from Starbucks’ recent marketing campaign and “suggestive” coffee cup promoting the LGBTQ community.
A commercial unveiling the cups briefly shows two women drinking coffee and placing their hands together while across a table in what is an “obvious” attack on our nation’s faltering morals. The mind-numbing outrage is only being furthered since Starbucks decided to place a pair of unknown hands gripped together that many are debating belong to a same-sex couple.
This so called “gay agenda” that Starbucks is said to be pouring down our coffee-addicted throats has given rise to another series of boycotts for the coffee giant, according to the New York Daily News.
Via the New York Daily News:
Starbucks hasn’t resolved the issue of whether the hands are same-sex or not.
The theme of the cups is “Give Good.” Customers are invited to color in the drawings of hearts, presents and a Christmas tree — and those hands.
“Each year during the holidays we aim to bring our customers an experience that inspires the spirit of the season,” the coffee chain said in a statement. “And we will continue to embrace and welcome customers from all backgrounds and religions in our stores around the world.”
Read the rest
I'm always exhausted after ordering at Starbucks. Not only are there a million different ways to make a coffee over there, but you need to know all of their code words to get the exact coffee you want. Tall (which means "small"). Venti. Trenta. Frappuccino. Americano. Flat white. Skinny. Dry. Bone dry. Etc etc. And now there's more to add to the list: Pepper Nitro with a Jerky Twist.
Decoded, a Pepper Nitro with a Jerky Twist consists of: "Congo coffee, slow-steeped as cold brew and served on draft through a nitro tap, then infused with a sweet and savory malted fennel black pepper syrup. The beverage is topped with a layer of honey cold foam and finished with a sprinkling of cracked pink peppercorn and a bamboo skewer of natural beef jerky made with grass-fed beef," according to Starbucks.
But the drink, which sounds more like a tasty dinner appetizer, is only offered at the Seattle Reserve Roastery, and as a specialty cold drink, it might not be around for long.
Image: Starbucks Read the rest
In 2008, Starbucks publicly acknowledged that the plastic coatings it used on its paper cups made them impossible to recycle using the kinds of equipment deployed by municipalities around the world, and kicked off an annual competition to improve the cup design -- but five years later, it shut the competition down, went on using the unrecyclable cups, and adopted the line that the world's taxpayers should foot the bill for upgrading recycling plants to accommodate its cups. Read the rest
Japan-based food vloggers Simon and Martina try the only Frappuccino drink that comes with its own pie crust lid. Read the rest
Slow coffee service at a Miami Starbucks launched this gentleman into a racially based tirade. Apparently this is now America's answer to everything.
Via @jbdcl
We already understand you prefer horizontally recorded video of racists. Thanks! Read the rest
Oregon artist James Landgraf designed a cute little “Dabuccino” water pipe that looks like a Starbucks Frappuccino. He made 500 to sell, but Starbucks was not amused, and successfully sued him for "trademark dilution, trademark infringement, and copyright infringement." Bummer. Read the rest
When a tornado destroyed this Starbucks in Kokomo, Indiana on Wednesday, there were reportedly more than a dozen people inside. After store manager Kim McCartney called employee Angel Ramos to tell him about a texted tornado warning she'd received, he rushed everyone into the bathrooms. A few minutes later, a tornado destroyed the building leaving only the bathrooms intact. Amazingly, nobody was injured.
“I could see the sky from holes in the bathroom ceiling, so I figured there was some chunk of the store that would be missing,” Ramos said in a report posted on Starbucks.com. “I didn’t know it would be the whole thing.”
Read the rest
