Starbucks makes a move to battle slowing customer interest | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Starbucks (SBUX) may be considered king of the quick service coffee brands (a fact Dunkin’ enthusiasts just might argue), but the fact is that the chain has been struggling for a while now.

In November 2024, the company reported a 22% drop in operating income year-over-year, despite expanding its global footprint and opening 722 new stores.

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To combat slowing sales, Starbucks hired former Chipotle executive Brian Niccol as its chair and CEO in August. Niccol addressed the situation directly at the time, saying, “It is clear we need to fundamentally change our strategy to win back customers.”

Niccol named the company’s new “Back to Starbucks” plan as the key to that change, saying, “My experience tells me that when we get back to our core identity and consistently deliver a great experience, our customers will come back.”

Part of the company’s plan is to attract consumers back to Starbucks as a community gathering space, moving away from the quick-speed tweaks it implemented in prior years.

Since announcing the plan, Starbucks has made a variety of other changes, including writing on cups again, bringing back the condiment bar, ditching the non-dairy upcharge, and adding additional coverage hours in 3,000 of its locations.

In addition to all those tweaks, it’s also got a new drink coming to weather the hottest part of summer.

Starbucks hopes to capture customer attention with a tasty new beverage.

Image source&colon; Veronika Bondarenko

Starbucks has a new take on cold brew

Since it’s the hottest time of the year, Starbucks has decided it’s time to deliver something exciting with a tasty new spin on a coffee classic: the cold brew.

As we reported previously, Starbucks is bringing back a raspberry syrup it originally discontinued in 2023.

“Starbucks will also be bringing back raspberry syrup for a very limited time this July to delight fans, and the company plans to bring more flavor drops in the future,” the company said in a June 10 news release.

However, Starbucks also has a new drink coming, which it hasn’t yet revealed: a Raspberry Cream cold brew, as reporter by food blogger Markie Devo via his X account on July 10.

Devo says that several employees have told him the new drink is coming, which is the chain’s signature coffee sweetened with vanilla syrup and topped with a raspberry cream cold foam.

Devo originally reported that the drink could come out on July 24 for rewards members and July 29 nationwide, but it looks like those dates have been changed just a bit, as now the new drink drops for a limited time on July 28.

Starbucks employees sound off on the changes

While Niccol promises the Back to Starbucks program will transform the brand, there’s one group of people who don’t love the changes: the baristas.

The Starbucks subreddit features a fair number of complaints about the new policies, with one focused heavily on the return to writing on cups.

“WRITING ON CUPS IS STUPID. THERE ARE MANY REASONS WHY. It slows us down, no one likes doing it, being coached for not doing it is ridiculous, the customers don’t f**king care,” wrote one user, who also claimed the practice was unsanitary.

Another user called out the menu simplification, calling Niccol’s ordered changes “laughable.”

“Sure, he took away some pastries (but added some),” the user wrote. “Took away creme based frappuccinos which are still being ordered, which are now simply harder and more time consuming to ring up (which makes it more difficult to meet their strict “peak” time crunches). Oh, and thanks for the hellish frappuccinos the week of July 4. Really. Foam?”