Howard Schultz steps down at Starbucks, may consider run for president
* Howard Schultz steps down at Starbucks, may consider run for president.
This morning, this “headline” was all over the news.
Based on the way this guy-Schultz handled racial, religious, business and political issues at Starbucks- I’m kinda thinking that if he ever did become President his first piece of business would be to replace The Star Spangled Banner as the National Anthem with the song Kumbaya!
Your thoughts are appreciated.
Jeff,
The man is a liberal fool.
You guys remember when Starbucks encouraged their baristas to discuss race relations with customers?
How about shutting all stores for a day for race sensitivity training? Rotflmfao
By PHIL WAHBA July 27, 2017
It’s not tea time for enough people for Starbucks’ (SBUX, -2.42%) taste.
The coffee chain announced on Thursday that it was closing all 379 of its Teavana stores, saying that the mall-based chain’s “underperformance was likely to continue.” Starbucks, which will continue to sell Teavana tea at its namesake stores, bought the chain for $620 million in 2012, hoping it could have the same success with loose-leaf, exotic teas as it had, and continues to have, with coffee. Moreover, tea has been a key plank in its efforts to build up its presence in China. But Starbucks, which indicated this spring it was looking into options for the Teavana business, noted declining foot traffic at malls.
Starbucks is grappling with an intense battle for U.S. market share, with everyone from meal kit sellers to rivals like McDonald’s (MCD, -0.44%) and Dunkin’ Donuts (DNKN, +1.01%) pressuring its business.
“The combination of trends in the quarter and ongoing macro pressures impacting the retail and restaurant sectors has us a bit more cautious,” Starbucks Chief Financial Officer Scott Maw said in a statement.
Despite the pressure, Starbucks fared well at home: sales rose 5% at established locations, also driven mostly by higher spending. Still, there was no growth in customer visits, a potential precursor to troubles ahead. Globally, same-store sales rose 4% for the quarter ended July 2. In Asia, they rose 1%.
Earlier on Thursday, Starbucks said it was buying out its partners in a East China joint venture for $1.3 billion deal, its largest ever.
For the second quarter, Starbucks Corp. earned $691.6 million, or 47 cents per share. Excluding one-time items, it earned 55 cents per share, in line with Wall Street expectations. Total revenue was $5.66 billion, less than the $5.76 billion expected.
Teavana is not the first Starbucks acquisition to go bust: two years ago, Starbucks closed all 23 La Boulange bakery cafes, plus the two manufacturing facilities that serve these locations. Starbucks said the 3,300 Teavana store employees will have the chance to apply for jobs at a Starbucks store.
Image: Starbucks in Harlem
Spencer Platt / Getty Images file
Starbucks, known for sometimes going so far as to open stores across the street from one another, has recently acknowledged that it may have lost some of its luster during a long period of rapid store openings.
Alison
By Allison Linn
Senior writer
msnbc.com
updated 7/2/2008 11:15:05 AM ET
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The old joke that there’s a Starbucks on every corner may soon not ring quite as true.
Starbucks Corp. said Tuesday that it has drastically increased the number of stores it plans to close and could eliminate as many as 12,000 full- and part-time positions as a result.
The company said it now plans to close 600 company-operated stores in the United States, up from its previous plans to close 100 stores.
Starbucks also said it will open fewer than 200 stores in its coming fiscal year, which begins Sept. 29. That’s down from a previous target of opening 250 stores during that period.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said the job cuts represent about 7 percent of Starbucks’ global workforce. Still, Starbucks said it expects many workers to find jobs in nearby stores.
The Seattle-based gourmet coffee retailer said in a conference call with analysts that the stores it decided to close were not profitable and that many had opened in the last few years. In addition, Chief Financial Officer Pete Bocian said the vast majority were located close to another Starbucks store. Video: Coffee houses to close
The closures will account for 8 percent of all company-operated U.S. stores, and will leave the company with about 6,600 U.S. outlets, Bocian said. He said the stores closings will begin in late July and are expected to happen over a period of months.
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There are currently more than 16,000 Starbucks stores worldwide.
Starbucks, known for sometimes going so far as to open stores across the street from one another, has recently acknowledged that it may have lost some of its luster during a long period of rapid store openings and expansion into everything from breakfast sandwiches to movie promotions.
Earlier this year, Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz returned to the chief executive position, and the company vowed to make major changes. That has included plans to bring in new products, the introduction of a new, smoother coffee blend that is now served at most stores and a decision to stop offering breakfast sandwiches.
Starbucks also has conceded that it has not been immune to the weak U.S. economy combined with high food and gas prices, which has made $4 coffee drinks less palatable for many Americans.
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Video: Starbucks scales back
Senior stock analyst John Owens with Morningstar said he thinks Starbucks probably didn’t anticipate how much it would be impacted by the down economy, and he said the company may also have made poor real estate decisions in its go-go growth period.
Still, he thought Starbucks has been smart not to blame its problems simply on hard economic times.
“Investors don’t like companies to blame their results on the economy, on weather, on things that are outside of their control,” Owens said. “So I think it’s important that they acknowledge that they had a hand in this, that mistakes were made.”
Still, Starbucks also won’t be immune to the country’s current economic problems. Owens said he thinks Starbucks has made a lot of positive changes in the past few months, but its turnaround plan is not yet guaranteed to succeed.
“I think they have the right strategy,” he said. “It’s a matter of executing the strategy and then, of course, the economy will play a role as well here.”
Starbucks said that it expects pre-tax charges of between $328 million and $348 million related to the store closings. But because of tax benefits, the company said it expects to see total cash outflow of about $100 million as a result.
The charges will include about $8 million in severance charges.
Schultz would be a total disaster.
Jeff,
That Kumbaya comment is brilliant.
I can only imagine what N Korea would do to this pussy.
Maybe Schultz can offer a bicycle drive-thru Starbucks at the DMZ in exchange for peace and having North Korea getting rid of their nukes…
My wife loves his coffee. Personally I think it sucks and like DD’s much better.
That bit about having the staff discuss religion etc with customer should tell everyone here that this man isn’t fit to be president.
By CHRIS MORRIS Updated: June 7, 2018 9:51 AM ET
A tall coffee at Starbucks is going to cost you trenta.
The popular coffee chain has raised its prices at nearly 8,000 U.S. locations by anywhere from 10 cents to 20 cents. That’s the third increase in three years.
A 12-ounce “tall” brewed coffee will now cost between $1.95 and $2.15, depending on location. (Prices on other popular Starbucks beverages have largely stayed the same.)
A company official says the increase had nothing to do with the recent decision to close all stores on May 29 for employee anti-bias training after two black men were arrested for waiting in a Philadelphia Starbucks. Instead, normal inflation was cited as the reason.
“Starbucks continually evaluates pricing on a product-by-product and market-by-market basis,” the company said in a statement to Fortune. “Evaluating prices periodically allows us to balance the need to run our business profitably while continuing to provide value to our loyal customers and to attract new customers. Beverage and food prices vary by location and customers can find pricing posted in store or through our mobile app. In the past year, Starbucks increased prices 1 – 2 % which is on par with the industry practices and is in line with food away from home inflation.”
The heftier prices come just two days after CEO Howard Schultz announced plan to step down, amid rumors he is considering a presidential campaign.
This isn’t the first time Starbucks (SBUX, -0.51%) has slipped in a price increase. In 2016, the company raised prices 48 hours after the U.S. presidential election, bumping the price of select cold brews, cold drinks and baked goods by 10 to 30 cents. (That followed other increases earlier in the year.)
And last year, Starbucks raised brewed coffee prices by 10 cents to 20 cents on select sizes, while espresso prices jumped 10-30 cents.
As for this most recent increase, customers (predictably) are none too happy about it.