The styles of management across the US have changed. Much less DEI and a very different tenor. RTW as well.
I won two battles in work in the last month. The other two workers both got into trouble with management above me. One was a supervisor. The other a worker. The worker quit or got fired. It is not discussed.
I am sitting in a Starbucks. The barista just asked do I want a refill?
All of it is blame the employees again in tone. For instance SB is not doing well. How about offering table service of refills? Like management has a plan? If only those workers…
I worry about that not just for the employees. When management can not perform because of their own attitudes we have trouble in our economy. Supply side economics was America falling down on the job for 40 years. You can wave the flag but that is vacuous.
It is sad that Americans have been filled with so much nonsense many of them can not perform.
Is it management? Or is it the problems they face? Rising costs. Higher minimum wage. Fewer young people willing to work. Not applying for part time jobs.
And then tariffs. Has to be a concern for Starbucks.
And the political divide. As bad as the wealth divide. Fake news. What can you believe or trust?
Management clearly has its challenges. No one seems to have the magic potion to make them go away.
It’s the times. Don’t blame it on managers. They are mere humans!!
Ha. Hey, that’s the marketplace. Don’t blame them. They’re just doing for themselves given what’s available. They don’t have to do a good damn thing for management. They’re only human
A friend runs a deli shop in a university town. It used to be easy to find students working their way through college eager to take a job.
He says not any more. So much money sloshing around. 529 plans. Student loans. Parents with funds to spend on education. Why work. No need for money.
Same for high school kids and after school jobs and summer jobs. They’d much rather work on activities to improve their resume for college admission.
The problem at SB is greed. People do not like their prices. In econ inelasticity. The management won’t admit they are overpricing their coffee. Worse the management is stripping out the sales volume. It is price and behavior which are highly related.
More poor people! More exploitable people! Can no one find a way to turn a profit that doesn’t require standing on the backs of people “down there”?
Many are on fixed income and yes they are very concerned about inflation and rising cost of living. Can you blame them. How about requiring that all retirement programs include cost of living adjustments?
Layoffs, cut pay and benefits, cut taxes on the rich, pass laws getting rid of pension plans, yes I blame them. And the innocent ones stood back and said, “We need to understand the other side”, after I cursed about bad policies.
If the generation had kept itself informed and kept wages up instead of selfishly thinking of their investments, they’d have more of a retirement. Instead denying the neighbor’s needs was the rule of the day.
Oh I do blame them.
Selfishness bites.
Then there was the bragging about using illegal immigrants in the 1990s. There was the incarceration act in the 90s that created more slaves in prisons. Of course blame is deserved.
There is the South where white males are well paid for any job, and women and minorities get minimum wage for the same job. No one is to blame? Really?
I blame them for that tariffs. Another can of worms. I blame them for the 30k neighbors who die every year underinsured or uninsured. No blame! Where’d that come from?
Starbucks’ Howard Schultz had a schizophrenic business strategy that worked right up until it cannibalized itself. When Schultz starting working at Starbucks it only sold beans (re-branded Peet’s) and tea. Schultz wanted a third place, where people would come to enjoy quality coffee in a relaxing environment. Coffee shops like this did not exist in the US in any meaningful quantity in the US at the time. So Schultz opened his own place, called Il Giornale. Starbucks had some financial problems and Schultz wound up buying the company and started a chain of coffee shops. The concept really took off. Imitators sprang up across the country.
But Schultz always want to keep increasing quarterly profits to juice the stock price. Eventually, Starbucks morphed from providing a quality third place to mass production espresso factory where everyone orders on the app. At that point, there was nothing to differentiate from Starbucks from any other place with a drive thru.
No, while Brian Niccol, the new CEO of Starbucks, will commute to work using the company’s private jet, it’s not a daily commute. He will be at the Seattle headquarters at least three days a week, with the specific days decided in agreement with his manager, according to news reports.
As Niccol’s CEO, “I just had a brain storm, the baristas can write thank you on each cup and ask at the table if a refill is needed”. Instant success, brilliant.
Coincidently, just last night I watched a WSJ video about Niccol’s turnaround at Chipotle. He’d go around the country and ask local managers what they hated about corporate. Turns out, getting rid of things the managers hated actually made things easier for corporate.
I prefer SB Blonde roast over all other beans.
I now usually order via the app, n pick up in store.
SB usually has clean, spacious bathrooms.
I’m old enough that I like that.
Some locations are drive through only.
But many have indoor n outdoor seating areas.
I’ve availed .myself of both.
They are comfortable and the ambiance is good.
I sometimes try a “local” owned place. Most fo NOT have a light roast, or a “breakfast blend” - actually, I’ve never found light roast coffee in a non-SB shop. (Many 3rd party owned SBs in grocers or Target, do NOT have blonde roast.)
Often, the seating is less than comfortable. The ambiance might or might not “work” for me.
I don’t think so. The Biden administration took steps to keep the US economy going during COVID. They got support from Congress and Congress over did it.
Yes there could have been controls to trim overspending but that is a tall order. Numbers take months to arrive. And longer for Congress or whoever to respond.
I think we should appreciate what Biden was able to accomplish. Blaming voters is way off target. He responded to an emergency and was remarkably effective. Yes, in hindsight it could have been done better. Let’s hope they learn to do it better next time. Criticism to me is mostly politics. Not good well thought out thinking.
They have a pricing problem yet you are there twice day? That and 53% of that market seems like they could still raise prices and have better financials. I don’t follow their stock or that market but something seems off
I’m in SB 3 - 5 times … Per month.
