“The brand is incredibly resilient, but it’s clearly not business as usual,” former CEO Howard Schultz said in a post on
“Consumers have less demand for expensive coffee,” Albert Wang, a professor of finance at Auburn University, told ABC News. “There are also issues at the company.”last week, the company announced a roughly 2% decline in revenue over the first three months of this year, falling short of analysts’ expectations. Same-store sales, a measure of revenue generated at existing locations, dropped 4%.
“Starbucks could charge a premium because it’s a little bit special,” Lamberton added of the company's pandemic pricing. “Now, they’re charging $6.50 for people to walk in and walk out 10 seconds later.”Starbucks sued the union in October after the labor organization, which represents food-service workers, posted a since-deleted message on X expressing solidarity with Palestinians.
“As the violence against the innocent in the region continues, some people are mistakenly tying these remarks to us, because Workers United and its affiliates and members continue to use our name, logo and intellectual property,” Starbucks said.Workers United, which represents workers at roughly 400 unionized Starbucks locations, has negatively affected perceptions of the company through strikes and other labor actions, Nick Setyan, an analyst at Wedbush, told ABC News.