Starbucks has recently revealed its plans to officially change its drink menu. The global chain, which has thousands of locations throughout the United States, including over 400 in Oregon, shocked customers when it began to communicate the changes in some of the least popular items on the menu.
The change consists of eliminating the 13 least popular drinks. This decision was made by the company to help the employees shorten the variety of drinks needed to be made, essentially helping the service run quicker and smoother by removing unnecessary drinks that are difficult to make and similar to others. Removing excess drinks and keeping the popular ones will improve consistency. The most liked drinks they are removing consist of the iced brown sugar espresso, java chip frappuccino, caramel ribbon crunch creme frappuccino, and the white chocolate mocha frappuccino. Removing these menu items will help reduce complexity and leave the core drinks available. Many people are actively expressing their disappointment to Starbucks to help change the permanent removal of the coffees.
Not only did Starbucks decide to change the menu but it also decided to lay off 1,100 corporate employees. Cafe workers and baristas were unaffected by the cuts, which also saw the elimination of hundreds of unfilled positions. CEO Brian Niccol explained that the layoffs are to better operate the stores and reduce complexity.
On account of Starbucks’ vast decisions to “better the company” they are experiencing backlash and boycotts from many former customers and employees. As a result of these boycotts, the company has lost millions of dollars. The boycotts started due to allegations of support for Israel. Many people disagree with the political connections this company has with the Middle East, specifically Israel, and are showing disapproval by not buying any Starbucks-related products. The loss of sales has highly impacted the business and is causing many of the problems that the company has been experiencing.
As a response to the boycotts and angry customers, Starbucks has publicly announced that the alleged ties with Israel are a misinterpretation and aren’t necessarily true. The company’s CEOs is trying to make things right by claiming the confusion is a result of social media. The strikes started in 2023 and are continuing even into the first quarter of 2025. The sales and profits of this company are still actively declining down 3% every year. As Starbucks is trying to address the issues and try to better the company, they are still failing to keep the people pleased. In efforts to administrate better policies and ease the people, the profits are still decreasing. However, the coffee is still irresistible to many customers.
