Ex-CEO: Starbucks must revamp US stores

Coffee giant fell short of estimates for quarter

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has a few words for the company he once shepherded.

While commenting on its disappointing quarterly earnings, Schultz said the coffee chain needs to improve the experience at its U.S. stores. In a LinkedIn post Sunday night, the former chairman, who has stepped down as CEO three times, said he does not need ties to the business to care about its success.

“I have emphasized that the company’s fix needs to begin at home. U.S. operations are the primary reason for the company’s fall from grace. The stores require a maniacal focus on the customer experience, through the eyes of a merchant,” Schultz said. “The answer does not lie in data, but in the stores.”

The coffee giant fell short of Wall Street analyst estimates for quarterly earnings and revenue following a decline in same-store sales.

Schultz urged the company to reinvent its mobile ordering and payment platform, which launched in 2015, to make it the “uplifting experience it was designed to be.” He called for executives to overhaul its “go-to-market strategy” and boost coffee-forward innovation to differentiate it in the marketplace.

In February, Starbucks announced plans to upgrade the store experience through technological renovations at its new U.S. locations and about 1,000 renovated ones. Among the enhancements are acoustic dampening baffles in the ceilings that reduce noise inside its stores. These foams will minimize noise and reverberations, improving service for guests with assisted listening devices, the chain said.

The company also will add adjustable lighting in the form of dimmers and power screens on exterior windows to reduce daytime glare and shadows.

“New acoustics and lighting features help create a more enjoyable and inclusive auditory and visual experience for customers and partners,” the chain said in a statement to USA TODAY.

“I have had no formal role within the company since April 2023. But my love of the company and all those who wear ‘the cloth of the company’ – the iconic green apron – knows no bounds,” Schultz wrote.