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> Starbucks did what you’re suggesting to increase turnover and profit at stores — but the opposite happened: sales dramatically dropped, even though the time to serve a single customer and the average customer stay both dropped.

Can you show me where starbucks revenue dropped (besides 2020 pandemic dip)?

2021 $29,061

2020 $23,518

2019 $26,509

2018 $24,720

2017 $22,387

2016 $21,316

2015 $19,163

2014 $16,448

2013 $14,867

2012 $13,277

2011 $11,700

2010 $10,707

Or maybe you mean same store sales! Oh wait, those have been up every quarter except one since Q4 2009.

I never understood why people online make shit up. People spout very easily googleable statements like "their revenue went down" so confidently, without bothering to check. They live in fantasy land where they pretend like the goal of a coffee shop is something akin to "serving the community" or "being a third place" when in actuality the point is to sell something for more than it costs to produce. You may want your coffee shop to be a third place. But it doesn't make it a viable business model.

MBA types get a lot of shit on this forum, but MBA types are good at some things. And those things include running a pretty simple business like a coffee shop. It's pretty simple math, you can set clear targets, estimate demand and balance trade offs like what to have on the menu and how much to charge. Sure there's things like investments and long term planning, but they do that as well, just without the romanitization.

https://twitter.com/jonathanmaze/status/1255246119128444930

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/SBUX/starbucks/rev...




Yawn — aggregate global numbers don’t represent every trial Starbucks has done at their stores, and this is based on my discussions with Starbucks finance staff about this phenomena.

But sure, I just made it up because my story (in simplified form) didn’t match the numbers you quickly found about global aggregates.

> They live in fantasy land where they pretend like the goal of a coffee shop is something akin to "serving the community" or "being a third place" when in actuality the point is to sell something for more than it costs to produce.

I think it’s interesting that because you couldn’t verify my personal anecdote on public data, you made extremely negative assumptions about me:

- I’m a liar.

- I don’t know about business from spending a decade in marketing, econ, and finance.

You also seem to not even understand the term “thirdspace” or realize that’s a product cafes, bars, and restaurants sell and from where they gain part of their value by being fun and social. Whoa!

> MBA types get a lot of shit on this forum, but MBA types are good at some things. And those things include running a pretty simple business like a coffee shop. It's pretty simple math, you can set clear targets, estimate demand and balance trade offs like what to have on the menu and how much to charge.

Except that this is untrue and a reflection of your own lack of information — though I agree MBAs get an unfair treatment around here.

However, you’re dead wrong about running a coffee shop being simple maximization or “simple math” — but I hope you keep it up. Small minds like yours causing problems keeps me employed to fix them.


Just an unaffiliated 3rd party observer here, but is it possible they meant revenue went down relative to corporate projections or didn't increase in line with other factors like inflation?

Just a thought.


Or in selected stores that were piloting changes in a discussion about customer sentiment with Starbucks finance staff I was advising.

I never said they did it everywhere and crashed the company — which is what would be required for top level numbers like those to change.




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