Brian Niccol Drops "Open Letter" to Save Starbucks (And My Wife's Pumpkin Spiced Latte Order)

Starbucks has a fever, and according to Brian Niccol, the prescription is to make sure his purple hair baristas aren’t pissed off when making your venti pumpkin spiced lattes with triple shots of espresso during rush hour. 

(Source: Giphy) 

In short, Niccol, the ex-Chipotle savior (aka the same guy who turned Chipotle from a glorified E. coli buffet into a somewhat respectable burrito joint), wasted no time throwing Starbucks under the bus. 

His verdict? “In some places—especially in the U.S.—we aren’t always delivering,” Niccol wrote as he went on to list all the things that are keeping people from ordering more sugar disguised as “coffee” at Starbucks including: clunky menus, inconsistent drinks, and wait times that make you question life choices. If this sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve probably lived it while waiting for your oat milk latte as chaos unfolded behind the counter.

(Source: Delish)

But alas, Niccol is here to fix it, starting with what he calls the “four key areas.” Spoiler alert: The first area is making sure baristas aren’t dead inside and can actually connect with you (you know, before they unionize and shut the whole thing down).

(Source: Giphy) 

Simply put, Niccols grand vision is to make Starbucks America's cozy neighborhood coffeehouse again, where you can sip your drink, write your screenplay, and pretend to be the main character in a Wes Anderson film. He’s promising to bring back comfortable seating and make the store less of a glorified drive-thru and more of the “third place” between work and home that Starbucks used to brag about—when people still left their homes, anyway.

(Source: Financial Times) 

The main hurdle, (as mentioned above) he mentioned in his open letter was the fact that consumers are getting hammered by the morning rush (with how long it takes to make one dang latte). Whereas, according to Niccol, there will be no more waiting 15 minutes for the wrong drink as the plan is to invest in new tech—because when in doubt, throw some apps and robots at the problem, amirite?

(Source: Seattle Business Mag) 

But despite all the functionality solutions Niccol plans to bring back to the coffee giant, Niccol didn’t fail to mention the community aspect he’s looking to bring back to Starbucks (think, warm and fuzzy language about “handcrafted moments” and “community gathering spaces”). 

Basically, he wants Starbucks to stop feeling like a fast-food joint with fancier drinks and more like the artisanal coffee haven it once claimed to be. You know, the kind of place where you can sit for hours, nursing a single cappuccino, while you pretend to work on your memoir.

(Source: Medium) 

Which honestly, in light of the sarcasm, isn’t a bad place to start considering Starbucks didn’t become “Starbucks” for its coffee; it became a giant from the experience that Starbucks gives its customers. Kind of like it’s own little WeWork without worrying about Adam Neuman causing a clusterf**ck of havoc. 

(Source: New York Mag) 

On the other hand, Niccol didn’t forget about Starbucks’ international markets, where things have been a bit dicey. Specifically, in China, where Starbucks is trying to fend off competition, while in other parts of the world, they’re dealing with… let’s call it, complicated geopolitics (cue the mentions of boycotts and the Middle East). 

(Source: Yahoo Finance) 

But luckily for all of us and investors, our boy Niccol has a plan to spend his first 100 days in office visiting different chains from all over to get a sense of which problems the company desperately needs to fix first (other than how to get your caramel macchiato to you in a reasonable amount of time). 

(Source: CNBC) 

So given all of this, what’s the bottom line here? Well it’s no secret that Niccol’s got his work cut out for him. Starbucks shares have been in a slump, and while they’ve popped a bit since he was announced as CEO (popping 20%, due to the fact that the “CEO Swap” is the hit tune of 2024), the clock is ticking for the dude to prove to everyone that he can do for Starbucks what he did for Chipotle—minus the food poisoning drama, hopefully.

(Source: Giphy) 

In the meantime, we’ll be over here waiting to see if Starbucks can actually pull off this turnaround. Because if there’s one thing we know for sure, it’s that investors and customers alike won’t be satisfied with just a heartfelt letter. They want results—and preferably, those results will come with less waiting, fewer wrong orders, and hopefully a more up and to the right stock price. 

(Source: Giphy) 

Speaking of results though…

Do you really think focusing on Starbucks' comeback tour, or YOLOing your life savings into Nvidia call options is the fastest way to supercharge your trading to unseen levels?

Surprisingly no… (not to mention the fact that it’s hideously dumb - sorry, Wall Street Bets). 

In fact, luckily for you - it all comes down to taking advantage of a little known corner of the market that has produced FOURTEEN triple-digit gains (including peak moves of 110.10%, 162%, 96%, and 300%... all in less than 48 hours) for our Stocks.News premium members.

Interested to get in on the action before we drop our next explosive alert tomorrow? Hurry and click here for the details ASAP.

In the meantime, stay safe and stay frosty friends! Until next time…

Stocks.News holds positions in Starbucks as mentioned in the article.