The struggling coffee chain has tapped Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol to be its new chairman and CEO, effective September 9. Starbucks’ stock soared more than 13% in premarket trading, while Chipotle’s dipped 8%.

Niccol has been leading the Mexican-inspired food chain since 2018, with Starbucks saying he has set “new standards in the industry and driven significant growth and value creation,” pointing to its revenue growing nearly 800% during his tenure.

  • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.netOP
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    26
    ·
    2 months ago

    I used to love Starbucks because it was a great place to get coffee and chill. Then the whole anti-unions thing, and local coffee shops did it better making me drop Starbucks.

    I used to love Chipotle because of their quality and price. Then portions got weirder. Every week was a new food recall. The ones near me look filthy and sad, and that made me drop Chipotle.

    To see both of their names together… Yikes.

      • schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        2 months ago

        You’re looking for the place that uses paper plates, has a website, but clearly took the picture of their food 10 years ago with a Motorola Razr.

        • pdxfed@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          2 months ago

          Website? Negative ghost rider.

          You’re looking for the place with the small self-serve sauces, jalapeños and pickled carrots &onions. Never tablecloths. Strip mall locations only if located in the US Southwest. Wheels +3 to menu, -1 cost modifiers. +5 to taste if Latinx customers eat there.

  • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    I prefer just black coffee. No milk, sugar.

    Out of all chain coffee places (in the UK, so costa/nero etc), starbucks has the worst tasting coffee

    • InquisitiveApathy@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      2 months ago

      As someone who also only drinks black coffee I agree. Their signature taste is literally burnt because of the way they roast their beans. It’s terrible.

    • kata1yst@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      Yes, true of most any national/international chain.

      It’s because they value large volume, year round availability, and high consistency from their beans and roasts, so that no matter what location you go to it tastes exactly the same.

      To do that, they select and blend several bland varieties of coffee bean, put them through an aggressive industrial cleaning and drying (which reduces the natural fruity and funky flavors but minimizes costs) then roast them in huge batches to several steps past where a normal roaster would stop for a given roast (a darker roast gets rid of more of the unique flavors of the coffee cherry and brings out more uniform roast flavors instead).

      Again, not something exclusive to Starbucks at all, and plenty of small coffee shops don’t bother with the hassle and just buy cheap bulk coffee pre-roasted by large scale operations and will have similar results.

      But man, when you get coffee made in small batches, with natural processing or even fermentation and gently roasted… It’s an entirely different experience.

      • barsquid@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        It’s just weird that any chain would opt for consistently awful instead of just settling for slight variations. It’s also weird that people still buy it despite the fact it is objectively and consistently bad.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      2 months ago

      Their coffee in the U.S. is the worst too IMO, aside from the occasional awful gas station coffee and I wouldn’t be shocked if they were buying Starbucks roast since they also sell it in bags in supermarkets. But, of course, it’s like McDonald’s- no matter where you go, you know what it will taste like. So people rely on it.

      I avoid it as much as I possibly can (it doesn’t help that I used to work on a show in L.A. that was partially sponsored by Starbucks and it was that or our other sponsor, Red Bull, if I wanted caffeine while working). The only times I go when I’m not traveling and have to make a caffeine pit stop and there are no other options is when all the other local coffee places are already closed since they all close earlier than Starbucks and I want to sit somewhere not at home to do something.

      Other than that, I always go local. And here, a lot of the local places have drive-throughs, so even that convenience Starbucks offers is unnecessary. They’re usually cheaper than Starbucks too. And, of course, better coffee.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          2 months ago

          That’s what I hear, but I’d rather go to a local place. I always try to support local businesses over chains when possible. Even if it’s just a place I’m visiting, I’d rather support their local coffee chain than put more money in McDonald’s or Starbucks coffee. And I’ve discovered a lot of really nice places to hang out that way.

          • Nougat@fedia.io
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 months ago

            I wholly agree, but if you’re not in a headspace where you’re able to “deal with” searching out a local shop in a new area, and just need something good and predictable wherever you are, McD’s coffee definitely fulfills that need.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              2 months ago

              That does make sense. Especially when traveling on an interstate and you just need a pit stop. I might do that instead of Starbucks in those situations from now on. Thanks!

  • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    2 months ago

    This dude ruined chipotle in so many ways. Cutting serving sizes, using lower quality ingredients, reducing employee count and training quality, just letting everything slip. He took that chain from one of the most reliable to somewhere I refuse to set foot in.

    But line went up, clearly he’s a genius, fail into the next role!

  • Rhaedas@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    Was the revenue growth because of his guidance, or despite it? The boom of pickup and delivery in the past few years for places like Chipotle couldn’t have hurt. I haven’t been in one of their places recently without wondering how they’re staying in business, or why people keep coming back. That’s true of a lot of fast food places though…Carlin was right, we love to eat. Anything.