Say goodbye to the long lines at Starbucks — at least, that’s what the new boss is promising.
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol on Friday said his goal is for customers to get a cup of coffee in less than 30 seconds within the next five years.
“You’re going to have an experience where when you walk in and you interact with the barista. It’s going to be really quick for that brewed cup of coffee,” he told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “My hope is we can get you a brewed cup of coffee in less than 30 seconds.”
The former Chipotle boss, who joined Starbucks in September, also revealed the company will “hit the pause button” on price hikes “for this fiscal year.” Starbucks’ fiscal year 2025 started Sept. 30.
Meanwhile, the burrito-and-bowl chain this week announced its prices would be increasing 2%.
Starbucks shares rose 1.4% on Friday.
Niccol said that some of the changes at Starbucks will start with “simple things” like “bringing back the Sharpies” to write customers’ names on their coffee cups.
Another long-gone Starbucks relic set to make a return is the coffee condiment bar, “so you can get your brewed cup of coffee and go ahead and doctor it up how you want,” Niccol said.
“You’ll see us continue to push towards how do we make it easier for you to get your coffee, get the drink you want?” he added.
As part of that process, the company will be creating a separate pick-up location for mobile orders and improving the accuracy of wait times given for mobile orders.
“Today, you know, we just kind of give you an estimate, ‘hey, it’ll be ready in three to five minutes,’” Niccol said. “In the future, what’ll happen is we’ll be like, ‘Rebecca, your drink will be ready at nine,’ instead of it just being made, sitting on the counter [and] waiting for people to come.”
But creating a more efficient ordering system means cutting some items from the menu, including certain espresso drinks. The goal is to get espresso drinks to customers within four minutes, and to do so, that means shrinking the menu, Niccol said.
“We’ve got a lot of offerings that there’s just one or two of these ordered a day,” he said. “The way I talk about it is, we’re going to do fewer things, but we’re going to do fewer things better.”
The coffee chain is reportedly slashing its corporate employees’ bonuses by 40% as Starbucks has suffered its worst year since it got slammed by the pandemic in 2020, according to Bloomberg.
Starbucks’ revenue ticked up less than 1% in the fiscal year ended Sept. 29 — a far cry from the double-digit increase seen in previous years.
The company’s operating income dropped 8% in the same period.
Starbucks’ global same-store sales fell 2% this fiscal year — only the second such drop in the last 15 fiscal years, with the first dip occurring in 2020 when lockdown restrictions cratered the restaurant industry.
Starbucks shares are up 7.3% so far this year after jumping in August on news of Niccol’s appointment.
