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Wednesday, June 20, 2018

"World's Biggest Public Toilet" Starbucks Tumbles After Slashing Guidance, 150 Store Closures

It is perhaps poetic justice that not long after Starbucks became one of the world's biggest virtue signalers, when the company decided it would become the world's biggest public toilet in the aftermath of the Philadelphia incident in which two black men were arrested for doing nothing, the company released its most disappointing guidance in years, in which it not only announced it would shutter 150 underperforming stores, and slashed Q3 global comp store sales guidance from +3% to barely positive, ot +1%, but it also admitted that the growth phase is now over, "as the company now expects to return approximately $25 billion in cash to shareholders in the form of share buybacks and dividends through FY20" a $10 billion increase from the cash return target announced on November 2, 2017, and confirmation that NFLX can't even come up $10bn in growth initiatives.

As part of the guidance, Starbucks whose executive chairman Howard Schultz announced two weeks ago he is leaving the company at the end of the month, announced three strategic priorities "to regain revenue and earnings momentum":
Accelerating growth in the U.S. and China, the company’s targeted long-term growth markets;
Expanding and leveraging the global reach of the brand through the Global Coffee Alliance; and
Sharpening the focus on increasing shareholder returns.

Slamming his own performance, Kevin Johnson, Starbucks president and ceo said that "while certain demand headwinds are transitory, and some of our cost increases are appropriate investments for the future, our recent performance does not reflect the potential of our exceptional brand and is not acceptable."

This was followed by more token corporate speek:

“We must move faster to address the more rapidly changing preferences and needs of our customers. Over the past year we have taken several actions to streamline the company, positioning us to increase our innovation agility as an organization and enhance focus on our core value drivers which serve as the foundation to re-accelerate growth and create long-term shareholder value.”

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL They sell to the unsophisticated anyway and have them fooled into thinking it's coffee they are drinking. It's garbage they are passing off as coffee and their baked goods couldn't taste any worse if they tried. You can taste the chemicals in they baked goods. Plus it always smells putrid in a Starbucks.

Anonymous said...

Duh.

Anonymous said...

Couldn't have happened to a better company!
Like Target, I quit going there years ago!
The CEO stated after the presidential elections that
Trump supporters were not welcome in his stores.
No problem, I quit going and have boycotted them since!

Anonymous said...

Oh no! Where are the idiots that buy their overpriced coffee going to go now?

Anonymous said...

Only visited the one at SU and didn't like their coffee. So let them close. No big deal.

lmclain said...

Do what you do best.
Actors act. Singers sing. Athletes play ball.

No one really gives a rat's ace what they THINK and we CERTAINLY don't need their guidance.
Their college degrees are fake and most have a hard time with the English language .....remember Lebron's "I can't breath" shirt?
Now, we have coffee sellers telling us their moral values and finding most of us lacking in our adherence to THEIR vision of Utopia.
Close some more stores. lol

Anonymous said...

Businesses need to stay out politics, see what happens. The CEO was upset because Starbucks suppliers were white and she was not having it! I once spent a lot of money there, but not any more. I like Rise Up better and cheaper!

Anonymous said...

Please dont close them - they are the world's best bathrooms. While you're there I'm sure they don,t mind if you take a roll or two for home.Baths aren't bad in the sinks too. :::)))

Anonymous said...

Those idiots need to know that people do not start a business so you can have somewhere to sit on your azz. They do not start a business so you will have somewhere to go to the bathroom. They do not start a business so you will have a meeting room. They SELL products and the seats are for paying customers and the bathrooms are for the customers also. It is not a public toilet or meeting place or somewhere to flop your tired azz. Tired? But then again they think they can do whatever they want. They were NOT arrested for doing nothing. They were arrested for not doing what the police told them to do. But that's typical of an idiot.