Starbucks finally tackles high prices – but it won’t fix an even bigger bugbear for customers

Starbucks is finally addressing one of its customers’ biggest bugbears, but experts warn it’s unlikely to lure lapsed customers back on its own.

After decades of largely avoiding discount offers, the coffee chain is now offering more and more promotions and special offers.

Starbucks offered promotions for about half of the month of May, The Wall Street Journal reported, and this month began selling bundles of coffee and breakfast items starting at $5 for the first time in more than a decade.

It’s good news for customers who have long complained about the chain’s rising prices — which can reach as much as $10 for a single iced coffee with extra syrups and foams.

But retail experts warn the company is also facing other problems, with long wait times one of the biggest concerns among consumers.

“Value for money has become a more important factor for many consumers, so Starbucks is right to try to offer more value,” Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, told DailyMail.com.

‘However, the reason why there are fewer visitors to Starbucks stores is not only due to high prices.

‘There are complaints about waiting times, the level of service and the atmosphere of cafés. For many, Starbucks feels a little less special than it used to.”

Lowering prices and offering deals will not solve these problems, he added.

“It’s basically an attempt to cover up the cracks.”

Starbucks had a disastrous start to the year: tens of millions of customers went to competitors instead or stayed home.

The company reported a decline in sales in May for the first time in almost three years.

Several factors were responsible for this, including a pro-Palestinian boycott of the company and rising inflation that prompted Americans to cut back on spending.

But the slow service in particular was highlighted by the company’s CEO.

“Starbucks feels a little less special than it once was,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData

Laxman Narasimhan said the company sees millions of examples every day of customers abandoning orders because they took too long to make.

“We have customers today who are coming into our stores, or paying for their mobile order, who are not completing their transaction because of wait times,” Narasimhan said in an interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer earlier this year.

“Our team in the US has done a phenomenal job improving the speed of service, but we see more opportunity there.”

Narasimhan also said the first quarter of the year was disappointing due to bad weather in the US and sluggish demand in China, its second-largest market.

One in twelve customers now waits between 15 and 30 minutes to get their drink, according to figures from industry data from earlier this year. Before the pandemic, hardly anyone waited that long.

During the first three months of this year, one in fifty orders took more than half an hour, according to research by Technomic.

And that’s not due to slow or lazy staff, but rather the fact that bosses are cutting headcount in an attempt to cut costs. At the same time, the company is also rolling out an increasingly complex drinks menu.

Starbucks told The Wall Street Journal that it is rolling out promotions to ensure customers facing a challenging economic environment continue to visit its locations.

The company also said its pricing is in line with historical trends and consistent with others in the industry.

Executives have said in the past that the awards are needed to provide higher wages and training for baristas, along with improvements to cafes.

According to Technomic, the average price for a grande brewed coffee earlier this year was $3.65 – 49 percent above 2020 levels.