Tag: starbucks

Your company knows you’re reading this story at work | CNN Business

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Last month, news surfaced that major companies like Walmart, Starbucks, Delta and Chevron were using AI to monitor employee communications. The reaction online was swift, with employees and workplace advocates worrying about a loss of privacy.

But experts say that while AI tools might be new, watching, reading and tracking employee conversations is far from novel. AI might be more efficient at it — and the technology might raise some new ethical and legal challenges, as well as risk alienating employees — but the fact is workplace conversations have never really been private anyway.

“Monitoring employee communications isn’t new, but the growing sophistication of the analysis that’s possible with ongoing advances in AI is,” said David Johnson, a principal analyst at Forrester Research.

Read More

Starbucks faces walkout at hundreds of US stores | BBC News

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The union representing thousands of Starbucks workers in the US is staging a walkout on one of the coffee chain’s busiest days of the year.

The action comes amid a bitter fight between Starbucks and Starbucks Workers United, which started organizing workers at the company in 2021.

The two sides are fighting over pay, scheduling, and other issues.

Roughly 200 stores are expected to be affected by the 16 November work stoppage.

Barista Michelle Eisen, one of the union’s leaders, said the company could afford to “do better by its workers”.

Read More

Drive-Thru Workers Slam Pay-It-Forward Chains: ‘Tip Instead’ | Entrepreneur

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Doing a kind deed for others is usually a good thing, but in certain situations, it could inadvertently make things worse for others involved.

And according to a former Starbucks barista, “pay-it-forward” chains are one of those things that employees would like you to stop. In a video that has now garnered over 2.4 million views, TikTok’er “Tiffany” explained to viewers why it’s best to “break the chain.”

Pay-it-forward lines are simple in concept — one customer gets to the register at a drive-thru and offers to pay for the person behind them, thus inciting a chain of customers paying for one another.

Read More

Starbucks coffee illegally denied pay to union workers: NLRB | Fast Company

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The National Labor Relations Board has sided with workers who claim Starbucks broke labor law by withholding wages and benefits from unionized stores—the latest blow to its handling of baristas’ intensifying union drive.

Over 230 locations have now joined Starbucks Workers United’s union, helping make the world’s most recognizable coffee brand the corporate face of America’s union boom. Both Starbucks and longtime CEO Howard Schultz have now spent months attempting to aggressively thwart these efforts.

Read More

‘Starbucks fired me for being three minutes late’ | BBC News

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Staff at roughly 220 Starbucks stores across the US have voted to unionize, making unexpectedly successful inroads at the popular chain of coffee shops. But the movement is facing a precarious moment, as the economy slows and the company mounts a furious response.

Joselyn Chuquillanqui had worked for Starbucks for nearly seven years when the company fired her last month.

She had been waiting for the decision. Though she liked her job as a barista, which gave her flexibility to care for her young niece, this winter the 28-year-old had tried to rally her co-workers in New York to join a labour union, frustrated by the company’s stance on sick leave during the pandemic.

Read More

Starbucks Set to Increase Prices in All Stores, Once Again | Entrepreneur

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

There might be some bad news for Starbucks regulars, and they can thank the seemingly never-ending supply chain issues for it.

Starbucks reported that it will be increasing prices in stores later this year thanks to less than stellar Q1 2022 results. Though total revenue topped estimates at about $8.05 billion, earnings did not meet Wall Street’s expectations.

“Our pricing strategy … is driven by several factors such as inflation rates, partner investments, the infrastructure investments that we want to make, and then obviously, the investments we want to make on continuing the innovation pipeline. We do all those things while balancing the premium value for our customers and the experience we want to provide them,” John Culver, group president of North America and COO of Starbucks said on its quarterly earnings call.

Read More

Starbucks scraps vaccine requirement following Supreme Court decision | CNN

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Starbucks is no longer requiring employees to get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing, following the US Supreme Court’s rejection last week of President Joe Biden’s vaccine and testing requirement for large businesses.

In a letter published on January 4, the coffee company recommended that its workers get vaccinated by February 9, in accordance with guidance from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Those who remained unvaccinated past that deadline would have had to submit to weekly testing, according to that early January note.

Read More

Starbucks China adds Beyond Meat, Omnipork and Oatly options to the menu | CNN

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Fans of Starbucks in China are about to get a whole lot more oat milk lattes and meatless pastas.

Starbucks (SBUX) is teaming up with oat milk maker Oatly and plant-based protein companies Beyond Meat (BYND) and Omnipork in mainland China, offering more options free of meat or animal products at a time when a growing number of Chinese consumers are seeking choices they perceive to be healthier.

Starting Tuesday, 4,200 Starbucks stores in China will be serving vegetarian-friendly items such as oat milk matcha lattes, lasagne made with Beyond Meat’s beef product and Asian noodle salads with Omnipork.

Read More

Restaurant and cafe chains giving out ‘dangerous’ allergy advice | BBC News

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Leading restaurant and coffee shop chains are giving out incorrect allergy advice, BBC Watchdog Live has found.

Posing as customers with food allergies, journalists secretly filmed staff at Frankie & Benny’s, Pizza Hut, Nandos, Pizza Express, Starbucks and Costa.

The journalists asked staff whether dishes contained any of the 14 major allergens.

Five out of the 30 outlets visited gave the reporters incorrect information.

The unclear and incorrect advice could have caused anyone with a genuine allergy to have a potentially life-threatening reaction.

Read More

Starbucks Brings Back Lemon Cake After Customers Gripe | Bloomberg

~ lmehit ~ Leave a comment

Starbucks Corp. is bringing back the sliced lemon cake.

After the coffee chain bought gourmet-baking company La Boulange in 2012, it used the acquisition to add fancier pastries to U.S. locations. Now Starbucks is discovering that some customers liked the food better before, prompting another round of retooling.

“We’ve got a few products that we are going to bring back from the old menu,” Troy Alstead, chief operating officer for Seattle-based Starbucks, said in an interview. “Some customers missed a few things.

”Starting this week, the company will begin reverting to selling slices of banana, pumpkin and iced-lemon loaf cake — old favorites — in its U.S. stores. Starbucks will be using new La Boulange recipes and existing suppliers to create food that more closely resembles its previous fare.

Getting the menu right is critical to Starbucks’ U.S. growth strategy. In a saturated coffee market, the company is trying to entice more customers to add a pastry or croissant to their latte orders. Starbucks also faces mounting breakfast competition from fast-food chains: McDonald’s Corp. has been offering pastries at some locations this year, and everyone from Taco Bell to Burger King is trying to boost morning sales.

Read More.