Watch Katie Couric's interview with Howard Schultz

It's a four-minute, 52-second segment from Monday's "CBS Evening News." If you're not up to watching it, there's an excerpted transcript. || Read/watch "Talking with the King of Coffee || TV analyst: Why did Couric even do this interview?

Comments

[Lilith]

I love the barista in the red apron opening the door for everyone. Must've been taped before we started running our stores understaffed as a standard.

[lattegal]

I watched the interview. I thought it was a bit ironic. Several of his statements contradict his and his team's behavior. He said it was a mistake to get rid of the older espresso machines but customers were asking for "BETTER SPEED OF SERVICE." Then he said it was a mistake to take out all of the comfy chairs and replace them with tables and chairs because people want to visit Starbucks and spend time there for the "HUMAN CONNECTION."

So my question is: "Doesn't the -3.5% reduction of labor negatively affect both of these issues..."BETTER SPEED OF SERVICE" and "HUMAN CONNECTION?"

[Mikey]

Glad to see Howie as a barista on the segment. He's an okay guy. If you consider the health benefits that are provided to P/T employees, it ain't bad. Work for most other companies P/T you get zilch. Better than nothing.

They did show him when he was a lad and his father having no health benefits. His father was ill that time, and they were struggling. They weren't rich. His dad was a delivery truck driver.

Starbucks will come back.

[foxy]

How about the fact that the opening footage was obviously old, as HS was offering samples of a Frappuccino from 3 summers ago?
So he doesn't offer samples to customers anymore?

I agree with lattegal. Howard said in that piece that we shouldn't do anything to compromise the customer service experience- what the heck does he think intentionally understaffing our stores will do? If what made our company great (ledgendary service) is abandoned, people won't be coming back through our doors when we pull ourselves out of this recession.

It was a fluff piece. There weren't any hard hitting questions. It almost felt like Starbucks was tugging on Katie Couric's puppet strings.

I hated seeing a partner designated to opening the door/provide crowd control because they chose to do the interview in a store. What kind of message does that send to any person actually paying attention? This piece was about how Starbucks plans on dealing with the slow down in sales by cutting $400 million in costs, yet here we are with some barista just standing at the door and getting her 15 minutes of fame. Who cares if this was shot before the labor cuts? This interview was shot last week when our existing labor cuts and slowdown in sales were occuring.

Lastly, how about that fluffy footage of Howie sampling out.....MOCHA COCONUT FRAPPUCCINO, which we released in the summer of 2006! That says something right there when CBS couldnt get more recent footage of Howard in the stores.....because news flash...HE IS DISCONNECTED FROM THE STORES. THE ENTIRE SENIOR EXECUTIVE TEAM IS DISCONNECTED FROM THE STORES.

Today I had to run a shift in my DT store with 4 people when there were literally 14 cars in cue (We have a outdoor camera) and a line of 12 people going out our door. It was ridiculous! Everyone was in a bad mood and the Starbucks experience that Howard was preaching about to Katie was not there. People were paying a premium for a drink probably made with expired shots since my 1 bar person had a line of 20 drinks to make by herself.

[hmm]

So dumb. I am a manager in midtown, where howard taped this. We were allowed to be 40% over in labor for the week for his and the analyst's visit. The following week, it's announced that we need to run at a -3% variance. Half the partners in the store during the interview were STORE MANAGERS. There were managers from queens and brooklyn in midtown manhattan. Wow, just wow.

I kept hoping the analysts would suprise a store not in the "red zone" of overstaffing, and see tired, overworked partners.

[...ugh....]

Do you think they couldn't fit in some of the scenes where howard is sipping a tazo berry and cream? i love the shots of the pastry case with the old tags. sheesh man, why don't you just cobble together all the old clips you've got and create a howard hand puppet to do the interview. maybe they have enough footage of him from the past 10 years that they could just do it in the style of the 'coors-light-nfl-coaches-press-conference-shtick'. this was ridiculous and another poor attempt to get exposure without advertising. what was the point of this anyhow?

NOLA = NO NC

[feministabarista]

you all are such whiny haters.... just quit and get the hell off the clock will ya? At (3%) labor, I doubt your managers (or for you disenchanted, unproductive, untalented SMs who are pissed about having to work the DT or the bar for a change and can't seem to find a way to run a store without a bunch of time for your partners to lean and slack due to your general poor performance) have time for your unlegendary asses. Wake up call: you people are not very good at your jobs- if you were you would not be so negative and bitchy and you would see that Howard is the best possible dude to have at the helm at this time given the economic environment- who the hell else would be investing for the long term {(RED), new machines, good new products etc.} at a time when we SHOULD be cutting everything? What is it that you want exactly? I am an SM and I can tell you that my partners are all very happy to be picking up a little slack to help Starbucks be better off with this whole labor adjustment. Honest, that's the effect that positive, good management has on partners- the partners are informed, energized and in line with what we have to do and I can tell you, my customers will not be adversely affected at all. If anything this will make my team more efficient. The key is to be honest with them and thank them for what they are doing.. I don't know about you, but I'm damn happy to be able to participate in a broad cost cutting initiative that is neccessary and doesn't involve more store closings, or jobs being lost. You are all so sad. Please go work for Dunkin, they are better suited for your obvious lack of passion. Also, in case I haven't driven home the fact that you are all underachievers who need lives, let me once more underscore it. Get it together people.

[Miss Misto]

tired and overworked, "you who refuses to name yourself"?... how is this possible when you only get 10-15 hours a week?

thats how they are going to get their money's worth. take everyone down to 15 hours a week, demote their shifts, overstaff their baristas and giggle all the way to the bank.

the whole time ive worked here... EVEN thru the 600, i was able to justify things. but this is pretty dirty. the kool-aid is too poisoned to drink anymore.

[Overworked?]

With all the whinning going on... why won't any whiners just quit employment at SBUX and head over to the golden arches. No matter where you go and which company you work for, there will always be complaints about management, managers, middle management, VPs, AVPs, AAVPs, President, CEO, Regional Managers, Executive Managers, etc., etc., etc., etc.

[P.R.I.D.E.]

I love how holiday always brings out the best in partners...um I mean it used to.

I won't go as far as feministbarista, but come on people, it's a little bit like a 3 year old stomping up and down and having a hissy fit. Who really cares if they didn't use more recent clips?

[SirensBlazing]

"We're selling more than just a cup of coffee."

Well, maybe at one time you were, but not any more. You can't, not when you decide that some short-term cost savings to make the shareholders happy is more important than respecting your partners and exceeding your customers' expectations. Let's face it, Howard - you sold out. Own up to it already. You can't serve more than a cup of coffee when your stores are understaffed, your partners are stretched thinner and thinner, and your customers are the ones that pay for it all.

Talk all you want about the Starbucks "brand value." Sure, it might have meant something at one time, but you can't keep running on that borrowed line of credit you're using there - it's maxed out. Poorly run stores, over-worked Partners, and lukewarm, uninspiring product launches belie the fact that the brand alone isn't cutting it anymore. People are hip to your game, Howard. Just because you say it doesn't make it so.

I can tell you one thing: You certainly are selling more than just a cup of coffee. You're serving up a healthy pile of BS. Only problem is, no one's buying into anymore.

[piddyhu]

Howard!

Reduction in Labor
Health Insurance is a joke
Surprise! it's the Holiday's!
Stock is dwindling................
Good employees leaving the Bux to seek more hours.
Speed of Service
walk outs
Daddy smells buy out!

[seventysix [76]]

Sometimes I pretend the highest manager I have is my store manager. And for a couple minutes, I sit in my wonderful little bubble and sip coffee in my store and think about how happy I am.

Ah. Happy Holidays, all! You can still be legendary. I try to do it everyday. :)

seventysix [76]

ugh,
Interesting point. Let's assume most managers used 40 hours of non-coverage for the week they went to New Orleans. How many U.S. stores are there? Whatever the number is times 40 hrs NC, that's a lot of hours. No wonder they cut it down to 2% across the board. It used to be that the amount of NC you received was based on your volume. I was told the higher your sales the lower your NC and vice-a-versa.

Is this correct? Someone educate me.

[SSC Hasbeen]

All you folks critical of the "whiners", please remember the words of Himself, "Mr. Humanity" --

"We're selling more than just a cup of coffee..."

The "whiners" are just calling out the difference between the talk and the walk -- you know, hypocrisy. Saying one thing while doing something completely different.

McDonalds isn't saying "we're selling more than just hamburgers". They're saying "we're selling fast, cheap, and good enough", and that's what they're doing. Saying and doing match.

Not so SBUX. Saying and doing don't match.

Is that "whining", or just "listening"?

Howard just gave the folks at Dunkin a great marketing Campaign "Lets meet at Dunkins". Hey its a place to get a tasty treat, good coffee and possibly even your moring breakfest without the ego of Howard or Starbucks. The guy in the white shirt and tie behind him didnt drink any beverage during the interview, clearly staged...

Sorry Howard, your company is going downhill because of your company, not the economy. I will be going to SBUX tommorow to cash in my gift cards (I live in a state where I can legally do it, I have enough with small values to get enough to get a tank of gas (meaning about $20.00), not much, but enough to make me feel better. Your ego in this interview just tarnished my views on Starbucks. All of my future coffee will come from a private stand or Tullys.

[Mysticboi]

To feministabarista

You must be blessed with well trained and experienced staff. To hire this kinda staff that is willing to stay, you must be quite the SM yourself. But others stores aren't as fortunate as you. Perhaps some stores are way more busier than yours? or some stores perhaps lack the kinda firepower your baristas have? It certainly is harder to train when hours are cut back and even harder when the store is high volume. I also think that the partners that did stay for this long are the passionate ones, not the whiny ones. They just wanna represent their store in the best possible way but find it hard to do so with the new labor cuts.

[Darleen]

Howard just gave the folks at Dunkin a great marketing Campaign "Lets meet at Dunkins". Hey its a place to get a tasty treat, good coffee and possibly even your moring breakfest without the ego of Howard or Starbucks.

Are you serious anonymous? Have you ever had dunkins coffee? TERRIBLE!!!

[Bouncing Barista]

I think this was already said, but I feel the need to add it again...

We're NOT cutting labor!! We're making the necessary adjusments needed to level out labor costs v. actual sales!! that is it, it is not some crazy conspiracy...it is only like less than an hour a day people...12 hours a week or a little more for stores with more hours (but come on...like you can't run the mid with two people and they just have to juggle making prep and helping customers)...nobody is asking anyone to run the morning rush understaffed or anything....if you feel understaffed really, then take it up with your freaking manager...not Howard, not the company. And if you can't do your job with the necessary changes, then QUIT! The economy is crap, I'm sure there are people out there who can do your job.

[Mike]

I guess seeing Howard in the apron sampling product makes me wonder something -- is he now going to encourage his RDOs and DMs to throw on their aprons and help out the stores? I mean, seriously, what is their responsibility now? Training and development of SMs is out the window completely, no more SPOAs, district meetings, etc. So really their only responsibilities at this point are: 1. Monitor labor and harass SMs on coverage duty daily; 2. Travel from store to store and harass SMs daily about what's not good enough, what needs to be done better, etc. It'd be nice if there was ONE glimmer of comraderie or teamwork in all of this. Just as store managers are expected to work extra hours and support labor by working coverage "off the clock" this should also now be the expectation of our leadership which now finds themselves with little else to do otherwise.

[Will]

Bouncing...

ALS automatically reduces alloted labor to match labor v sales. Going to -3% vs 0% IS cutting labor.

Stores that CANT run with 2 on the mid WILL have to trim a person in the morning. My store is losing a person in 4 of our 7 mornings.

On top of that, our SM is going to be stressed out because hes only given 2 hours to do ALL his admin for the week. I'm going to miss my passionate, upbeat manager that sets the tone for all of our partners when he has to work 10-12 hour days 5 days a week.

Also, 12 divided by 7 is more than one. Just thought you should know.

[Will]

And my ASM girlfriend was advised to look for another job. The feeling is that her 25k/week store doesn't need an ASM.

[brando]

This guy is so out of touch.

I feel bad for those baristas at that store. But, hey! At least they had the interview before they cut the N.C. so that they could have baristas sampling, chatting, etc.

[GRTL]

I felt really bad last night at work. A customer wanted to talk about coffee. She wanted Columbia (you know...one of the coffees we discontinued having on a permanent basis..you know when we actually specialized in coffee) and I had to tell her we didn't carry it anymore. She wanted some suggestions and I looked at the line of people behind her and the one barista on register and I had to just point to the display. I felt truly awful about it. What is the point of my coffee tastings and learnings when I don't even have time to use it. It was very sad to me. It truly was. She came back after the line had gone (some 15 minutes later) with a bag of Xmas blend and I ground it as quickly for her as I could, only to notice a line of 4 people had joined after her. *sigh*

Plain and simple, this isn't fun anymore. I can't share my knowledge that I worked so hard on. I can't make that perfect beverage, I can't even get coffee rebrewed 1/2 the time, I can't do it because corporate has taken the tools away from me to do it. A tool called labor. And now I'm being yelled at because our customer voice scores were terrible...just awful. I know the floors are dirty and need cleaning...I know it..but I can't even get away from the register. *sigh*

Was that footage of Howard "sampling" really from 2 years ago? Was it? If so omg!!! Give me a break. That is awful and pathetic...and all I could think of was how fake he looked in a green apron. I mean really! King of Coffee my $!%@#$

*sigh*

[GRTL]

Oops..I meant the one barista on bar...I was the only partner on register...just 2 on the floor...

[brando]

I feel your pain GRTL.

[camspi]

neat to see howard in an apron.
i wanted to be angry at him because of his recent decisions, but i always end up loving his inspirational banter!!
he is a good guy who's dealing with a tough time. granted, i think he's making wrong decisions, but i believe in his message of human connection.
all in all, a great free advertisement for starbucks. hope it brings in more customers.

[20secondshotguy]

GRTL ~ You can still share your knowledge.

It's just that you can't linger right now. If I'm your customer and my coffee isn't there - give me a quick suggestion. That's all I want. That's me trusting you that you know your stuff. Bonus: Ask me to let you know if I liked it.

Give me a quick recommendation, I make my purchase and happily look forward to my first sip. Finish with the latter and you're my new favorite barista.

If I'm in line and I hear you assist another customer with a confident recommendation. I'm going to hope you're working the next time I need beans. It's that simple.

[20secondshotguy]

I've been reading recently waiting for a moment to add my voice here.

As a former partner, I know the labor reduction is hard. Especially right now. I'm pretty sure everyone knows that too. Every SM is hearing from their team, every DM from their SMs and every RDO from their DMs, etc.

No one is happy about the price that is being paid here.

No one is happy about the cost on the partners, the customers or the business.

Everyone is experiencing a lot of pressure to do the best they can and then to go beyond that.

Everyone knows partners are working their butts off.

Despite all the effort, all the sweat and all the long hours sales are down 9% this quarter.

Labor generates sales, yes. But sales generate labor. If all things were equal--and they're not--Starbucks might require a 9% cut in labor hours. Imagine that? Is that possible still? If things don't turn around, if they don't get better? What do you think?

This is serious. Hard. It's not fun for anyone. I don't envy any of my friends who are barista's, shift's, Asm's, Sm's, Rdo's, RVP's, etc. But I respect what you're trying to do in an economy that seems worse each day than it was the day before.

If I could ask or encourage you to do anything it would be to:

1. Accept that Starbucks now is Starbucks. Things are not going back to the way they were before. Never. This is Starbucks. If you've been hanging on for things to go back to they way they were - let go of that false hope.

2. Serve each other as partners. Lift each other up when you can, in whatever way you can. Share tough stories from the day AND small surprises. Show each other that you care about each other and about what you're trying to do together.

3. The bar has been raised. You're being stretched and held accountable. That's not going to change. That's here to stay. You can't work a shift today the way you did two weeks ago, much less last year.
That means your shift has to work as a team and everyone has to get better at everything. Rise to the occasion! Work with each other to find new ways to get things done that makes sense. Yes you can!

4. Figure out what's keeping you from getting things done (besides labor). Is it deployment? Is it organization? Is it a facilities issue? If the labor model were to stay where it is now--forever--what other help/support would you need? What would have to change. When you find those solutions, pass them on. Share those successes.

5. Last, live for a greater purpose. Why are you at Starbucks and not another company? Why did you choose it? What outside of work are you living for? Don't work off the clock. You lose. Your family loses and ultimately Starbucks loses when that happens, even if you "get everything done." Life is going to keep doing what it does before and after work. Some of that is good. Some of that can be pretty awful. Give yourself the best chance you can to be ready for whatever comes next. Balance is key. And don't forget to take in sunsets at the end of the day - life's too short.

[Karl Kenya]

As an ASM, I'm honestly more worried about the non-coverage hours than the coverage hours. The partners probably won't notice at my store. However, the new NC policy means my manager gets only half a day of admin, plus time for tips. It also means I get NO admin time. So this policy effectively eliminated my ASM time and I'm now just a well-paid shift supervisor.

I'm wondering how long it will take for them to figure this out.

Also and observation: they have cut from the top (SSC and execs), they have cut from the bottom (store closings), but they have left the most bloated and expensive part intact - middle management. Why?

If my DM has time to micromanage every store in his district, then he has too much time. Just a hint, Howard.

[Will]

"Labor generates sales, yes. But sales generate labor. If all things were equal--and they're not--Starbucks might require a 9% cut in labor hours. Imagine that? Is that possible still? If things don't turn around, if they don't get better? What do you think?"

With all due respect, as a former partner, you don't seem to have even a basic understanding of ALS. The 9% drop would AUTOMATICALLY be factored in when ALS apportions labor based on sales projections.

This 3 percent reduction is nothing more than a cash grab.

[marbleskies]

Oct 2005 Sr Leadership released the plan which dynamically accelerated growth. This plan had Howard's approval and was designed to accept lower store performance while being first to market ahead of Dunkin Donuts. The basis of the plan was that SBUX had lost the New England market share due to Dunkin being there first and SBUX did not want to repeat this "loss" (especially in Florida). The plan was implemented despite many SBUX real estate partners pressing for a review of the decision to grow fast"er". During the past months Howard has said "some mistakes were made in real estate" and now claims that if he knew of the ailments now being experienced in the economy the same decisions may not have been made. There are alot of people who would make different decisions today based on the economies performance! Point is Howard and Sr Leadership knowingly set the course which propelled SBUX into the dire position the partners now encounter, without adequate recognition of the significant potential negative impacts.
Irony is that over the past few years SBUX was investing large sums of money and time in developing leadership skills among Director level partners and citing companies that had previously failed as the motivation for the investment. The objective was to avoid repetition of the failures; obviously a lesson yet to be learned by Howard.
However, while SBUX has clearly fallen off a pedestal; the company is still clearly a leader in many important areas (benefits, social conciousness, etc)and does deserve to be applauded for these achievements. Times are tough and likely to become tougher; but SBUX is a good company whom I hope succeeds in recapturing the luster recently lost. It has to be difficult to deal with the many significant steps which are "back peddling" in order to right the ship, but SBUX is a sea worthy vessel worthy of the effort. Perhaps a change at the helm is needed, but not via a mutiny!

[Bouncing Barista]

Will- do you have an understanding of ALS...were you even on the conference call about the labor "reduction"?

YES...RIGHT NOW we are running -3.5%, but that is because the system is faulty and they are making adjustments to the system to bring it back to a true 0% variance which will take place after the new year. (forecasted date: jan 1) Maybe you think you can't cut labor in the mid, but you'd be surprised...because "filler tasks" for instance give stores an extra person usually, and that isn't always necessary. As far as cutting labor in the morning, that is your store manager's decision. If he/she wants to do that, then that is fine...but don't get mad at starbucks. On top of that, non-coverage being at 2 hours is only until the end of december...and then they will get four or more even (depending how they want to use it). And that is plenty of time to do stuff. I agree with 20secondshotguy...the bar has been raised...in fact, for us older partners the bar was lowered a few years back to let all the whiny snots in. It is tough work, it isn't a "relaxing place to hang out and chat with your friends while making coffee." If you are so unhappy with your job quit, and if your manager is so unhappy with his job...maybe he should quit too.

Karl- I'm sorry your DM micromanages, but could you seriosuly imagine if there was no DM and 100 SMs reported to one RD....it would be out of control. I know my DM works his ass off, and he does come in and work on the floor (which he is going to on Friday actually...) and he does our QASA checklist for us, and talks with customers and deals with unruly partners who stress out their SMs, etc...I think that maybe just your DM needs to get fired if he has "nothing to do"

[SMS&M]

Never before did ALS need such a manual adjustment to set itself to the "real" zero variance. They'll justify it somehow, no matter how ridiculous it sounds. Yep, we gotta teach them computers. Proper forecasts give you the labor you need, customer count, sales, etc... we know we're lower than last year, so we accommodate. I didn't fall off the turnip truck last night, nor did my DM. I appreciate honesty, and I get it. When you are in a million dollar store, 2 hours of non cov doesn't cut it. Nor does 4, if you want to work a reasonable amount of hours. I refuse to work myself thin to make up for it. I work my time on the floor, and never sit in the office area. Never. I deserve my time off the floor to do my admin. To write reviews, have one on ones, do orders, and give time to those who do the orders as well. I understand sucking it up, but what's in it for me? It's a job, not a life. I never let them see me sweat, but I'll tell you what, when I leave there, I turn my phone off, and let it go. I am tired of a 24/7 job, of spontaneous conference calls and changes. I will give in proportion to what I get. I still believe, but they don't.

[Diane]

As the owner of an independent store, I love to read here and see the complaints about lines going out the door, while we little guys are destined for the leftover locations (B's) and do our best just to get a local paper to cover our
news while Howard's real genius is in the multimillions in free publicity Starbucks keeps getting. Genius, honestly, to have been able to build the company without spending much on advertising.
Wanna trade? I'll take your lines on any day. Instead, I have to take the slow road with continuing repeat business build-up and word of mouth once somebody can actually find our shop.

I know it's possible to grow (we've been open less than five months and had 300% growth within 3 months), however, because of CBTL and Peet's and Intelligentsia et als.

Have any of you in their areas thought of looking for jobs at Peet's? They have stayed true to the coffee and their employees always seem to be entrenched and loving what they're doing.

[Gord]

The more I read on here, the more I think they should just do stuff and not tell anyone. If they would have just pushed through an update to ALS that removed the 3% do you think anyone would have noticed? I sure as heck don't.

I've worked in extremely busy stores, and extremely slow stores... you know what was the same in both, the amount of time partners stood around. I used to cut shifts left, right and center because we didn't need that many bodies.

The only time I've ever seen issues with labor at a store was when the manager bollocks it up. The manager let the partners dictate the shifts (i.e. I need 20 hours, but can only work 3 days) instead of the business dictating the shifts. I stepped up and fixed this, and suddenly... no more labor problems!

My district's non-coveage was so high last year that we are allowed to use one hour for tip processing and that's it. ZERO other NC. When asked when we are expected to write schedules, process orders, connect with partners etc. etc. etc., our DM replied, "on your down time"
I run a 50,000+/wk DT store- how can I "slide" of the floor to write a schedule?????

[Me]

Gord, you must be a hero!

If you run constantly on 2 partner shifts there isn't much they can cut down on. Except for extending the times where there are only 2 partners on the floor. But this means less service, less cleaning, less preparing and eventually less customers.
I agree, I have worked with partners rather talking, building rocket ships etc. But I haven't seen anything like this in the last year or so going on in my store. There is just no labor left for anyone to be there and stand around. If we are ever well staffed someone gets send home early. I guess we just need the pressure to not get the idea to build rocket ships out of paper cups...
And again, we are whining, because we keep getting told it would be different at starbucks but in fact it isn't.

My district's non-coveage was so high last year that we are allowed to use one hour for tip processing and that's it. ZERO other NC. When asked when we are expected to write schedules, process orders, connect with partners etc. etc. etc., our DM replied, "on your down time"
I run a 50,000+/wk DT store- how can I "slide" of the floor to write a schedule?????

[peaches]

I feel like the assumption is that we all have strong managers capable of rallying the troops when bad things happen. I need someone to help me see the bigger picture when I'm in a jaded funk after an understaffed 9 hour shift. If my manager told me some of the things 20secondshotguy said up there, I'd probably feel slightly better about what I'm doing.

Unfortunately, my manager has no control over the store. I know that my store is not the only one like this. My baristas have no idea what's going on with the company because our leadership is reduced to a cowardly pile of fear and ignorance when faced with trouble. From what my manager says, you'd think my DM was making us run at -3% for fun.

[ex-sbuxmanager]

This labor reduction is classic turf-protection. Only Howard is too blinded to see it.

The company is bloated, right? But the people who actually implement Howard's "vision" are actually the bloat. Howard says that the company need to cut costs. But the bloat isn't going to cut their own jobs. They're not gonna say say, "we're the problem." The endless departments heads, managers, directors, and vps who don't bring in nearly the revenue share that the stores do, they have the power to protect themselves. So, they're gonna pass the buck and say the stores are inefficient. Cut the store's labor.

Classic Starbucks. My advice? Quit or join the union. And when I worked there, I always thought that while the union made some good points, they were not the solution. But now I think that no one is going to stand up for the store partners unless they stand up for themselves.

[GRTL]

I do think we need to stand up for ourselves. I know sms who are afraid of saying "wait a minute this is wrong" because they are afraid of getting black balled and having their career destroyed for trying to stand up in what they believe. This is the difference between a good company and a poorly run company. A company where corporate makes all the decisions and if anyone speaks differently their are either out the door or made to feel like they should start packing their bags.

I really don't want to be called a partner anymore. Just call me an employee...

I think if that company with their sit in can get a bank to finally pay them what they are owed maybe we should have a sit in until this is reversed!!!!

bouncing barista...
this new admin/nc/-3% is thru next october - not december. and also, the system is not faulty -is this what you were told? there are several things we do now that we did not do 2 years ago that merit the extra labor and is the reason we have those hours/ minutes.
i work in a store that is never bored - and i know we cant afford to run short. filler tasks happen between customers. i dont have half hours under 20.
do you work in a low volume?

[GLOSM]

ONWARD?.....where are we going??

I went Christmas shopping all day yesterday and stopped at 3 different Starbucks. (none of them in malls)
What a mess. My own store had 2 empty shelves because no one has had time to replace sold items. (I did that last week on my own time.) I'm not doing it again, though. Suppose, I injure myself lifting boxes on my own time. No workmans comp; just unemployment.

[sneaky]

I came from many many years in traditional retail environments I have to say this is really no surprise.

I was so excited to come to Starbucks. One reason was the crazy amount of labor allotted to each store. I had never seen such a mass of people working in such a low volume environment. I had come from $3-$7 million stores in 3500 sqr feet or more that were lucky to have 2 people on the floor - ever. And we made it work.

There isn't a business out there that doesn't spend more on direct labor and other labor costs as the biggest line item on their Profit & Loss Statement. So naturally that is the 1st place to cut. I have seen it over and over and over. I don't like it and never have, but it is the reality of doing business. Absolutely nothing else will make a difference.

The average $14k a week store is losing about $12k per year right now (and many of them this is the 3rd year in a row). So, $12k x 7000 stores is $70 million. That's over 600 "endless department heads". There really aren't that many. And cutting Howard's pay isn't going to make enough of a dent. $70 million!!!

The only thing that could possibly make a difference is store labor. If every store cut 4 hours per day at $8 per hour for the entire year, that's $81 million in savings. And that doesn't count the state insurance the company has to pay to employ you and other costs of doing business.

A union? That's what got the automakers in this mess. Those companies having to bend to the unions demands and now NO ONE will have a job, insurance or a pension.

Get real people. Times are tough. Get used to it. No one OWES you anything.

[gmreat]

just thought i'd share some irony...

at a time when we are cutting labor, not to mention using coverage hours to do things like unpack the RP order...
my store is rolling out warming...
during the holidays...
still hyper-focused on minor details because QASA hasn't shown up yet...
and (here's the kicker)
i saw an email from our DM today saying that we are expected to do 2 coffee tastings a day.
ROFL!

[salami dolce latte]

A Partner Called in Sick Today!!!

Yeah We Hit Our Goal -9% in labor!!!!