• abcd@feddit.org
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    2 months ago

    Starbucks, do you remember when the German government lowered the VAT in July 2020 for restaurants when COVID hit us? The intention was to make food cheaper for the consumer to prevent restaurants from going bankrupt.

    That’s the month you increased your prizes to sell your stuff for the same prize including VAT as before and making more profit, giving your customers a huge middle finger.

    Pepperidge Farm remembers.

    • lemmytellyousomething@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 months ago

      I’m fron Germany and have never bought anything there. There tax evation strategy is disgusting. They use our roads, our people, our country and pay close to 0 taxes in Luxembourg or Panama with money earned in Germany.

    • Etterra@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Wow that’s BS. I don’t pay attention to them because I don’t drink their garbage coffee, and as an American this never crossed my radar from this angle either. Screw Starbucks.

  • vibinya@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Started going to a small local coffee shop a little over two years ago, and I’ll never go back to the giant chains. The people working are always happy, greet regulars by name, always go out of their way to interact or talk with me- usually remember something we talked about before, comp my orders every now and then, host little events, etc. It’s not just them either - I always have a way better experience going to non-chain coffee places. Oh, and the coffee is always waay better and priced better.

    • Zombiepirate@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Sometimes I’ll work out of a small local cafe that roasts their own beans on site.

      It’s insane how much better the coffee is for the same price, and they know my order before I even say anything.

      Plus, I can get excellent beans from them to brew at home, and I’m supporting a local business instead of a megacorp.

    • QuarterSwede@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Dutch Bros is where it’s at. Actually good roasts and the same price or less. That said, I make my own Americano at home in about 2 min while making breakfast and it’s consistently great.

      • Tikiporch@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Dutch Bros. has been good every time I’ve tried them. I don’t believe their coffee is markedly better than any other coffee chain. It comes down to how much you pay your staff, so that they give a shit about their jobs, so that tasks like roasting beans and cleaning equipment is done properly and regularly.

        • QuarterSwede@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Starbucks is known for its over roasted (burnt) flavor. That’s intentional. Dutch Bros doesn’t do that. Are they that much better than other smaller chains or independents? Probably not but they’re everywhere and easy to get in and out of.

    • WhyFlip@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Bullshit on it being priced better. Provide examples, not anecdotes. Where are you located?

      • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Yeah! What’s your shoe size, OP? You got a dog? A cat? A mother? “Everyone” has one, right. You seriously expect us to believe that? Prove it! Come on, what’s her maiden name? Her date of birth? Her routing number! Where was she last thursday night, out back of bakers garage like she was supposed’ta be? Better make sure you get your facts straight OP, or me and my partner Flippy “The Iceman” here will show ya what we do to commenters down in jersey what don’t put up with our unreasonable demands, capiche?

      • kbin_space_program@kbin.run
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        2 months ago

        The first thing Starbucks did when they bought Teavana was increase the prices by 25 - 50%, despite them already being on the upper end of local looseleaf tea shops.

        Combine that with the change from actual tea to sugar-added, Oprah approved crap signed the death warrant for that chain.

        • KijinSeija@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          I stopped eating at Chipotle many years ago when my local Chipotle caused dozens of food poisoning cases. Luckily there are lots of mom-and-pop burrito joints where I live, and their food is almost always better and cheaper than Chipotle.

  • StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Only down 3%? I was hoping more. Still, fuck em. Maybe fewer consumers want to pay out the nose for a cup of flavored sugar with coffee?

    • ours@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Overpriced cafeinated milkshakes for adults makerating masquerading as “coffee”.

      • rekorse@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        They really should post their expected goals along side the loss.

        For example they could have a goal of 3% increase which means they undershot their goal by a stupid margin.

  • ArtVandelay@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Honestly, it wasn’t the $7 coffee that turned me away from starbucks. It was the $7 coffee that taste like toilet water, when there are no shortage of local, cheaper coffee shops with amazing brews made by people who actually want to be there, who also won’t be fired for unionizing.

  • Chessmasterrex@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    For granted, there’s no shortage of coffee shops in my city. Locally operated and owned, and they have better coffee at better prices. Starbucks isn’t even a reasonable choice with so many better options available.

    • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      I’d always choose a smaller spot anyway. More casual and less crowded, but still doing good business.

      • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        More casual and less crowded, but still doing good business.

        And probably better value for money as well.

  • Bertuccio@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I started boycotting Starbucks when I learned they had partnered with Nestle for store-bought products - their Sumatra and Komodo Dragon coffees were pretty good.

    I send an email every year or so to let them know, since boycotts aren’t effective if the group being boycotted doesn’t know why, with predictably apathetic responses.

    Anyway, if you’re a no-Nestle person then Starbucks is on the list…

    • bookcrawler@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Thanks! Did not know about the Nestle connection. We stopped going to Starbucks when it moved to a fast food type experience vs the cafe feel it had at launch here.

      Will be verifying they moved the hell away from Nestle before we consider returning.

      • Bertuccio@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Awesome. Unfortunately the agreement was made “in perpetuity” so there’s no obvious route to them leaving Nestle.

        That’s part of why I actually email them, and in the first email I said that I’m bothering to send anything because I do really like their stuff, and I think their other charitible actions mean I can hope they’ll take customer feedback. As opposed to Nestle which I expect to tell me to gfm.

        I’ve steadily leaned away from that belief as the company digs farther in to being every crappy anti-labor chain.

  • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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    2 months ago

    Personally I resent how they redefine sizes.

    I want a coffee I don’t want to have to read in English to twat translation guide to be able to order one.

    • Routhinator@startrek.website
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      2 months ago

      This! God damn I’m so sick of asking for a large and they give me a Venti (aka extra large) telling me “oh thats what you asked for”

      You do realize your shitty size names actually have some meaning in other languages right? Grande = Large. Also 16oz = large.

      That said, I think I go to them like 2 times a year now when everything else is closed and I have to choose between them and Tim Horton’s.

      Also, fuck corps and their decision to upsize a large to 20oz in other companies. Can’t remember exactly when that started (15 years ago or so?) however I think the first ones to do it were McDonalds and Tim Horton’s here in Canada.

      Just makes me recall Super Size Me.

    • BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      I’m NOT calling it a venti, this is AMERICA, we speak AMERICAN. i don’t want your frappe latti sugar drinks. I DEMAND my AMERICAN coffee AND YOU BETTER SPEAK AMERICAN.

    • Asifall@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      In my experience most Starbucks workers will just let you say small/medium/large without questioning it.

  • ThatKomputerKat@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Watching them trying to bust unionization efforts in their shops just totally turned me off the brand. I haven’t been into one of their shops or bought any of their products at retail since.

    At this point I’ve found better local places but mostly I just got used to making my own iced coffee and it would be silly to bother going back.

    • secretlyaddictedtolinux@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Yep, this too. They used to feel cool despite being a large corporation. Now they feel like a corporate cesspool with Apps and anti-unions and $10 sandwiches smaller than the size of a drink coaster. It’s not fun anymore, and it’s not fun to just be there, especially with people running in and out with the App to just grab things.

      But look in the positive side, although they probably lost or will lose 30% of their customer base, at least they can increase profits by 1 percent by having more back-end tracking data to sell from some remaining customers willing to download a shitty ad-infected closed source App!

  • Snapz@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I suggest a community owned and operated service where we can offer Starbucks and McDonald’s words of support during these especially difficult times…

    But exactly because the times are difficult for them right now, WE CAN CHARGE THEM SURGE PRICING for the supportive messages!!! Let’s also fire conduct an employment status reassignment activity for 60% of the human message writer workforce and replace them with AI and cheap offshore call centers!!! Also, let’s sell our now collected sadness data on Starbucks and McDonald’s to our third party partners like Kleenex so that they can also charge them surge prices for tissues as we have reliable data to show that they are crying right now!!!

  • ramsgrl909@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I stopped going there when I realized it’s all just sugar. All the yummy drinks are just sugar.

    My husband and I started going to the co-op and getting fancy coffee beans and make drip coffee each morning. Cheaper, just as delicious (if not even better), and we don’t have to go out