Yahoo Finance Starbucks Workers Slam The Chain: It Went From 'Quirky Coffee Shop' To 'Soulless Fast Food Empire'
Starbucks is ushering in a new era with former Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol set to take over the coffee chain later this month. However, not everyone is entirely on board with the new leadership. In fact, one employee of nearly 20 years worries it's just another step in the wrong direction.
"It used to be a great place to work," the longtime employee told Business Insider. "People wouldn't leave Starbucks unless they were college students and went up into a higher career, or they retired with the company."
The anonymous Starbucks employee, who first started working working there in the mid-2000s, says that company originally had a reputation for treating its employees well. That is until changes, including staff cuts and an increase in mobile ordering, turned the tides. While his store previously had up to five employees per shift, that has been cut down to just three—with only more orders flooding in through the Starbucks app than before.
"It started out as a trendy, quirky coffee shop job, and it's just morphed into this soulless fast food empire since that time," he said, before adding that the last leadership change was a driving factor in that shift. "Ever since Howard left, I said things have just really gone downhill." Former CEO Howard Schultz stepped down from his role in 2017.
Other Starbucks employees, meanwhile, have taken to Reddit to express their own frustrations with the company's changes. In one thread, a barista referenced the staffing cuts and said they liked working at the chain "when it's fully staff," to which another person replied, "managing 7 cars in a drive thru who all ordered 3 drinks with only two people up front is very... fun!"
"Personally for me they stopped being a coffee shop when they moved away from espresso machines to the automatics that require zero skill to use," one Reddit user. "Now they are an overpriced place to get coffee flavored sugar drinks via an app."
Several more employees, however, argued this isn't exactly a new problem. "I worked at Starbucks over 20 years ago, it was a soulless fast food empire back then," a user wrote. "I don’t think this person has ever been inside a quirky coffee shop."
"If they've been working there for 'nearly 20 years' and didn't notice that it was already the case at the time they were hired..." another said.
According to a Starbucks spokesperson, the company asks for regular feedback from employees via surveys and meetings. Store employees also "have multiple opportunities throughout the year to voice their opinions, share their experiences, and suggest areas for improvement," the spokesperson told BI. They declined to comment on Niccol's potential plans for employee compensation and working conditions.
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