Starbucks Bets Big on ‘Community Lounges’
The Financial Times is reporting that Starbucks ($SBUX) is investing (betting?) $1 billion in transforming some 9,000 cafes into what is being referred to as “community lounges.”
This sounds like something we might have heard from former CEO Howard Schultz and his “third place concept,” but that was before the rise of mobile ordering.
How that $1 billion squares with current CEO Brian Niccol’s target of taking $2 billion out of the business in cost savings over the next two years is just one of the questions folks are likely to have. Another is with the rise of Dutch Bros ($BROS) and others that offer quick service, is the Starbucks notion of “community lounges” outdated?
Here’s the link to the FT article.
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