It's been a bad month for Starbucks. Ex-CEO Howard Schultz agrees

It’s not been a great month for Starbucks. In their assessment of the two coffee chains, National Restaurant News’ Joanna Fantozzi said that “beyond hard numbers, the two companies have recently taken very different operational strategies.” We need your help to stay independent Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism “Whereas Starbucks has been constantly churning out new menu items with complex SKUs — including last year’s Oleato, which received very mixed reviews; this year’s lavender matcha latte; the spring lineup of “swicy” drinks; and most recently, the release of summer beverages with boba-like pearls — Dutch Bros’ menu innovation strategy has been more measured,” she wrote. Some of the flavors and ingredients Starbucks is adding Starbucks’ recent, aggressive introduction of new products, which will continue this summer with the release of the company’s first blue beverage and of boba pearls, is one of the many things former CEO Howard Schultz subtly criticized in a recent LinkedIn post addressing the company’s disappointing second quarter numbers. The answer does not lie in data, but in the stores.” Schultz — who served as the chairman and chief executive officer of Starbucks from 1986 to 2000, from 2008 to 2017, and then interim CEO from 2022 to 2023 —clarified that he has had no formal role within the company since April 2023 and no longer serves on the board of directors, but said his love of “all those who wear ‘the cloth of the company’” knows no bounds. Through it all, focus on being experiential, not transactional.” It’s worth noting Starbucks’ current CEO Laxman Narasimhan, who assumed the role last spring, has been working a half-day shift once a month in one of the company’s stores to better understand its culture, but that didn’t seem to play into Schultz’ assessment of the company.