Starbucks (SBUX) - Get Starbucks Corporation Report has always been all about creating an experience for the customer that epitomizes affordable luxury.
From its Italian-inspired drink sizes to its seasonal menu rollouts, the brand knows how to woo its customer base. And despite an upcoming price hike, we're guessing that the brand will continue to enjoy its meteoric success. In the era of "treat yourself," the least we all deserve is a fancy coffee to get our day started. Right?
It's because of Starbucks' power that it is able to make major changes that smaller companies might not be able to pull off, further establishing its identity as a brand. Using blockchain to develop its rewards programs into something with further reach, for instance, appeals to the financially-savvy.
But the brand's latest plan, while admirable in the broadest sense, may also pose a major inconvenience to customers that are accustomed to having their morning drink presented in a certain kind of way.
Starbucks has also long taken a fiercely green stance, discarding plastic straws in 2020 and promoting reusable cups at its counters in retail locations.
Customers seem to have taken to these changes just fine, probably aided by the fact that you can still get a straw with your drink if you really want one (of the paper or compostable variety, that is).
But in Starbucks' latest announcement, we learn there's something it won't be giving out at its locations anymore: Disposable cups.
In a press release on the Starbucks Stories website today, the company announced a shift away from single-use plastics to align itself with the company goal of reducing waste by 50% by the year 2030. And it's not going to get there by eliminating straws.
The rollout of this program, called "Borrow A Cup," will be piloted in six markets around the world to start, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Singapore, so you probably don't have to start taking your thermos to the drive-thru. Yet.
"By the end of next year, customers will be able to use their own personal reusable cup for every Starbucks visit in the U.S. and Canada – including in café, drive-thru, and mobile order and pay," it reads. "Our goal, by 2025, is to create a cultural movement towards reusables by giving customers easy access to a personal or Starbucks-provided reusable to-go cup for every visit, making it convenient and delightful to reuse wherever customers are enjoying their Starbucks Experience."
Starbucks also announced a few other green-minded changes, including a Starbucks Partner Waste and Recycling App to help both stores and customers recycle with more ease as part of the Greener Stores Innovation Challenge.
Electric vehicle owners will also be pleased to learn that the company is also launching Volvo-branded electric vehicle chargers at 15 locations between Denver and Seattle. If those are a success, you'll probably be seeing them at your local Starbucks within a few years, too.
Considering that our current forecast shows plastic pollution will double by the year 2030, the moves Starbucks is making are admirable ones, not to mention more than most companies of its size are bothering to do.
That said, eliminating reusable cups may not sit well with the Starbucks customer that doesn't feel like washing their reusable cups out before they go get their morning drink (although we're guessing Starbucks would rinse it out for you if you asked nicely).
What it will do is push its customers that forget their cups to invest in its reusable options, which seem to be getting more stunning as the years go by. So if you get to your local shop and realize you forgot your cup, well, buy a nicer one.
It'll cost you more and you might grumble about it, but Starbucks is betting most won't mind once they get a handsome new drink holder. Some fans of the brand even collect them for fun. Plus, you get the feeling you're helping to save the earth from drowning in plastic, and that seems worth the trouble.