Higher Prices, Stricter Rules: How Starbucks' Big Revamp Backfired

In 2024, Brian Niccol took over as the CEO of Starbucks. With his arrival, he promised a big revamp, — dubbed "Back to Starbucks" — that emphasized the overall experience a person has from when they enter Starbucks to when they receive their order. Niccol's strategy is customer-centered, including initiatives like the return of a classic, in-store café feature and an the updated message-writing policy that requires baristas to write cutesy messages on the cups. While the idea itself certainly makes sense, it doesn't seem to be working out in practice.

As a part of the changes, Starbucks fundamentally changed its menu in 2025, leading to many customers being unhappy with the service. Not only are some menu items gone, others now cost more — and the time it takes to get them seems longer than ever. Even after Niccol's implementation of Smart Queue in July 2025, which was supposed to ensure every customer got served within four minutes, people have been known to wait as much as 30 un-caffeinated minutes at some locations. 

Starbuck's revamp was supposed to result in higher profits and customer satisfaction. Instead, the revenue is dropping, the shares are falling, and the employees are struggling to keep up with the pace. 

Starbucks employees have been speaking out about the fact that the implemented changes have made their job a lot harder. They now need to be happy greeters, fun message writers, and proficient coffee artists — all at the same time. Store managers are allegedly watching them like hawks, ensuring the baristas are sticking to the latest Starbucks employee dress code and maintaining a positive attitude. But, that doesn't seem to be going too well.  

"People don't come to Starbucks to wait for 20 mins and be forced to converse with the barista at handoff, they come for coffee," expressed one angry employee on Reddit. They continued, writing, "as soon as they built the first drive thru store, Starbucks lost the cafe feel and instantly became fast food and no amount of new positions, or sticker changes, or writing on cups is going to change that, Brian." The revamp strategy is clearly missing a key piece: employee satisfaction.  

When Brian Niccol was asked about the pressures baristas face, he told the New York Times that "Starbucks was committed to making the customer experience great." But, nobody likes to visit a coffee shop where the workers are visibly overworked and unhappy — and perhaps an even worse experience would be one where they're forced to fake it. At the end of the day, if the company isn't serving its own employees, is it really serving the customers?