Starbucks to close 8,000 US stores for racial tolerance training

Starbucks Corp will close 8,000 company-owned US cafes for the afternoon on May 29 to train nearly 175,000 on how to prevent racial discrimination in its stores.

Starbucks' roughly 6,000 licensed cafes will remain open. Starbucks said it would make training materials available to the employees of those stores, who are employed by the grocery stores or airports where they are located.

The announcement from world's biggest coffee company comes as it tries to cool tensions after the arrest of two black men at one of its Philadelphia cafes last week sparked accusations of racial profiling at the chain.

Protesters have called for a boycott of the company, in what has become the biggest public relations test yet for Chief Executive Kevin Johnson.

Johnson, a former technology executive, took the helm about a year ago and was already fighting to boost traffic to Starbucks amid intense competition from coffee sellers ranging from hipster cafes to fast-food chains and convenience stores.

Are you a coffee lover? Grab any Starbucks drink for just Rs 100 today

Want to get caffeinated this Saturday? Here's the deal all coffee lovers might have been waiting for. If you thought Starbucks was a bit too royal for your taste, you can grab tomorrow’s offer with only Rs 100.

Starbucks across India will be offering coffee for just Rs 100 for a day to celebrate the launch of its 100th outlet and five years in India

Here's what you must know about this offer

— All the beverages (caffeinated or not) will be charged at Rs 100 inclusive of all taxes including GST

— The offer is valid only for today at all Starbucks India outlets

— It will not be valid on food items

— Starbucks opens at 8 am in the morning and will close as per the usual timings. However, the timings may differ with different outlets.

— The offer does not include home deliveries at the same cost

— My Starbucks Rewards GOLD members can get any size of beverage (Short / Tall / Grande / Venti) at Rs 100.
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Starbucks shares tumble on fears of slowing US growth

Starbucks Corp's shares were on track for their worst one-day decline in five years on Friday as the coffee chain's latest quarterly report triggered concerns of a slowdown in sales in the United States, its biggest market.

While Starbucks' profit met Wall Street expectations in its first quarter under new CEO Kevin Johnson, the results suggested that growth in the coffee chain's member loyalty program was slowing, a trend that could impact future sales.

Starbucks' U.S. rewards membership rose 8 percent in the quarter ended July 2 — a rate that lags the 18 percent increase seen a year earlier and slower than the previous quarter's 11 percent rise.

"Customers were choosing to spend their money elsewhere, Johnson told CNBC on Friday, calling it a "short-term phenomenon."

But analysts said the slowdown was a direct result of changes Starbucks made to its rewards program, that, while benefiting the company, left many customers unwilling to sign up.

Starbucks last year tweaked the program to award customers points for every dollar spent at its cafes, a departure from its practice of giving points for every purchase, putting customers buying cheaper items at a disadvantage.
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Starbucks unveils Teavana in India; keeps pricing competitive

Latest News -Tata Starbucks, the joint venture between Tata Global Beverages and Seattle-based Starbucks Coffee Company in India, has launched the chain of tea bars Teavana today. This, a year after Starbucks' chairman & CEO Howard Schultz had indicated the same.

The move is expected to spice up the nearly Rs 2,000-crore coffee retail market in India, which includes the likes of Cafe Coffee Day, Barista, Costa Coffee and Di Bella Coffee among others. While tea among other assortments has been a part of the menu of most cafe retail chains in the country, branding it separately like the way Starbucks has done with Teavana, is a trend that could pick up in the future, market experts said.

In a conversation with Business Standard, Sumitro Ghosh, chief executive officer, Tata Starbucks, said that (Read More)