Starbucks is going full 'guac is extra' mode. Frankly, it's time.
I support Starbucks' new policy to charge for the extras in your drink. Don't hate me — let me explain!
For many things, I don't mind paying a little more to benefit society. I know my taxes pay for things like schools and the military, and I think that's just fine. I pay the same gym membership fee as someone who goes every single day — in a sense, I'm subsidizing the swole. And I'm fine with that.
But there is a limit to even my strongest socialist impulses. I refuse to subsidize your disgusting Starbucks custom order, with its extra pumps of flavored syrup and fruits and powders. I believe healthcare is a human right. Matcha powder isn't.
Starbucks just changed its policies so that adding extra syrups or matcha powders will cost extra. People are upset. I'm sympathetic — I wouldn't be happy to pay more, either.
But the logic here is sound. Adding extra ingredients costs money. Inflation is real. Starbucks likely has two options if it wants to keep its profit margins: charge people extra for custom add-ons, or raise the prices on all drinks.
This new charge is for adding ingredients that wouldn't be included in the standard version of a drink. Extra matcha powder scoops will cost $1 a scoop, extra pumps of syrups and sauces will see a flat fee of 80 cents, and fruit bits will be 50 cents a serving. There are details in the fine print, which my colleague Alex Bitter reported on earlier this week.
Starbucks' CEO comes from the land of avocados
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol is not unfamiliar with this issue. He was previously the CEO of Chipotle, the place that taught us the sacred millennial phrase, "Yes, I know guac is extra." Sometimes, adding in pricey extras like avocados should be an option.
In the last few years, elaborate custom drinks have become a thorn in Starbucks' side. They came as a byproduct of the shift to in-app ordering during the pandemic — it's a lot easier to remember the details of an eight-ingredient custom drink when you're ordering on the app vs. an actual store. These custom drinks would go viral on social media — a windfall of earned media!
But actually serving the drinks was a huge pain for baristas and slowed down service, creating extra wait times for everyone.
Niccol has expressed a desire to return Starbucks to its coffeehouse roots, and has said that problems tied to mobile ordering had " chipped away" at the brand's "soul."
There is another element to the changes, too: People have been sharing "hacks" on social media where you can load up on powders or syrups to "cheat" the system for a cheaper Starbucks drink. For example, I saw a recent TikTok of someone ordering a small matcha latte with four times the amount of normal matcha powder and no ice, and then using it as a concentrate at home to pour over several glasses of milk. I'm not sure how prevalent this was, or how much these sneaky people inspired the new pricing.
Starbucks' new pricing has some people mad
Now here's where my personal bias comes in: I like regular coffee, hot or iced — and I'm not a fan of overly sweet coffee drinks like the Frappuccino or a hazelnut shaken espresso. I'm not yucking anyone's yum or stopping anyone from ordering what they like. But I don't want caramel syrup or dried fruit in my coffee, and I don't want to subsidize the people who do.
As you might imagine, the people who are now being forced to pay more for their regular drinks are not happy.
I watched TikTok videos from people who were outraged by the new pricing for their regular drinks. One woman was mad that her drink, which includes two extra syrups, had gone up by over a dollar. "I might as well buy a bottle of the syrup and make it at my coffee station at home!" she said.
Well, yeah. You should! You should absolutely just make coffee at home instead of buying Starbucks every day! That is, in fact, a very wise thing for anyone to do. I feel like a real boomer saying so, but you should absolutely just make it at home. If you don't want to: Well, there's a price for that!
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