4 5 1 4 1 2 1 . At locations across the country, there have been complaints about shortages of key ingredients for popular dragon fruit starbucks drink, breakfast foods and even cups, lids and straws. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month.
Anyone can read what you share. Tasha Leverette with a guava green-tea lemonade at a Starbucks in Atlanta. Her favorite drink is a peach green-tea lemonade, but she hasn’t been able to get one. Tasha Leverette was in the mood for her favorite drink from Starbucks, an iced peach green-tea lemonade. When she went through the drive-through of her usual Starbucks in Atlanta three weeks ago, though, she was told they couldn’t make the drink because they didn’t have any peach-flavored juice.
Shrugging it off, she drove to another store. None of the locations had the integral ingredient. This is the Peach State, right? Leverette, 33, who owns a public relations firm. It’s surprising because Starbucks always seems like it has anything and everything you need. Across the country, customers and baristas are taking to social media to bemoan not only shortages of key ingredients for popular Starbucks drinks, like peach and guava juices, but also a lack of iced and cold-brew coffee, breakfast foods and cake pops, and even cups, lids and straws.
Starbucks is hardly the only company struggling with supply issues. But Starbucks is running out of ingredients for Very Berry Hibiscus Refreshers and almond croissants after being one of the clear winners of the pandemic economy. The shortages at Starbucks have varied by location, a company spokeswoman said. Although most people are familiar with the problems in the global supply chain to some extent, some Starbucks customers are still shocked — even incensed — by their inability to get their coffee exactly how they want it. Nicole Brashear, a 24-year-old pharmacy student at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, said of ordering an iced caramel macchiato with extra caramel drizzle in late May.
The problem for Starbucks is that it was never just selling a simple cup of coffee. For many, the experience of visiting the chain is a self-indulgent treat. Customers learn the language regarding sizes and special drinks and then share their customized, 12-ingredient drink orders on social media. Many look forward to seasonal specials, like this summer’s Unicorn Cake Pop and Strawberry Funnel Cake Frappuccino, which are available for a limited time. Everything but the Coffee: Learning About America From Starbucks. Starbucks is a way to communicate something about yourself to other people. I deserve a break in my life.
I can afford to waste money on coffee. There were earlier hints that supply issues could be bubbling up for Starbucks. In a late April call with Wall Street analysts, the chief executive of Starbucks, Kevin Johnson, voiced some concerns about companies in its supply chain that were struggling to hire the staff they needed. By late May, customers and baristas were reporting shortages of key ingredients or foods in stores all over the country. Fred Rogers knew something was wrong right before Memorial Day weekend when he opened his Starbucks app and an alert flashed that the company was experiencing shortages of certain items.
He wasn’t able to order his 3-year-old daughter her favorite sandwich — sausage, Cheddar and egg — from his nearby Starbucks in Burlington, N. His drink, a Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino, was also not available. But this was 6:45 in the morning. Customers may be unhappy, but Mr. Simon said the paucity of drinks or food items would likely only increase demand. One of Starbucks’s biggest challenges in recent years has been overexpansion, meaning it has shed some of the uniqueness that once made it special. Perhaps, but the issues could also be a risk if customers become too frustrated over not being able to get what they want, as they always have.