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View Full Version : Starbucks 4Q profits down 97%



KitchenKitten99
11-11-2008, 08:30 AM
Starbucks 4Q profit drops 97 pct on closure costs
By LAUREN SHEPHERD, AP Business Writer
14 HOURS AGO
NEW YORK - Fewer U.S. customers and venti-sized costs for closing poorly performing stores led to lower sales and profit in the fourth quarter at Starbucks Corp., the company said Monday.

Seattle-based Starbucks said profit fell 97 percent to $5.4 million, or a penny a share, from $158.5 million, or 21 cents per share, a year earlier. The coffee retailer earned 10 cents per share when the costs from closing about 600 stores in the U.S. and 61 locations in Australia are excluded.

Analysts expected profit of 13 cents per share, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

Starbucks began shutting the U.S. and Australian stores this summer as part of a campaign to reverse slowing sales and falling profits at the company. That turnaround began at the start of the year when former Chief Executive Howard Schultz took back the reins of the company to again fill the CEO and chairman posts.

...see rest at link

I love Starbucks, but they closed both the ones with drive-thrus that were within 5 miles of my house. Now the only one near me that is open doesn't have a drive-thru. I like to stop on cold winter weekend mornings if I am helping open the store I work at (which on Saturdays, I can be scheduled as early as 7am), and luckily the one closest that has a drive-thru is on my way. If I am by myself and not on my way to work, I will go in the store, but I don't like have to drag both my kids in the store just for a coffee, so I go even less than I did before, which then was at least four times a month, more in the cold months.

There is a Caribou across from my work that I do visit, but they don't have the winter flavors I like that Starbuck's has, like the EggNog Chai or Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Nukeman
11-11-2008, 08:48 AM
lets see in this economy, a cup of coffee from starbucks or a gallon of gas. Gee which one would you choose. It is very sad when starbucks feels they have tocharge 3-5 dollars for a cup of coffee and then wonder why their profits are down.

MtnBiker
11-11-2008, 09:53 AM
Bailout!! :coffee:

LiberalNation
11-11-2008, 10:22 AM
Over priced coffee that isn't that much better = starbucks.

They are actually opening a new one up at our school next year but they are almost guaranteed some revenue. Everyone must now purchase a mandatory $250 meal plan per semester for the campus restaurants whether they eat on campus or not. Plus I’m sure this is a populace who would use it a lot.

hjmick
11-11-2008, 10:28 AM
Bailout!! :coffee:

Why not? Circuit City as well. Let them both nuzzle up and suckle the government teet. The precedent for bailing out businesses has been set. Can't have all those baristas and pimply faced electronics "experts" out of work.

Binky
11-11-2008, 12:31 PM
Well, at the prices they charge and the wages most people make, and the fact that the economy is so bad, I can understand why they have been closing stores and their stock has dropped. Duh! Doesn't take an Einstein to figure it out!

Sitarro
11-11-2008, 12:42 PM
I have gone to Starbucks all around the country and they have one thing in common. When I order, no matter how I order, it will be repeated back to me in a different way....... Starbuck's speak? If I ask for an iced coffee, large, it becomes an iced venti coffee non sweetened. If I ask for the same thing their way, they will change the order of the words to unsweetened ice coffee....venti. It is usually in a very condescending way. I have gone into some that weren't as bad and some people behind the counter were friendly but most have a Starbucks attitude. Because of this I quit going, that and the skimpiness of the shots in a venti mocha. 2???? in 20 ounces???? why not call it chocolate milk with coffee?

I like Dietrich Coffee Houses much better.

manu1959
11-11-2008, 12:51 PM
starbucks coffee is crap....

Binky
11-12-2008, 01:27 AM
Coffee smells great! But tastes like crapola! Yuck!