Starbucks has decided to rehire human baristas across 3,000 locations after its efforts to replace human labor with advanced machinery proved unsuccessful. CEO Brian Niccol admitted that their prior assumptions regarding technology offsetting labor were incorrect. He emphasized that while introducing new equipment is important, the key to improved customer experience lies in adequately staffing stores. This move is part of Niccol's broader strategy to revitalize the company amidst falling sales, with recent reports indicating a 1% drop in same-store sales in Q1 2025, marking five quarters of declining performance.
"Over the last couple of years, we've actually been removing labor from the stores, I think with the hope that equipment could offset the removal of the labor... That wasn't an accurate assumption."
"Equipment doesn't solve the customer experience that we need to provide, but rather staffing the stores and deploying with this technology behind it does."
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