Starbucks Is Yanking Some Drinks From Its 'Complex' Menu

Brian Niccol has no easy task ahead of him. The new Starbucks CEO has been on the job about two months, and the current state of things is not great. The company is set to report its fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday afternoon, and the preliminary numbers it released last week were underwhelming, per the AP: a 6% drop in global same-store sales for the quarter amid "a pronounced traffic decline"—with transactions being down 10% year over year. "The company, in a sign that it will take time for Mr. Niccol to fix Starbucks's issues, suspended its financial guidance for the 2025 fiscal year," observes the New York Times. But Starbucks is already starting to make moves:

• In a decision that Bloomberg reports predated Niccol's hiring, Starbucks will shrink its menu slightly by doing away with the olive oil drinks the company introduced less than two years ago. Oleato products will be yanked from the core menu on Nov. 7; it's also giving the ax to its toffee nut syrup. The move syncs with one of Niccol's stated priorities: to tackle the chain's "overly complex" menu.
• The company wants more customers in its stores—and more employees in its offices. The Wall Street Journal reports the company is making sure corporate employees know its return-to-office mandate, which has been in place for two years, isn't optional. Starting in January, Starbucks will have an "accountability process" in place to ensure corporate employees are logging the three in-office days they're supposed to each week. An internal message obtained by the Journal states that employees who don't comply may be terminated.

(More Starbucks stories.)