Covid-19 has seriously messed with Starbucks, vaporizing its breakfast traffic of millions of American office workers lining up for java starting at 5 a.m. at its thousands of locations. As a result, we may have witnessed Peak Starbucks. 1/4 https://marker.medium.com/the-case-for-shorting-starbucks-388a91e65421

For context, Starbucks is like the iPhone, Tesla and Amazon delivery—a rare product that sweeps in and changes society utterly. Before WeWork, it invented the co-working space. It also created now-ubiquitous phrases like, “Double tall origin vanilla soy latte, please.” 2/4

Now, though, the drivethru lane and grab-and-go pickup are all the rage, and Starbucks thinks it has to join the parade if it wants its pre-pandemic revenue back. It is installing them everywhere, which is understandable when you look at last quarter’s 40% drop in sales. 3/4

But it’s also risky. People go to Starbucks with the memory of their larger, more generous and reflective self. How long before we forget all that and view Starbucks as just a drive-thru lane, and once that happens, doesn’t it risk just blending in with everyone else? 4/4