Starbucks just revealed that delivery has become a $1 billion annual business, growing 30% year-over-year—and it's changing everything about how we think about coffee shops. With 40% of delivery orders including food, this massive revenue stream raises critical questions about Brian Nichol's turnaround strategy.

Should Starbucks double down on automation and dark cafes, or invest in improving the in-store experience? Chris and Anne debate the future of Starbucks as delivery continues to explode.

Sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Mirakl, Ocampo Capital, Infios, and Quorso.

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#starbucks #coffeedelivery #brianniccol #starbucksstrategy #deliveryservices #ghostkitchens #coffeeshop #retailstrategy #automation #mobilepickup

Coffee delivery is now a $1 billion business for Starbucks.

Who knew?

In the company's fiscal fourth quarter, delivery sales climbed in almost 30% compared with the year ago, period.

Executives said 30% and deliveries growing 30% at Starbucks.

And I'm curious, does the fact that Starbucks now sells $1 billion of coffee a year via delivery change your thinking on Brian Nichols turnaround strategy?

No.

I still think if anything, this tells you you need to automate the hell out of your business.

You need to figure, you need to like shift gears from this like coffee shop experience and look at the potential growth on your hands here.

Bring back the pickup only.

Stores don't even put a storefront in front of them.

They could just be ghost kitchen coffee making operations where everything's automated so that you can get things to customers quickly.

And that's because they know they're going to get exactly what they want every single time they order Starbucks, not just for coffee, but also food.

They said 40% of these orders are including food because you have to help people justify those delivery costs.

And I think what this is showing me is that it already is being delivered accurately and in good condition.

Like the coffee still hot.

So how do you keep that engine going?

And that to me is what I would be focused on if I was Brian Nichol and team at Star at Starbucks.

But what, what about you?

I mean, does this change?

You're, you're pro coffee shop where.

What do you think this has?

What impact do you think this has?

I am, but I am, but I think I'm changing.

I'm coming to come into your side a little bit more.

I think there's some nuance to the argument though.

But like I think this is the bullet in the chamber for your argument, for what you've long espoused on this show.

You know, because with 30%, that's just, that just tells me 30% growth rate and delivering a billion dollar business.

That just tells me, like you said, there's just a hell of a lot of people that want their coffee.

They don't want the Starbucks experience.

It's absolutely meaningless to them.

They just want the addiction.

They just want the product that they love.

So, you know, I think you're right.

You got to go the way of like dark cafes and figure out a way to push orders through them.

The other point I hadn't thought about until you just mentioned it.

Too is like, yeah, you tried the mobile pickup only stores and things like that.

But like, you didn't market them.

Like, you know, like, how did you, how did you bring those to market?

How did you tell people about them?

Because like, for me, given the fact that now when I go to the, when I go to a Starbucks, I'm not only waiting in line for mobile pickup orders, there's people doing delivery orders too that are waiting to pick up their orders and it's taking a lot of time.

And so I'm standing in line for a really long time.

And so, so with all that said, like, tell me that there's a location where I can just go pick it up and hopefully it's faster.

Yeah, I'm all in.

But with that said, I think both ideas can be true at the same time.

And that's what Omni is all about because I'm still going into Starbucks with large queues of pickup orders, but the stores are also still full.

So I think that's a dynamic here at Place.

So I think you have to improve both.

But what this tells me is hopefully he's got the punchline to the joke here and this is a really telling statistic on that.

And my hunch is that he does.

But the other point of this is I think it's going to take more time to figure this out and more investment to figure it out than just leaning in on the stores.

On the stores, the operations, you know, keeping the employees happy, which I think is the right starting point.

But then you've got to figure out how to supply the infrastructure to make this happen quicker.

But you take the last word here.

What do you think?

Yeah, I, I mean, I don't have much to add.

I think they, they've got to figure out both operations if they are going to do it that way.

But you have to be pressing the gas on the automation and on this, keeping this delivery top of mind for people.

Otherwise people are going to sneak up and, and catch up to you on it and, and that profit could slip quickly.

So.

So yes.

Brian.

Brian, get your coffee ghost kitchens up and running.

We're ready.

We're ready for them.

Yeah, we are.