Skip to footer

Why is Starbucks hiking prices again?

Starbucks will raise the prices for some of its coffee beverages by 5 to 20 cents in the US, beginning Tuesday. The price hike from Starbucks comes as other coffee producers are cutting prices.

|
Gene J. Puskar/AP/File
The Starbucks logo is seen at one of the company's coffee shops in downtown Chicago. Starbucks says it’s hiking prices again starting Tuesday, July 7, 2015, with the increases ranging from 5 to 20 cents for most affected drinks
  • By Staff Reuters

Starbucks Corp said it would raise prices for some of its coffee beverages by 5-20 cents in the United States beginning Tuesday.

Starbucks, however, will leave the prices of some popular beverages such as the Grande Brewed Coffee and the Frappuccino unchanged in most U.S. outlets, it said on Monday.

The price hike comes at a time coffee prices have cooled from highs hit last year after a drought in the world's biggest coffee producer, Brazil, triggered supply concerns.

Some other coffee sellers are cutting prices. Last week, The J.M. Smucker Co. said it would cut prices for most of its coffee products because of declines in future prices for unroasted coffee beans. In an emailed statement Monday, Starbucks Corp. said coffee costs are only part of its expenses, which also include rent, labor, marketing and equipment.

The statement said the company continually evaluates pricing to "balance the need to run our business profitably while continuing to provide value to our loyal customers and to attract new customers."

A representative for Starbucks, Lisa Passe, said the price increases are expected to impact less than 20 percent of customers. But that estimate is based on current purchasing patterns, which include more cold drinks given the warmer weather.

Arabica coffee futures on ICE fell to a one-and-a-half year low on Monday.

Starbucks said the price hikes would affect fewer than 20 percent of its customers and would increase the average ticket by 1 percent.

The price hike, which will be implemented "market-by-market and product-by-product," will not include food items or packaged coffee, Ms. Passe told Reuters.

Tall (12 oz) and Venti (20 oz) cups of brewed coffee - small and big in Starbucks' lingo - will cost 10 cents more each in most U.S. markets, the company said in an emailed statement.

For example, a Venti coffee will now cost $2.45 in most U.S. outlets.

Starbucks raised prices last year for most of its drinks, including the Grande Brewed Coffee, for the first time in four years.

U.S. roaster J.M. Smucker Co said last week that it would cut prices for most of its Folgers and Dunkin' Donuts coffee brands to bring back customers. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Why is Starbucks hiking prices again?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2015/0707/Why-is-Starbucks-hiking-prices-again
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe