Stressed Starbucks workers have complained of chronic issues with understaffing, which leads to backlogs in coffee shops.
According to an internal survey seen by Bloomberg, only 33 percent of workers at the company’s 10,000 US locations say stores consistently have sufficient workers.
Staffing levels ranked as the issue with the lowest approval rating in the 45-question poll, which was carried out in April.
‘We are constantly only given a skeleton staff,’ one worker said in comments collected as part of the survey.
Making early efforts to address workers’ concerns around staffing will be crucial for new CEO Brian Niccol, Bloomberg reported, who took over the top job last month.
Alongside high prices, slow service and long wait times is one of the biggest customer gripes with the chain, which has seen sales plunge in recent months.
Stressed Starbucks workers have complained of chronic issues with understaffing, which leads to backlogs in coffee shops
Workers said understaffing leads to backlogs in locations, which often have snaking lines of frustrated customers.
Less than half of the workers who carried out the survey, which was shared internally in July, said their equipment was reliable, which made staffing problems worse.
Employees asked Niccol about the issue at a companywide forum on his second day on the job, according to a transcript of the event seen by Bloomberg.
‘The team is already working on it. You are being heard,’ the new CEO said.
He pledged to ’empower’ baristas to take better care of customers, and give them the ‘tools and time’ they need to do their jobs in an open letter later the same day.
Three anonymous managers at Starbucks locations across the US told Bloomberg they have little bandwidth left for administrative tasks such as making schedules or coaching workers because they are having to spend more time making drinks for customers.
One told the outlet that baristas and supervisors in their store are regularly skipping breaks and meals to keep up with the flurry of orders.
At times, one worker has to cover multiple stations at once, including taking orders at the drive-thru and warming food, which slows down service.
Starbucks said in a statement that it is refining the model it uses to allocate staffing to make sure it more precisely meets each store’s needs.
The company has bolstered the levels of staff in 3,500 stores in the past year, it added.
Newly minted Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol (pictured) has pledged to ’empower’ baristas to take better care of customers
Customers have increasingly been turned off by long wait times and rising prices at the chain
Starbucks customers think the chain is the least affordable, according to a new survey
It comes as it was revealed that the chain is scaling back promotions offered through its mobile app, as part of early moves by Niccol.
The aim is to reportedly take some of the pressure off employees who get flooded with orders when discounts are available, as well as reposition Starbucks as a premium brand after a turbulent few months.
It marks a reversal for the coffee chain, which had been running an increasing number of promotions and special deals over the last year, after largely avoiding discount offers for decades.
Like many other restaurant chains and major supermarkets, Starbucks had been using deals as a way to chase inflation-weary and cash-strapped customers after years of price hikes.
Furious customers vented their anger on social media following the news of the discount cutbacks.
‘$8 cup of coffee, no thank you,’ one user wrote on social media site X.
It comes as a new survey shows that only 51 percent of customers believe that Starbucks is affordable – far below its competitors.
