Brian Niccol, the CEO of Starbucks said that he wanted his cafes to feel like Central Perk from the TV show “Friends”. Niccol told the Wall Street Journal about his “back to Starbucks plan”, a yearlong process of turning around the brand after several quarters of declining sales amid a deteriorating customer experience. He also told Alan Murray, president of The WSJ Leadership Institute, that the name “Back to Starbucks” helped to give his baristas a “visual understanding” of the café experience he was trying to achieve.
“Because everybody remembers a ‘Friends’ episode, or that coffee house experience, by me saying ‘Back to Starbucks,’ that kind of hearkens that memory of what I would call the barista-customer connection that we’re after,” Niccol said.
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“Central Perk” is a coffee shop that played a major role in the setting of the TV show “Friends”. The place featured on almost every episode of the show during its 10 season run. The cast was often filmed sitting on Central Perk’s mismatched sofas and chairs, ordering coffee and baked goods, and making small talk with the awkward manager, Gunther.
This comes amid Niccol’s efforts to rebrand Starbucks from what customers and employees said was a soulless conglomerate chain, to a “warm and inviting third place”. He took the top job in September 2024. He simplified the menu, introduced more seating and tables in the cafés, offered free coffee and tea refills, brought back the condiment station and ceramic mugs, and encouraged baristas to write small notes on coffee cups to interact with their customers.
However, the company’s sales are still facing challenges. It reported a 1% increase in its global comparable sales for the fourth quarter of this year, compared to the same period last year. Its stock price is down more than 6% since the start of the year.
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Starbucks also recently announced it is closing roughly 400 stores nationwide that are concentrated in large metro areas as part of its $1 billion restructuring plan. This has been part of a change in its strategy. Previously the coffee chain was focused on saturating urban areas to draw coffee drinkers on their way to work in the morning, however the sustainability of this approach has been called into question with rising competition and remote work.
The company also recently saw a major strike by its labor union. The striking workers have demanded better hours and increased staffing. Earlier this month, Starbucks agreed to pay more than 15,000 New York City workers to settle claims it denied them stable schedules and arbitrarily cut their hours.