We are going to be relearning what a depressed economy looks like under inflation. The model of “tipping” should already be gone. Starbucks should already be gone. Frivolous expenditures are excised by consumers struggling to keep up with the inflation racket.
Starbucks is fighting reality, here, which often happens. It will simply accelerate the end of Starbucks. This may not be a bad thing, as Starbucks increasingly looks like the orchestra playing on the deck of the Titanic.
There are luxuries, hobbies, and frivilous habits that die hard. A farmer I drive truck for seasonally has 3 dump semis hauling the special red dirt for baseball and softball diamonds. They sometimes haul it 400 miles one way, just so some high school or college can have the same dirt as the pros. Absurd, but there are spoiled coaches, parents, kids, and fans that will raise the money one way or another.
I’ve spelled one of his drivers before, and hauled the dirt over 200 miles: to small public schools that could use that money elsewhere. The economy will have to collapse before these sports addicts will give up their special dirt.