Posted on 07/23/2007 2:06:24 PM PDT by BenLurkin
ANGELES (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp. (NasdaqGS:SBUX - News) will raise U.S. prices on coffee, lattes and other drinks by about 9 cents a cup next week to help offset soaring costs on commodities such as milk and energy, a spokesman said on Monday.
The move marks Starbucks' second price increase in less than a year and comes a month after the coffee shop chain's chief financial officer warned that it would be "very challenging" for Starbucks to meet the high end of its 2007 earnings forecast, due in part to rising dairy prices.
The higher costs have also been a concern for investors, who have sent Starbucks' shares down more than 20 percent this year.
"We're always looking at the business costs, and given the rising cost environment in which we operate we think this is an appropriate time," spokesman Brandon Borrman said.
Starbucks' last price hike of about 5 cents per drink went into effect in October.
The latest increase affects drinks made behind the counter and is effective July 31 at Starbucks' 6,300 company-owned stores in the United States, Borrman said. Licensed stores control their own prices but are expected to follow the move, he added. There are about 3,500 licensed Starbucks stores in the United States.
Prices on bottled drinks, whole bean coffee and food are unaffected.
Priced me out of the market pretty long ago.
Hmm, let’s see how this will affect me .....
Oh, it won’t affect me at all.
Now if we can just get the government to start taxing lattes like they do cigarettes we’ll all be in a better place. /hippy
So basically we are diverting the corn crop to ethanol and raising the price on just about every form of food but not lowering energy prices.
Thank you Al Gore. And Thank you to you Republican assistants.
My bad karma for snickering when mexican pricing for tortillas doubled over new ethanol production.
Bet the swill isn’t any better then it was. So who cares.
Now I can save MORE money! I don’t drink their overpriced la ti da drinks now, and I will save more when I don’t buy it after they raise the price.
I’m happy.
Btw, (cue Annie music) tomorrow tomorrow, i’ll be there ...tomorrow, it’s only a dayy awayyyyyyyyyy
Overpriced coffee getting more overpriced......
They don’t call it StarBUCK$ for nothing. And do us a favor: give us a choice between small, medium, and large sizes.
Brother, can you spare a sawbuck?.......
I may have a small latte at the Starbucks at my church on occasion. I will NOT patronize the Starbucks at my dry cleaners, or the one at my doctor’s office waiting room, or the one at my bank.
ping
Individual stores set their own prices but buy the drinks from the corporation?
We need a $10 federal excise tax on Starbucks’ lattes to pay for children’s health care. The primary payers of this will be liberals.
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