Starbucks aims to brew on the blockchain by the end of this year
The Interim CEO for Starbucks, Howard Shultz, announced his famous chain of coffee houses “will be in the NFT business.”
Shultz reached out to a global audience of around 15,000 employees at the Open Forum on April 4, sharing his love and future hopes for the chain he built:
“If you look at the companies, the brands, the celebrities and the influencers that are trying to create a digital NFT platform and business, I can’t find one of them that has the treasure trove of assets that Starbucks has, from collectibles to the entire heritage of the company.
“So, here’s the secret: sometime before the end of this calendar year, we will be in the NFT business.”
The speech came into context following a discussion about unionization efforts for major worldwide franchises.
INDUSTRY CHALLENGES
Starbucks has recently faced various industry challenges. Customers and employees are dissatisfied with rising inflation, pushing stock prices down by more than 20% this year.
The coffeehouse chain plans to raise its stock prices by selling digital assets rather than solely selling coffee, cakes and other physical goods.
People have responded negatively to the upcoming plans. One Twitter member sarcastically commented on a video of Shultz’s revealing his new ambitions on Twitter, saying, “according to capitalism theory, he earned it.”
THE FUTURE OF STARBUCKS
Nevertheless, there’s no stopping Shultz. He is now on the hunt for a new CEO – one which understands the potential of digital technologies:
“I think the next CEO is going to be a creative person who’s going to understand that the equity of the Starbucks brand has real legitimacy and relevance outside of our stores. And the world we’re living in today, our customer base is getting younger, they’re digital natives, and they expect Starbucks to be as relevant outside of our stores as we are inside,” Schultz explained.
Now it is a question of how the upcoming CEO will implement digital collectibles to entice Starbucks’ target market worldwide.
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