Bloomberg Intelligence Starbucks Sales Accelerate as Turnaround Gains Steam
Jan 28, 2026
Andrea Felsted, Bloomberg Opinion columnist analyzing luxury trends. Caroline Hyde, tech journalist covering chipmakers, Amazon and AI. John Butler, telecom analyst on AT&T and broadband strategy. They discuss Starbucks’ turnaround and cost plans. They cover AT&T’s fiber push and telecom competition. They dig into ASML’s record orders, Amazon’s corporate cuts and SoftBank’s big AI moves, plus LVMH’s mixed holiday sales.
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Competitive Pressure From Niche Coffee Chains
- Competition for Starbucks is intensifying from Gen Z-focused chains and elevated local coffee shops across cities and suburbs.
- Starbucks is countering with health-forward items, better food quality, and afternoon drink innovation to defend share.
Simplify, Then Upgrade Food To Win
- Brinker International improved results by simplifying operations then upgrading food quality, which raised customer satisfaction and traffic.
- Menu pruning to improve speed, followed by reintroducing higher-quality items, drove big same-store sales gains at Chili's.
Fiber Leadership Enables Converged Bundles
- AT&T is well positioned as a fiber leader and aims to bundle fiber with wireless to win converged customers.
- The company plans large capex now to add millions of fiber homes and then reduce capital intensity to boost free cash flow.