> To me this is the killer feature of Starbucks, and it's why I'm a stockholder.

Well seeing you are a stockholder you may want to know my experience.

I'd say Starbucks at least in my city in Canada has degraded mainly due to the talent or workload of its staff. They got too fancy and also try to make orders too fast. Getting it fast but junk is pointless. It seems to have started when mobile orders became a thing if I had to guess when it began.

I used to like their flat white when they actually made it correctly. They used to bang the pitcher to get out the big bubbles, it had a nice uniform beige with a white dot of milk on the top. It had a nice astringent taste from the ristretto shot.

Then the workers started (told to?) pouring milk ending with a leaf on the top for every cup. I felt like saying who cares or don't worry just pour it and move on to the next person. They don't seem to bang the pitcher to remove big bubbles. The look of it is mostly white not beige as if someone dropped their latte picked it up and gave it to you.

What a mess! And it's 100% time. I ask for a flat white now and then but realize there no way they'll ever make it right again.

This is where Starbucks shines and is impressive. Their coffee isn't all objectively bad and they have options for different tastes. But their best feature is consistency. If you like a particular bean/blend in a particular format it's going to be consistent at pretty much any Starbucks you go to.

I've found Indy hipster coffee shops can rarely deliver a consistent cup at their single location on any two days. I don't know what I actually like from those places. Sure Monday's cup made by Alex in the morning was good but Sam's cup of the same roast on Wednesday was a waste of money.

It's impressive that a chain with thousands of locations can provide such a consistent experience. It's definitely not as bad as most people claim provided you like a roast they sell.

Depends on the market. In Australia it’s definitely the lower quality end of the market (however consistently), while at the same time your chance of getting a very good quality coffee at any nearby independent cafe is extremely high.

Starbucks completely failed the first time they tried here, and are having a second shot (there must be at least a dozen stores in my 2.5M population city now). They seem to be relying mostly on fashion (seeing people with Starbucks cups in the media) - while I don’t like to stereotype, there do seem to be fairly clear demographics of people I see in the one I go past a bit - apart from some that look like tourists, you mostly see the late teens to just below middle age female crowd and a few of their partners there.

I tried Starbucks coffee a few times years ago in eastern Massachusetts and upstate New York. I don't understand how people can drink the stuff. To me, it tastes like hot water poured over charcoal. When they came out with the light roast, it just tasted like thinner charcoal.

You clearly don't know good coffee when you drink it if you think Starbucks is 80% of ideal.