Starbucks plans 1,000 store renovations by end of 2026
Starbucks is on track to complete 1,000 café renovations by the end of 2026, CEO Brian Niccol said during Wednesday’s Q4 earnings call. The previously announced new store designs emphasize improved lighting, seating, and a welcoming aesthetic, and have already been implemented in a few stores in select New York and California markets.
Additionally, Niccol said that the company is piloting a new store prototype with, “lower build cost and optimized space utilization that still delivers a full coffeehouse experience.” This newer prototype appears poised to take the place of the now-discontinued pickup-only cafes. Niccol said that one of the former pickup locations in New York was just converted to this nimbler, budget-friendly design.
Store makeovers are just one part of the “Back to Starbucks” strategy that leadership said is not just focused on bringing back the glory days of peak Starbucks success, but also on improving efficiency and value perception. While progress is slow and steady — global same-store sales growth increased for the first time in seven quarters, but U.S. comps remain flat — CFO Cathy Smith emphasized that this is a “multiyear turnaround plan” and will take time.
During Q4, Starbucks reported progress on the efficiency front, with improved and increased staffing levels and longer store hours amid a full rollout of the new Green Apron strategy and order sequencing algorithm.
“We made much needed investments in staffing and hours to put more partners on the floor at the right times, we reassessed and extended hours of operations for about half of our US. company operated portfolio so that nearly all are now open consistently at or before 5 a.m.,” Niccol said. “We expanded rosters and maintained healthy hours per partner, and as a result, we had strong partner engagement, record low hourly partner turnover and improved customer experience scores in the fourth quarter.”
Additionally, Niccol said, since implementing the new smart queue sequencing algorithm, more than 80% of Starbucks cafes have gotten their service times down to four minutes or less, though last year Niccol predicted that they’d be able to get customers a cup of coffee in 30 seconds or less.
While Starbucks has been criticized for its pricing, its value scores have gone up as the company emphasizes the non-pricing parts of value, like café experience, shorter wait times, and menu innovations like the new protein beverage platform.
“Value perception strengthened across all generations in the fourth quarter and for the fiscal year, driven by our investment in green apron service and our proactive moves to bring back the condiment bar, simplify our pricing architecture and remove the extra charge for nondairy milks,” Niccol said. “We know our value equation extends beyond pricing, and when we provide great customer service, alongside handcrafted personalized beverages, made with high quality ingredients, we provide unmatched value to our customers.”
But the company still has a long way to go to get to a more comfortable stage of sustained growth. Looking forward, leadership said that 2026 will bring an improved bakery case with artisanal baked goods, a more robust customizable matcha menu, and improvements to the Starbucks mobile app and rewards program.
Starbucks, however, did not provide concrete fiscal forecasts for 2026, with Smith implying that the Q4 store closures would affect numbers.
“Turnarounds are difficult to forecast, and while we have good reason to believe that our U.S. company-operated comps should build through the year, we also know that recoveries are not always linear,” she said.
Starbucks ended the 2025 fiscal year with 40,990 stores.
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