Starbucks CEO talks prices, new technology to optimize wait time, bringing back Sharpies

Innovation at Starbucks, in part, means getting back to its roots as a community coffee house, but it also means creating a more efficient ordering process that the CEO hopes will one day mean having a freshly brewed cup of coffee ready in less than 30 seconds.

Brian Niccol, the new CEO who joined Starbucks this September to reinvigorate the 53-year-old American coffee giant that serves 100 million customers a week, sat down with ABC News chief business correspondent Rebecca Jarvis to discuss what’s new under his leadership and where the company is headed.

“I think what you’re going to see is a very orderly mobile order business with its own dedicated pickup area,” he said of his vision for what Starbucks looks like in five years. “You’re going to have an experience where when you walk in and you interact with the barista, it’s going to be really quick for that brewed cup of coffee. My hope is we can get you a brewed cup of coffee in less than 30 seconds.”

Since joining the Seattle-based company, Niccol has already made some positive changes that have been popular with its customers, like eliminating the upcharge on nondairy milk.

Now, he said customers can expect some more changes, starting with “simple things, bringing back the Sharpies.”

“[We’re] bringing back the coffee condiment bar so you can get your brewed cup of coffee and go ahead and doctor it up how you want,” Niccol continued.”You’ll see us continue to push towards how do we make it easier for you to get your coffee, get the drink you want? And then also simplify the execution for our baristas and partners to give the customers the experience they want.”

Considering customer demand for speed and options, Niccol said “right now” the company is “investing in how do we build the technology so that when a mobile order comes in, we basically give you a time that your drink will be ready.”

“Today, you know, we just kind of give you an estimate, ‘hey, it’ll be ready in three to five minutes.’ In the future, what’ll happen is we’ll be like, ‘Rebecca, your drink will be ready at nine,’ instead of it just being made, sitting on the counter [and] waiting for people to come.”

While working to improve in-store ordering, Niccol’s goal is to get espresso drinks out in less than four minutes. But that will also mean a smaller menu.

“We’ve got a lot of offerings that there’s just one or two of these ordered a day,” he said. “The way I talk about it is, we’re going to do fewer things, but we’re going to do fewer things better.”

And for now, the former Chipotle CEO said unlike his previous company which announced a 2% increase to prices on Wednesday, Starbucks is settling in on its current prices.

“The approach we’ve taken right now is we’re going to hit the pause button on any pricing for this fiscal year,” he said. “I still think there’s an opportunity for us to simplify the pricing architecture right now — I don’t love the fact that in our app right now, while you’re doing this customization, it doesn’t inform you what has happened to the price,” he noted for example, “so I want to get more transparent with the pricing.”

Niccol also showed ABC News inside one of his favorite spots, the quality control area of its Seattle headquarters, where teams of trained coffee professionals test every batch of coffee each morning by sight, smell, and taste in the cupping room.

Adrienne Dewey, Vice President of Global Coffee and Tea Quality, described how she and her team test 500 cups a day from 100 lots of beans that come from all over the world. The team is looking for sensory abnormalities and utilize special tools like a “cupping spoon.”

Demonstrating the taste test Dewey said, “We’re going to do a noisy slurp — and you’re going to really aerate that across your palate, because most of our sense of taste comes from aroma, from smell,” explaining the process. “The louder the better, usually.”