The world’s largest café chain, Starbucks, has announced that it will raise the prices of its beverages in the coming months. Following increases in coffee costs, Starbucks’ chairman, president, and CEO Howard Schultz said that all this time the coffee chain has tried to keep the prices the same by absorbing the costs but will not be able to do so in the future.
The announcement did not include information, however, about which drinks will be priced more and by how much the prices would increase. Starbucks also plans to increase the prices of its packaged coffee, including beans sold in grocery stores. Some of the items on the menu may increase by as much as 33%.
It did say that the labor intensive, hard-to-make drinks would probably be the ones that will cost more. Even extras of anything are said to cost more in the future – an extra shot of espresso went from 55 cents to 70 cents and a shot of syrup to added to a latte rose 33 percent to 40 cents. However, the good news is that the prices of regular drinks are not expected to change much, and may even decrease. The tall, brewed coffee will still cost $1.50.
“This is as a part of our comprehensive approach to providing the value while balancing our business responsibilities,” spokeswoman Valerie O’Neil said at the time. Other coffee sellers have been raising prices, too. Prices for Folgers, Dunkin’ Donuts and Millstone brands made by the J.M. Smucker Co. rose an average of 9 percent last month, the company said.