There are some who believe the coffee at coffee giant Starbucks (SBUX) is the best around. But is it good enough to cause a flight delay over? Apparently it is, as an American Airlines (AAL) flight was unexpectedly delayed due to Starbucks. Investors must have been on that flight, because they sent Starbucks shares down fractionally in Thursday afternoon’s trading.
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The story is simple, if a bit disturbing. An American Airlines flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, heading for Liberia, Costa Rica, found itself delayed as the pilot was waiting in line at a Starbucks in the airport. The delay ran at least 10 minutes, reports note, and eventually Captain DeWalt made it to his flight.
The implications were interesting as well, as the report notes “…I thought to myself what kind of respect do you have for the customer when you make an entire plane of passengers late, so you can get a Starbucks cup of coffee.” That by itself might have been enough, but then the report twisted the knife, saying, “Or maybe that also tells you what pilots think of AA coffee.” Indeed, as the report also noted, “When your onboard product is so poor that your own crew won’t drink it, that is a problem.”
Picking From Chipotle
Meanwhile, Starbucks must be satisfied with Brian Niccol, who made the jump from Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) to Starbucks back in August 2024 when Laxman Narasimhan stepped down. Starbucks went back to Chipotle to find another executive, enlisting Stephen Piacentini to serve as Starbucks’ new coffeehouse design and development officer.
Piacentini will be focusing on store design, as well as store expansion, in a bid to push Starbucks’ growing ambition to become the “third place” it once was. Having eaten in a Chipotle recently, I find myself uncertain if this is the design to go with. But given how much Starbucks has put into third place aspirations of late, it is worth knowing someone will be accountable for it at the end of the day.
Is Starbucks Stock a Good Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on SBUX stock based on 13 Buys, 11 Holds, and three Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 14.91% rally in its share price over the past year, the average SBUX price target of $100.26 per share implies 3.83% upside potential.
