Starbucks bringing back cake slices
NEW YORK, USA — STARBUCKS is learning that Americans really like their sliced cake loaves.
The Seattle-based coffee company says it will start bringing back its cake slices in response to customer feedback. The company had been getting rid of the slices that came in banana, iced lemon and pumpkin flavours as part of a staggered rollout of its pricier new baked goods. In their place, Starbucks offered what looked like miniature loaves that cost US$2.45, an increase of 20 cents.
Lisa Passe, a Starbucks spokeswoman, said the company realised that “people really like the familiar, sliced cake”. She noted that the cake slices will still be made with new recipes and carry the higher prices. Without providing details, she said the slices will return “in coming weeks”.
The new baked goods, which are warmed up in the Starbucks ovens, have so far been rolled out to roughly half of the company’s 11,500 US locations. That means about half of stores never got rid of the cake slices.
Starbucks Corp, which has been criticized for its underwhelming baked goods, has been trying to boost sales by convincing more people to get a bite to eat with their drinks. In 2012, the company bought a small bakery chain called La Boulange that it said would start producing its baked goods with better ingredients.
Among the new items that have been hitting some stores are savoury croissant squares and the sweet loaves that look like rectangular cakes, instead of the slices previously offered. One reason the new shape of the cake loaves isn’t going over well may be that they don’t look as big.
“They look a lot smaller, and they’re priced higher,” said Zee Lemke, a barista at a Starbucks cafe in Madison, Wisconsin, who said the new baked goods are doing “terribly” relative to the previous baked goods.
— AP