A Starbucks coffee cup is seen outside a Starbucks coffeeshop in Washington, DC (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Grande

Cinnamon, Sharpies, and the 1990s: Brian Niccol’s plan to save Starbucks

The strategy? Make it 1997 again through science or magic.

10/31/24 2:25PM

Brian Niccol was hired to turn things around at Starbucks, and the new CEO is already bringing in some of that classic Niccol heat.

The former Chipotle boss, who oversaw the development of “Chipotlanes” (drive-throughs) and an 800% increase in the company’s share price from 2018 to 2024, has spent a sizable chunk of his first 52 days at Starbucks coming up with ideas to return the $110 billion global chain to its former glory.

A nonexhaustive list of those plans (which, perhaps notably, does not include changing or improving the taste of the coffee in any way whatsoever):

Buying 200,000 Sharpies to bring back handwritten names on cups
Replacing some metal chairs with comfy chairs (and possibly installing some warmer lightbulbs?)
Bringing back the condiment bar (i.e.: putting sugar, milk, and cinnamon out for customers to add themselves)
Serving to-stay coffee in ceramic mugs
Ending the olive-oil coffee thing that worked like a laxative
Nixing the alt-milk tax
Scaling back on limited-time-offer drinks like the Unicorn Frappuccino
Pivoting away from discounts but also freezing menu prices for the rest of the fiscal year

If most of these ideas sound like just Starbucks in 1998, that’s by design. Niccol said he wanted the chain to “reclaim the third place” vibe customers once associated with it and pivot back toward the idea of a community coffeehouse.

The test for Niccol and Starbucks will be if misspelling customer names (charming) and trusting customers with their own milk (homey) will be enough to snap three straight quarters of declining sales, cover its free fall in China, or make up for the nearly $250 million it spent fighting its workers’ unionization efforts (mostly unsuccessfully).

Tom Jones

hut’s off

Yum! Brands might have found a potential buyer for Pizza Hut

Yum! is in exclusive talks with private equity firm LongRange Capital about a sale, per reports.

Hyunsoo Rim

hot dogs & half tanks

Costco’s gas stations are breaking records as drivers seek cheaper fuel

Higher prices have pushed many members to the retailer’s pumps for the first time.

Max Knoblauch5/29/26

The Trump administration is reportedly planning a 50% made-in-America requirement for USMCA tariff relief

Qualifying for USMCA-related lower tariffs may soon require more US-made vehicle components, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

The Trump administration is reportedly planning to introduce a 50% US content requirement for vehicles covered by the trade pact to receive lower tariffs. The content would be measured by cost, according to the WSJ.

There currently isn’t any US-specific requirement for those lower tariff rates, but in order to receive preferential tariffs, vehicles are must contain at least 75% regional content (components made in North America). Per Reuters reporting, the Trump admin is seeking to raise the regional requirement to 82%.

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Overall, Tesla will likely have the easiest time qualifying for any stricter requirements. The automaker’s vehicles contained the highest amount of US/Canadian content in 2025, according to American University research. Ford, GM, and Stellantis all scored lower.

Notably: the underlying government data that many domestic content measurements rely on intentionally combines US and Canadian components, so it’s difficult to know exactly how much of any given vehicle is specifically US-made.

Exclusive | Trump Administration Wants Autos Under USMCA to Be at Least 50% Made in America

These reported plans are subject to change as the US negotiates USMCA terms with Mexico over the next few months.

Tom Jones5/29/26

The $640,000 Luce makes the average Ferrari look like a bargain

Put aside the shape; put aside the smoothing out of Ferrari’s iconic sharp edges; put aside, even, the calls from former Chairman and President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo to “take the Prancing Horse off.” On the grounds of price alone, Luce detractors might have a point.

By now, many of us will have read the criticisms of Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle, as the Luce — which was unveiled to the world earlier this week and promptly saw the company’s shares crash out in New York and Milan — gets subtly shaded by competitors online and not-so-subtly shaded by basically everyone else.

What makes all of this worse for Ferrari is that, even by the luxury car maker’s notoriously high standards, they’ve slapped a pretty hefty price tag on the Luce, and the company’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna, has already been forced to defend the €550,000 ($640,000) price point, saying yesterday that it’s “fair to pay for innovation,” per Reuters.

While Ferrari’s cars have been getting more expensive of late, as recently as 2022, Ferrari’s average revenue per car sold was around $340,000. At nearly twice that price, this new electric model is obviously proving a little much (visually, conceptually, and financially) for many loyal and long-standing fans of the Prancing Horse to stomach.