On October 30, Starbucks made a groundbreaking announcement that they are finally ditching their plant milk upcharge on November 7th after years of campaigning tips the scales!
What made it happen?
Earlier this summer, our outreach to Starbucks leadership exposed
the global coffee company’s ultra-secretive baseline shifting of
climate goals that was never intended to be disclosed to the public.
Starbucks leadership was discovered to engage in data manipulation
by changing their reporting baseline when they failed to meet their
goals, neglecting to transparently address these changes with the
public.
Additionally, we uncovered a pattern of price gouging that
disproportionately affected customers of color. The groundbreaking
announcement finally puts an end to the company’s policy rooted in a
concept known as dietary racism, which has netted Starbucks $1
billion in profits thanks to an astounding upcharge of nearly 800%
on plant milk in U.S. stores [see
Fighting Dietary Racism in Schools].
After years of outreach to Starbucks corporate leadership to engage
in good-faith discussions to remove the upcharge for plant milk—a
policy rooted in dietary racism—Starbucks leadership took heed of
Switch4Good’s latest campaign at Seattle headquarters and announced
their intention to remove the upcharge starting on November 7th at
U.S. and Canadian stores.
Throughout this summer and fall, Switch4Good team members have been
working with a Starbucks corporate insider, as well as managers and
baristas around the U.S., to pressure the coffee giant to drop the
upcharge. Dotsie Bausch, Switch4Good's founder, led the charge,
authoring a letter to Starbucks’ Senior Leadership. Outreach at
major Starbucks locations throughout Seattle, accompanied by a
roving billboard imploring Starbucks leadership to drop the
upcharge—and one CEO change later — and the company is finally
meeting Switch4Good’s years-long demands.
Creating global change
“Uncovering Starbucks' overt corporate greed and their secret
climate baseline shifting is what finally tipped the scales in favor
of dropping the plant milk upcharge. Starbucks' new CEO certainly
didn’t want any of their shady dealings released to their customers
or to their board of directors which unveiled layers of climate
commitment fraud and price gouging customers.”, said Dotsie.
Prior to Starbucks announcing its intention to cease charging extra
for plant milk in the U.S., Switch4Good successfully pressured
Starbucks to drop the upcharge in the U.K., Chile, France, Germany,
and throughout most of Europe.
This is not just our victory–it's your victory to celebrate, too!
Thank you for your unyielding support, messages, generous donations,
and thousands of letters you've sent to Starbucks' management. We
finally did it–for human health, the animals, and the
Earth–together!