• by Todd Wasserman , November 12, 2022

Starbucks is among the restaurants with a strong connection to Gen Z, as the company’s executives outlined in a Nov. 3 conference call with analysts.

“When you go into our stores, you see that the relevance of Starbucks is not the coffee your parents drink, but the coffee that young people are choosing every single day,” said Brady Brewer, CMO of Starbucks Corp., during the call.

Starbucks is “seen as the first choice for coffee away from home,” he continued. “So, the younger you go, the stronger the brand affinity gets. And the more diverse you go, the stronger the brand affinity gets.”

But Starbucks’ future seems to be in cold beverages, rather than hot ones.

Howard Schultz, founder and interim chief executive officer, said during the call that 76% of total beverage sales in the U.S. are cold coffee beverages in company-operated stores in the U.S.

“Customers are increasingly further customizing their cold coffee beverages by adding high-margin beverage flavor modifiers to create unique beverages tailored to their own particular taste preferences,” he said.

Schultz added that Starbucks’ customer has gotten younger and that younger customers tend to have more discretionary money at their disposal. “Their loyalty to Starbucks has been quite significant and predictable,” Schultz said.