Reuters/Juan Carlos Ulate
Starbucks raised its coffee prices this week.
- Starbucks quietly raised its prices on brewed coffee this week.
- Coffee is now 10 to 20 cents more expensive across all sizes.
- Starbucks says that the price increases do not have anything to do with the racial-bias training and closures that took place at the chain last week.
Starbucks just quietly increased the price of coffee.
The coffee giant raised prices by between 10 cents and 20 cents on brewed coffee, across sizes, at most of its 8,000 company-operated locations across the United States, The Wall Street Journal first reported on Thursday.
A "tall" brewed coffee now costs between $1.95 and $2.15, an increase from last week. Most drinks other than brewed coffee - such as lattes, mochas, iced coffees, and Frappuccinos - have not been impacted by the price increases.
"Starbucks continually evaluates pricing on a product-by-product and market-by-market basis," a Starbucks representative told Business Insider in an email. "Evaluating prices periodically allows us to balance the need to run our business profitably while continuing to provide value to our loyal customers and to attract new customers."
According to the representative, the company has raised prices by 1% to 2% in the past year, "on par with the industry practices and is in line with food away from home inflation."
The representative also denied that the price increases had anything to do with the chain's closure of locations across the US for racial-bias training last week.
In late May, Starbucks closed 8,000 stores for mandatory employee training, costing the company an estimated $12 million. The training came after two black men were arrested in a Philadelphia Starbucks when they tried to use the bathroom without having ordered anything. Footage of the arrests went viral, sparking boycott threats.
It has been an eventful few weeks for Starbucks. On Monday, Howard Schultz announced he was stepping down after more than three decades at the company. Schultz has led the coffee chain in roles as CEO and as executive chairman since the late 1980s.