Coffee in Seattle

A consumer protection group alleged Starbucks’ mobile app traps users in a vicious cycle of beverage buying in a December complaint to Washington’s Attorney General. The coffee chain’s mobile app allegedly uses “dark patterns” to make low funds on a Starbucks Card unusable, forcing you to add $10 or lose that money altogether.Let’s Eat a Chocolate Xbox Controller“The Starbucks Payment Platform involves unfair and deceptive digital dark patterns that effectively trap its customers into prepaying for the company’s…

Longtime Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is currently under investigation for the coffee chain’s labor practices and he has some choice words for lawmakers on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee. He doesn’t like being referred to as a billionaire. Like seriously...stop calling him that. He just has billions of dollars and grew up poor.Does Beyond Meat’s Plant Have a Mold Problem?Schultz is currently the subject of a Senator Bernie Sanders-led Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee hearing into the…

Photo: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)If you’ve ever walked out of a Starbucks, infant-sized latte in hand, and thought, “Geez, this coffee’s really lacking some Silicon Valley-inspired innovation,” then good news. The brand that once tried to cash in on a dying CD industry is now leaning into the struggling Web3 marketing ecosystem in an attempt to create digital communities overflowing with, “immersive coffee experiences.” Finally. This week, the coffee giant unveiled Starbucks Odyssey which essentially merges the…