Starbucks’ Red Cup Day Gave Sales a Smaller Boost Than Last Year

Starbucks’ annual Red Cup Day was not as big a draw for festive-coffee lovers as in past years.

The event's sixth year, which gave customers who purchased one of Starbucks’ holiday drinks on Nov. 16 a free reusable red cup, saw a 31.7% increase in visits compared with the daily average visitors during the previous five weeks, according to data from trend analytics firm Placer.ai. This was a drop of about 50 percentage points from last year’s Red Cup Day, which drove an 81% jump in visitors.

In 2020 and 2021, daily visits during Red Cup Day jumped by 74.4% and 65.0%, respectively.

This was part of a larger trend of more “muted” responses to the coffee chain’s festive releases this year, according to the firm’s analysis of foot traffic; visits during the first full week following the release of the Holiday Menu were down 3.4% year-over-year. 

This was not the case for Starbucks’ fall menu items, however. Sales of its iconic Pumpkin Spice Latte and other popular fall items helped propel Starbucks to record revenue during its most recent quarter, the coffee chain said in its fourth-quarter earnings release earlier this month.

This year’s fall menu rollout drove a roughly 25% increase in visits on the day of the launch compared with the 2017 launch visits, in what was the largest spike in recent years, Placer.ai found in an August report.

Starbucks launched its holiday seasonal drinks on Nov. 2, which includes the new Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai, as well as annual classics like the Peppermint Mocha, Caramel Brulée Latte, Chestnut Praline Latte and Iced Sugar Cookie Almondmilk Latte.

The lower figures this year could also be a result of last year’s success, rather than a weakened demand this year, the analytics firm said, pointing to Starbucks’ strong year-over-year performance in the weeks before the holiday menu launch.

Unionized Starbucks workers participated in a one-day strike during this year's Red Cup Day at hundreds of locations across the U.S. to protest low staffing levels and a lack of progress on union contract negotiations.