There is a fascinating new subgenre of reporting within the Regime Media: the hidden “Bidenomics Really Sucks” story. The latest such item: NBC Nightly News’ report on the new CEO of Starbucks.
Watch the report in its entirety, and take in another news story that seems to be about one thing but is underlied by the pain of Bidenomics, which is never mentioned in the item (click “expand” to view full transcript):
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS
8/13/24
6:45 PM
LESTER HOLT: With prices rising, major chains are looking at how to keep customers. That includes Starbucks, who replaced their CEO after just a year, bringing in the head of Chipotle. Tom Costello explains why he has a tall task ahead.
TOM COSTELLO: This morning's news broke just as Americans were sipping their first cup.
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN: Breaking news to bring you, and this is big. Starbucks’ CEO…
COSTELLO: The CEO of Starbucks Laxman Naraismhan out, as the world's most iconic coffee brand struggles with customers who’ve said no to higher prices.
TERI: It is $8. I'm just- I’m just saying, I can't do it. I'm tapping out. I can't do it.
COSTELLO: Starbucks' new CEO is Brian Niccol, who turned Chipotle around after a devastating E. Coli outbreak in 2015. Improving quality and using technology to speed up orders, doubling Chipotle's revenue.
MELODY HORSON: And we thought he would be the right leader for this moment.
CUSTOMER: Thank you, have a good one.
COSTELLO: The new CEO’s challenge: luring back Starbucks customers who‘ve been driven away by inflation, long waits, and cheaper coffee at competitors.
CUSTOMER: I don't like the prices. I think they have gone up a lot.
CUSTOMER: It's a good bit cheaper at the local coffee shop.
COSTELLO: The move comes as higher prices have turned many Americans away. KFC, Pizza Hut and McDonald's, all reporting falling sales, are now offering value meals. While under Niccol, Chipotle grew its revenue in the last quarter.
What are the problems Starbucks has had with consumers? What do consumers want?
KATE ROGERS: Consumers are looking for value. And they want to feel like when they spend money at a premium brand like Starbucks, it's worth both their money and their time.
EMILY RAE: $6 for a tall small drink.
COSTELLO: Fed up with inflation, more Americans are simply saying, “No.” Tom Costello, NBC News, Washington.
As I mentioned previously, this is but the latest in an emerging genre. NBC recently hid Bidenomics pain in a report on the unaffordability of home ownership, and in an item on temporarily dropping gas prices. CBS did a similar item on the sticker shock associated with car prices.
The things featured in these stories are all tangential things pushed to the front in order to tiptoe around the pain of Bidenomics felt by Americans from all walks of life. The coffee, high rents, gas prices and car prices are but an accessory.
In this case, Costello literally buried the lede. “Fed up with inflation, more Americans are simply saying, ‘No.’”
Inflation persists and will continue to drive the news, no matter how hard the Regime Media may wish to try to make it about other things.
