Coffee giant Starbucks under fire over festive themed holiday cups

(image: Starbucks/Instagram)

ALSO READ: We can’t understand the hype – Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte is coming back and people are already going crazy for it

Starbucks released their much-awaited annual holiday cups on Friday 2 November, and gave out free reusable cups to customers who ordered a “holiday flavoured beverage”. Most stores ran out of them at the start of the day and customers were not impressed.

They took to Twitter to express their disappointment:

Had to go to 2 Starbucks because the first one ran out right after i ordered. I called in another near me and they had a few left so I drove to it and got my red cup! @Starbucks #StarbucksRedCup #starbucks #cbl pic.twitter.com/YsmA5kEeLQ

— Kate?? (@Skyryft) 2 November 2018

Me: All jolly, walks into Starbucks to get my Christmas drink and reusable cup that will discount my favorite Christmas drinks all winter, like my email said.

Starbucks: Oh, we didn’t order enough cups. They lasted 2 hours. pic.twitter.com/6jkjrwF34p

— brenna (@br3nRoss) 5 November 2018

went to starbucks and ordered a holiday drink just to get the red reusable cup that came with it… person in front of me got the last cup. story of my life.

— rhiannon (@rhiannon__mm) 2 November 2018

CNBC says that Starbucks CEO, Kevin Johnson responded to customers, informing them that they can purchase the reusable cup for $2 (R28,48) which can then be used to receive a 50 cent discount on beverages purchased after 2 pm over the holiday season. COO, Roz Brewer says that the aim of the cups is to encourage people to make use of resuable cups, which will positively impact our environment. The fact that they ran out of the free cups so early in the day? Reasons haven’t been made clear but we hope their marketing team take this as a lesson.

READ: Discounts for BYO coffee cups – here are the SA coffee shops that encourage you to reduce waste.

One Twitter user called their lack of cups a “cheesy promotion”.

Possibly worse than that…just went to get one and was told they could “sell” me one, but no more free ones. What a cheesy promotion!

— jim dearien (@usafalcon75) 2 November 2018

Whether it’s the colour of their cups or religious disputes, Starbucks can’t seem to catch a break over the festive season. Eater has published a timeline of their rocky road to Christmas over the years.

What’s your favourite holiday drink? Tell us in the comments!

ALSO TRY: