Did Starbucks founder and former CEO Howard Schultz say the "company has reached a critical point of decline amid global boycott," and did the BBC report his criticism, as a post on Instagram claimed? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for Starbucks Coffee Company told Lead Stories that this quote was "misinformation" and that there was "no record of this statement." The poster of the claim provided no evidence to prove Schultz made the statement, and Lead Stories found no record of the supposed quote as reported by BBC or any other news agency.
The claim originated in a meme shared on Instagram on July 23, 2024. Its text overlay read:
BBC: Starbucks founder Howard Schultz warns company has reached critical point of decline amid global boycott.
This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken Thu July 25 08:34:49 2024 UTC)
Jaci Anderson, a spokesperson for Starbucks Coffee Company, told Lead Stores that the claim is "misinformation."
"I can confirm we have no record of this statement or this reporting by BBC," Anderson told Lead Stories in an email received on July 25, 2024.
The post on Instagram shared no evidence to support its claim that Schultz, Starbucks' founder and chairman emeritus, made the quoted remark, including where or when it supposedly happened.
Lead Stories found no record of the supposed statement on the BBC website after searching for "Howard Schultz" (archived here). Lead Stories contacted BBC for comment and will update this article if a response is received.
A search, using keywords, on Google News, which archives thousands of reliable news and information sites, also found no credible documents or reporting to confirm the claim. Those search results are visible here (archived here).
Lead Stories also dug through Schultz's official social media accounts X (archived here), Instagram and Facebook (archived here). As of July 26, 2024, he had not posted on these accounts the criticism cited on Instagram.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims involving Starbucks can be read here.
