Starbucks’ ongoing turnaround is picking up steam, despite consumer uncertainty related to rising costs and macroeconomic problems, executives said on the chain’s fiscal Q2 2026 earnings call on Tuesday.
Same-store sales in the brand’s North America segment rose 7.1% year over year in Q2, driven by a 4.3% increase in traffic and a 2.7% bump in average ticket, according to an earnings release.
The traffic increase was greater than the chain’s 3% gain in transaction in fiscal Q1, and comes despite significant consumer headwinds and major weather events, which caused at least one other QSR to miss its projected sales growth in the quarter.
CEO Brian Niccol said the quarter marked the “turn in our turnaround,” and attributed the brand’s performance to its Green Apron Service standards and improvements in the afternoon and morning dayparts.
“We haven’t seen this transaction strength in three years,” Niccol said. “Our U.S. company-operated business grew transactions across all dayparts, with mornings now roughly back to fiscal 2022.”
Niccol said positive comparable sales trends continued through April. The brand has seen spending gains across income cohorts.
How Starbucks has supported its turnaround in 2026
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January 29
Starbucks announced it would shift toward a tiered loyalty system on March 10.
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March 25
Starbucks began testing new ordering channels, like kiosks, at licensed stores in high-traffic trade areas, like airports. The tests are focused on improving ticket times.
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April 2
Starbucks announced it would begin paying quarterly bonuses of up to $300 to baristas and shift supervisors at stores that hit key performance targets for customer experience and operations.
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April 7
Starbucks added the ability to customize caffeine levels in its refreshers, giving the drinks platform a greater flexibility in delivering energy levels to consumers.
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April 10
Starbucks confirmed it was hiring Stephen Piacentini from Chipotle as its executive vice president, chief coffeehouse design and development officer, to help lead the chain’s ongoing cafe overhauls.
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April 21
The brand confirmed its new headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee would support expansion in Southeastern markets and require a $100 million investment. That new HQ will be staffed by up to 2,000 workers, including some staff required to relocate from Seattle.
Cathy Smith, Starbucks’ CFO, said the chain has seen strong performance from recent food menu launches, with increasing rates of attachment. Premium customizations, like cold foam, the brand’s most common customization, are also helping drive increased transaction values, Smith said.
Starbucks recently launched customizable caffeine levels for its refreshers platform, which has helped strengthen its business throughout the day.
“Customers can now tailor the caffeine level of the refresher with the same ease and flexibility as flavors, creating more reasons for customers to visit later in the day,” Niccol said, adding that refreshers are now a $2 billion platform for the chain.
Smith said the brand has managed to avoid significant negative side effects from rising gas prices, but said that greater macroeconomic uncertainty could hurt the brand’s performance. Smith expects coffee and tariff price pressures to ease in the later half of the year, which could help Starbucks’ margins.
One major element of the Back to Starbucks plan is the ongoing work to overhaul the chain’s U.S. storebase. Niccol said these efforts, which cost an estimated $150,000 per store, have resulted in about 300 remodels so far, a small fraction of the brand’s roughly 11,000 company-operated North American stores.
The experience-focused renovations will “ramp up to well over 1,000 stores by the end of this year,” Niccol said, with plans to expand the renovations to 8,000 locations in fairly short order thereafter.
Niccol said the brand’s focus on experiences helped Starbucks grow transactions across income cohorts, and that the chain is meeting many different emotional needs for consumers.
“If you're somebody that's viewing this as your splurge, they're perceiving this was worth it for a little splurge,” Niccol said. “Where they're seeing it as their ritual, we're getting great feedback that we're now performing with the speed and the consistency that they're looking for. When people want this to be a community connection point, we're… able to show up for them on that occasion.”
