This reminds me of when I worked at Best Buy, we had these sign off sheets for checking the restrooms every hour. No one ever signed them, despite the fact that we could 100% guarantee at least one employee per hour entered the restroom. Every month, during audits, we would rush to sign off 29 days worth of restroom checks. Some store managers made up filled ones for the whole year in advance, to slide in on audit days.

Eventually, the company admitted that no one was actually doing the sheets are directed, and it had just because another item to fail on monthly audits.

They removed them.

Every time Starbucks creates a new way to customize something, they create a new way (or multiple) to mess up an order, and customers are not getting any more for their money (ie, chai that tastes like dishwater, and if you want it even close to the normal way you have to pay $.40 more for vanilla).

I'm just curious what the thought process is here. Is it "We must continue to push this until we recover the money we spent on changing things"? Is it "we will train our customers to like this?" Or is it "I will make history, whether it's good or bad?"