Howard Schultz, the chairman of Starbucks, indicated a few months earlier that he had soured on digital sales.
“Every retailer that is going to win in this new environment must become an experiential destination,” Mr. Schultz told investors in April. “Your product and services, for the most part, cannot be available online and cannot be available on Amazon.”
Starbucks said it would continue to sell branded products like coffee through grocery stores and some online sites managed by its sales partners.
But it broke the hearts of some fans by ending retail sales of a cult-favorite product line: flavored syrups. The mixes used to concoct drinks like the Pumpkin Spice Latte are generally not for sale in the company’s stores, but Starbucks stocked them on its website.
Those days are over. “Syrups and sauces will no longer be available for retail purchase,” Ms. Jantzen confirmed.
Just found out @Starbucks is closing its online store and I won’t be able to order my favorite coffees & vanilla syrup anymore#heartbroken
Social media filled up with protestations and laments. “Are you discontinuing the toffee nut syrup sold on the online store??” a customer wrote to Starbucks on Twitter. “I need that!”
One beacon of hope remained: the gray market. On eBay, a jug of Starbucks pumpkin spice syrup could be had on Sunday for $100.
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