Starbucks CEO gets roasted for $9 ‘premium experience’ remarks, but Wall Street toasts his tariff-era turnaround strategy

Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol is living in two realities this week. On social media, he’s become the latest corporate executive to be branded “out of touch” after calling a $9 purchase a “really affordable premium experience.” On Wall Street, he just delivered the quarter that investors had been waiting more than two years for.

Speaking on the Wall Street Journal’s What’s News AM podcast, Niccol was asked how the coffee chain is navigating the K-shaped economy: the growing gap between high-income and low-income Americans.