When New York City decided that chain restaurants would have to display calorie data on their menus, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) seemed almost excited about complying.
The chain was set to release the calorie data on Monday but has now decided that it will wait until the law goes into effect on April 15th.
The New York State Restaurant Association is suing on the ground that -- get this -- requiring stores to post the calorie data violates their free speech rights. Good luck with that one.
It remains to be seen how much of an effect this will have on Starbucks -- I'd bet that Starbucks and other upscale eateries will be more effected than fast-food chains because restaurants like McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) are already known to be unhealthy. A lot of people went to theaters to see a movie about how unhealthy it is!
But Starbucks doesn't have that reputation, and its yuppie customer base could be turned off when it discovers that a Venti Double Chocolaty Chip Frappuccino® Blended Crème with whipped cream has 670 calories.
As long as it's just New York, it won't be an issue for Starbucks shareholders. But if other cities follow suit, it might be worth following.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-07-2008 @ 2:20PM
wellsphere said...
It's shocking to see some of the calorie info for Starbucks. It’s amazing how hard restaurant chains are fighting to hide their nutrition information. I wanted to share a new service my company just launched called ‘Wellternatives’ that lets people find nutrition info for thousands of chain restaurants for free – right from their cell phone or on the web. It also makes recommendations for a healthier alternative, hence the name… Wellternatives. If restaurants aren’t going to post their nutrition info, we figured we’d do what we could to give people instant access to the info from anywhere. Would love to hear what you think of it! Maija