Hi, I'm Dan Pramack and welcome to Axios Recap, presented by General Motors.

Today is Thursday, March 18th. Gas prices are up, tech stocks keep going down, and we're focused on the post-pandemic future of Starbucks.

Starbucks is about to celebrate its 50th year in business, but it's never been through a year

like last year.

Like other food and beverage retailers, Starbucks was hammered by pandemic lockdowns and other

restrictions, leading to its first annual revenue decline since the 2009 financial crisis.

Tables and chairs got shoved into corners or put into storage.

Mobile ordering and drive-thrus took on added importance, not just in the U.S., but

at most of its more than 30,000 locations in over 70 countries.

Why it matters is that Starbucks is arguably an avatar for

consumer behavior. It's designed to be as much about the experience of going to a coffee shop

as it is about getting a cup of coffee, particularly the idea of using its stores as a place to

socialize or get work done. If you want to know when we're really in the post-pandemic era,

what happens inside of a Starbucks is a pretty decent barometer. So today we want to speak with

Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson about what pandemic changes to the company are permanent and its

future policies on everything from mask mandates to employee vaccinations to remote work,

plus, of course, his standard coffee order.

That conversation in 15 seconds.

We're joined now by Kevin Johnson's CEO of Starbucks.

Kevin, let's start here.

Starbucks has obviously had to make a lot of operational

changes over the last year. You know, a lot of them were reactive to local situations vis-à-vis the

...