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Starbucks' new chairman and CEO, Brian Niccol, hopes a dash of nostalgia and a Sharpie will help the coffee giant break out of its sales slump.

Starbucks reported a disappointing end to its 2024 fiscal year. Starbucks said its revenue fell 3% to $9.1 billion in the July-September period as customer traffic slowed in the U.S. and China. For the full year, Starbucks said its revenue rose less than 1% to $36 billion.

“We need to make it easier for our customers to get a cup of coffee,” Niccol said in his first conference call with investors since joining Starbucks in September.

Niccol wants customers to have their orders personally delivered by a barista in four minutes or less. He said about half of the company's transactions are now completed in four minutes or less. He wants to focus on the bottlenecks that delay the other half, from inadequate staffing at peak times to slow ovens to Starbucks' overly complex menu.

Another of Niccol's goals is for Starbucks to return to the community coffeehouse it once was. Because of this, customers will once again use ceramic cups in-store and baristas will have a marker in hand to write a message on the customer's order.

“I love it. I have so many different names,” said Bryn from DC. “I have Gwen all the time”

Bryn spoke to WTOP near the Starbucks in Dupont Circle. “I've only heard 'Grin', 'Gwen', 'Brian' a few times. Or they just make a nice guess. They’ll try to get as close as a few Aarons.”

Bryn's friend joined the conversation and mentioned the many names he had found on his Starbucks cup.

“My name is Miles, so of course I got the MI and the My, I got Mikes. I would get Mike and every now and then I would have a barista pull out the classic high school crank of inches or miles,” Miles said.

Even though Bryn rarely gets a cup from Starbucks with her real name on it, she's happy that the marker is coming back. “You know what? I would love to have the names back. I think that's a good choice.”

Bryn admitted that she likes the stickers on the cups. Not just because your order and your name are spelled correctly on the page.

“I like the Dupont (Starbucks) when they put stickers that have like random motivational phrases on them. I caught this on my birthday. They said: You are loved and others love you. And I think I love it, yeah.”

When it comes to the stickers or the marker, Miles told WTOP, “I don’t mind the wrong order. Give the baristas freedom.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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