Every Starbucks drink is half off on Thursday – here’s how to get the deal

SEATTLE - Starbucks customers can get half off the cost of any drink on Thursday, the company said. 

The coffee giant said the deal is good between noon and 6 p.m. local time on Nov. 30 only. 

To get 50% any drink, including its holiday beverages in the seasonal red cups, customers should download the Starbucks app and be a Starbucks Rewards member, which is free. Coffee drinkers can also ask their barista to apply the "Yay Day" deal for them at check out in the store. 

Starbucks said the coupon is limited to one drink per customer and can’t be combined with other offers. 

FILE - The Starbucks coffee shop logo is seen on the street in Krakow, Poland, on November 23, 2023. (Photo by Klaudia Radecka/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The half-off drink deal comes as Starbucks looks to boost its growth with a new "triple shot" strategy – which includes "elevating" the brand, "strengthening and scaling" its digital capabilities and increasing its global presence.

Starbucks will target "dayparts and growing food attached with all-day breakfast and all-day snacks," among other things. 

The strategy was announced earlier this month during an event with CEO Laxman Narasimhan in New York City.

Within the next half-decade, Starbucks said it aims to increase its total Starbucks Rewards member count twofold from its current 75 million. That would mean lifting its global members to a total of 150 million.

But as Starbucks grows, the company is also dealing with some unsatisfied baristas. 

According to the AP, some workers at more than 200 U.S. Starbucks locations walked off the job on Nov. 16 – on what’s known as Red Cup Day – in what organizers said was the largest strike yet in the 2-year-old effort to unionize the company’s stores. Starbucks contends most of those stores remained open during the one-day strike and that "effects were minimal."

The Workers United union said it chose Starbucks’ annual Red Cup Day to stage the walkout since it’s usually one of the busiest days of the year. Juniper Schweitzer, who has worked for Starbucks for 16 years, told the AP she loves the company and its ideals but believes it’s not living up to them.

"They have promised the world to us, and they have not delivered," said Schweitzer, who was picketing outside her Chicago store on the 16th.

She claimed that frequent promotions like Red Cup Day or buy-one-get-one-free offers put added stress on workers, who have no ability to switch off mobile orders or otherwise control the workflow. Starbucks, for its part, said it strongly disagrees with that claim.

"We understand that these promotional days change store patterns and traffic, and that’s why our retail leaders have the flexibility to build and adjust staffing schedules to reflect the unique and dynamic needs of each store — balancing store resources and expected customer demand to ensure partners are on the floor when they're needed most," a statement from the company read in part. 

"Notably, our store schedules are created three weeks in advance with our partners’ availability and preferences at the forefront. Our stores are often provided additional labor hours to augment staffing in support of planned promotional days, including for Red Cup Day," the statement added.

At least 363 company-operated Starbucks stores in 41 states have voted to unionize since late 2021. Starbucks opposes the unionization effort and has yet to reach a labor agreement with any of the stores that have voted to unionize. The company added that it "remains ready to progress in-person negotiations." 

This story was reported from Cincinnati. The Associated Press contributed.