A large chunk of the investments will increase wages and offer more benefits, in order to head off unionization efforts as well as stem employee turnover. It should be noted that the company’s global comparable-store sales rose 3%, but that was mainly due to a higher average ticket – which was up 6% while comparable transactions declined by 3%. With inflation rising and the Fed raising interest rates, SBUX stock has fallen a bit more than the S&P index so far this year.