Starbucks

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For other meanings of the name "Starbuck", see Starbuck.

Starbucks Corp.
Company typePublic (NASDAQ: SBUX)
ISINUS8552441094 Edit this on Wikidata
IndustryRestaurants
FoundedIn 1971 across from Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington
FounderGordon Bowker
Jerry Baldwin
Zev Siegl Edit this on Wikidata
HeadquartersSeattle, Washington
Key people
Howard Schultz, Chairman
James Donald, President & CEO
ProductsStarbucks
Seattle's Best Coffee
Frappuccino
Tazo Tea
Torrefazione Italia Coffee
Starbucks Hear Music
Pasqua Coffee
Revenue$5.294 billion USD (2004)
4,617,800,000 United States dollar (2022) Edit this on Wikidata
3,281,600,000 United States dollar (2022) Edit this on Wikidata
Total assets31,392,600,000 United States dollar (2021) Edit this on Wikidata
Number of employees
unknown
Websitestarbucks.com
A Starbucks coffee shop in Leeds, England
Starbucks is available at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany. July 2003.
File:Starbucksandquiznos.jpg
A Starbucks shop in San Jose, California (next to a Quiznos Sub franchise)
Star-Bucks_Tenmabashi Shop

Starbucks NasdaqSBUX is a large multinational chain of coffee shops, often serving pastries, with a reputation in the US as a center for socializing, particularly among students and young urban professionals. The corporate headquarters are in Seattle, Washington. The company was named after Starbuck, a character in Moby-Dick, and its mascot is a stylized cartoon siren.

According to the company's fact sheet, as of April 2005, Starbucks had 5,630 company-operated outlets worldwide: 4,593 of them in the 50 United States and Washington, DC and 1,037 in other countries and U.S. territories. In addition, the company has 3,851 joint-venture and licensed outlets, 2,158 of them in the 50 United States and Washington, DC and 1,693 in other countries and U.S. territories.

Company history

The first Starbucks was opened in Seattle in 1971 by three partners, teachers Jerry Baldwin (English), and Zev Siegel (History), and writer Gordon Bowker. Wanting to sell high-quality coffee beans and machines, for they loved fine coffees and exotic teas, they opened its still-operating first location across from Pike Place Market. Entrepreneur Howard Schultz joined the company in 1982 and, inspired by the Italian espresso bars, started the Il Giornale coffee bar chain in 1985. A few years after the original owners took the opportunity to purchase Peet's Coffee and Tea, they sold the Starbucks chain to Howard Schultz, whose Il Giornale outlets were rebranded as Starbucks in 1987. Starbucks opened its first locations in Vancouver, British Columbia (at Waterfront Station) and Chicago, Illinois in 1987. Its first location outside of North America was opened in Tokyo, Japan, in 1996, and now Starbucks has outlets in 30 additional countries. There are currently 8,569 locations worldwide.

By the time of its initial public offering on the stock market in 1992, it had grown to 165 outlets. In April 2003 Starbucks added 150 new outlets in one day, by completing the purchase of Seattle's Best Coffee and Torrefazione Italia from AFC Enterprises. As of May 2003, Starbucks operated more than 6,400 locations worldwide. Stung by criticism of the conditions in which its coffee was grown, the company introduced a line of ostensibly fair trade products; although the majority of its sales are not certified fair trade, Starbucks pays its producers some of the highest rates per pound in the world. Starbucks is also known for providing even part-time employees with healthcare benefits and stock options.

Starbucks' success in the US market has not always been replicated around the world, as it has faced stiff competition in locations where existing coffee shops and restaurants already serve a variety of high-quality coffees, and from a number of retailers which emulate Starbucks' business model (often adding a local twist).

This rapid proliferation of the company has been the subject of much comment and occasional parody, for instance in the Austin Powers films, The Simpsons, South Park, Shrek 2, and Best in Show. An article in the satirical newspaper The Onion announced that "Starbucks begins sinister phase II of operations." Starbucks had indeed started an expansion plan known as "Phase II."

In 2000 San Francisco cartoonist Kieron Dwyer was sued by Starbucks for copyright infringement after creating a parody of its famous mermaid logo. Dwyer won the suit but was prohibited by the judge from selling items bearing his version of the trademark.

Inside Starbucks

The baristas of each store work in different shifts throughout the day, usually divided to two major ones (AM and PM), or three (morning, afternoon, evening). Each shift is consisted of usually of three or four baristas (the number may change, depending on customer flow of the specific store), who share different duties throughout the shift.

Usually, a store is internally divided between the floor, where the barista work and serve customers, and the back, usually referred to the storage room, bathrooms, and so on. Unless very small, the store usually also has a café section, where the customers can sit down with their coffee.

Behind the counter, the floor is divided to three main stations among the baristas. These are:

  1. POS (Point of Sale) – this barista in this station will ring up customers and call up drinks, as well as taking pastry out of the pastry case when needed.
  2. Barista – the actual barista is the one behind the bar, making espresso drinks. This barista will call out the drinks when done, and hand them out to customers.
  3. Floater – This barista, as the name implies, floats about the store and will take care of miscellaneous duties, such as making Frappuccinos or taking out a pastry from the pastry case.

Other common stations might include a barista at the Frappuccino bar (also known as "Frappland" among baristas), a barista at the back of the store, taking care of inventory, and more – depending on the local requirements of the specific store. Busy stores might also have two baristas at one station; this is especially true for the espresso bar on busy days, or the Frappuccino station during the summer.

A regular shift will include the baristas and the shift supervisor, a usually more experienced barista that was promoted to this position. The shift supervisor (also referred to as “shift” for short) is in charge of managing the store when the store manager or assistant manager are not working.

Labor disputes

On May 17, 2004, Starbucks' workers at the 36th and Madison store in midtown Manhattan organized for the first Starbucks barista union in the United States of America. The twelve workers, with assistance from the Industrial Workers of the World IU/660 submitted union cards to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a certification election. The baristas complained that a starting wage of $7.75 an hour was not a living wage in New York City and that Starbucks refused to guarantee regularity of hours per week, which leads to extreme precarity.

On July 22, 2004, the Retail Workers' Union IU/660 filed an unfair labor practice charge against Starbucks for allegedly making threats of wage cuts, giving bribes, and selectively enforcing no-distribution policies to alter the results of the barista's union vote. The IU/660 has also joined with Global Exchange in calling on Starbucks to purchase at least 5% of the store's coffee from fair trade certified sources. Currently only 1% of Starbucks' coffee is fair trade.

On January 14, 2005 charges stemming from a march at the 2004 Republican National Convention were dropped against Starbucks' baristas' union co-founder Daniel Gross. Witnesses allege Starbuck's managers coordinated with the NYPD to single out Daniel Gross and another union activist from a crowd of 200 peaceful protesters. Witnesses also claim to have incontrovertible video tape evidence that shows the arresting police officer(s) fabricated evidence including filing a false police report. The dismissal charges came two weeks after the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against the company [Starbucks] alleging that management made threats, gave bribes, and created an impression of surveillance in a failed effort to defeat the first-ever union of Starbucks café workers in the United States.

The original Starbucks logo.

The siren (sometimes referred to as a mermaid, but is more likely to be a melusine since it has two tails) in the Starbucks' logo changed over the years due to political reasons. In the first version she had naked breasts. In the second, streamlined version, they were covered by hair, but the navel was still visible. In the current version, the navel is not visible. See also: The Mermaid

Starbucks and globalization

Starbucks has pursued an ambitious campaign of expansion in international markets beyond its North American base. As such it has come to be regarded, particularly by the anti-globalization movement, as a flagship of globalization and a prime example of the ills some feel globalization promotes. Several on-line campaign groups maintain websites decrying the company, criticizing its fair-trade policies, labor relations, environmental impact, and holding it as a paragon of what they see as US cultural and economic imperialism. Branches of Starbucks have been attacked during protests, including those against the WTO meeting in Seattle, and the theme is picked up in fictional media: the movie Fight Club depicts anti-corporatist guerillas destroying a chain coffee house (clearly a thinly-veiled Starbucks).

Starbucks in Israel

Israel is currently the only country in the world where Starbucks has entered the market and failed miserably. This is attributed to the fact that the move was made during the Second Intifada, at a time when most people were not leaving their homes. In recent years, however, several Israeli coffee chains and one US (Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf) have been so successful, that rumor has it Starbucks is planning to quietly re-enter the Israeli market.

Starbucks' focus over the years

Of Starbucks' many drinks, such as the latte, frappuccino, mocha, espresso, Tazo teas, and juices, the Starbucks Espresso was the company's first focus. Howard Schultz had suggested that the company should focus on coffee, espresso, and cappuccino after his trip to Milan, but the owners said no. Starbucks was a retailer, not a restaurant or bar. The owners thought that serving espresso drinks would put them into the beverage business instead of the focus of a coffee store.

Hear Music

Main Article: Hear Music

Hear Music is the brand name of Starbucks' retail music concept. Hear Music began as a catalog company in 1990 and was purchased by Starbucks in 1999.

The Hear Music brand currently has three components: the music that each location plays and accompanying XM radio channel (XM 75); in-store CD sales, including Starbucks exclusives; and specially-branded retail stores.

As of May 2005, there are two Starbucks Hear Music Coffeehouses: Santa Monica, California on the Third Street Promenade and Miami, Florida in South Beach. There is also a Hear Music Store in Berkeley, California. Forty-five Starbucks locations also have a Hear Music "media bar," a service which uses tablet-based PCs to allow customers to create their own mix CDs. The media bars are currently located in Seattle and in Austin, Texas.

The music section in Chapters, a Canadian retail chain, was at one time a licensed version of the Hear Music concept. The company no longer uses the brand name.

See also

External links