Comparison Of Wal-Mart, Starbucks, And Bank Of America

assuage any guilt they might feel about consuming mass quantities of unnecessary, disposable goods by dutifully tossing these items into their recycling bins and hauling them out to the curb each week”. (Westervelt, Amy. "Can Recycling Be Bad for the Environment?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 25 Apr. 2012. Web. 5 Dec. 2015). So why is the reason that companies are starting to “Go Green”? Its clearly obvious that the change in America from an industrial country to a environmental country has taught big business how to market environmentalism in mass quantities of their product. The strategy of the consumption-environment mindset are increasing rapidly. If this trend of buying without thinking does not slow down, with problems like not shifting priority from consumption to being environmentally aware, things will certainly worsen. On the topic of green marketing, people often see that green marketing refers to the advertising of objects or products with environmental characteristics to them (Like the Nestle bottle, for example). Terms like “Environmentally Friendly”, “Refillable”, and “Recyclable”, are some of the things people associate with green marketing. In reality

The companies I am studying are Wal-Mart and Target. Both are major discount retailers, general merchandisers who compete as cost leaders. These companies both very large, big enough to execute on their strategies effectively. Yet one has chosen the path of international growth and the other has not yet, pending expansion into Canada in 2013.

The survey questions mostly consisted of multiple choice questions, two open-ended questions, allowing written responses, and one qualitative response question. These questions were chosen to establish consumers differences and comparative perspective of Starbuck’s competitors, their daily usage of the social media platforms, the coffee shops visited frequently, and their opinions on consumers who frequent Starbucks. The survey contains one matrix/rating scale question ( Appendix I, Question 5) based on how important qualities are when choosing a coffee shop. Lastly, there were two demographic questions. The demographic questions are for a general understanding on consumers behavior based on age group and gender. For an overview of the survey, see appendix I.

These essays that talk about Wal-Mart and how the company is ran are, “The Case for Wal-Mart”, and also “Down and Out in Discount America”, both of these essays have their own points of view on how Wal-Mart operates as a company and how it treats the employees and customers. One essay feels that Wal-Mart is a good thing for the economy while the other feels that it is a bad thing.

“Every business has its own business strategy which leads the company towards success and accomplishment.” (Stankeviciute et al., 2012, p. 1200). The following analysis will examine the similarities and differences between Starbucks and Walmart in regards to people, profit, and planet.

Starbucks financial statements were analyzed for the fiscal year ended September 27, 2015. Like all public companies, annual and quarterly financial statements are required to allow regulators and other interested parties to analyze the financial status and management decision making of the company. This analysis focuses on the results of Starbucks most recent published annual report containing their balance sheets, statement of earnings and cash flows. These statements will be analyzed against the results of one of its competitors, Dunkin Donuts, to investigate how the two companies compare to each other. It was noted that Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts do not have corresponding fiscal year ends. The data therefore is not directly comparable since the reports do not reflect the same time period of data but should provide additional insight. The paper will attempt to provide a brief analysis of Starbucks operations in terms of its liquidity, leverage, activity, profitability and growth ratios used by analysts in the industry.

Many Retail chain stores are struggling to get customers to walk in and shop in their stores as much as they did before. People seem to enjoy shopping online (for commodity, convenience, and other valid reasons), and this has affected many conventionally-operating retail chains.

1.From the annual reports you previewed, what is the company's corporate strategy? What are their company goals and were they successful in achieving those goals? Please list the company of the annual report you previewed.

Being “Green” is an economic and socially driven philosophy that many companies adapt in an effort to help improve the environment and attract more customers into buying their products. Companies claiming to be “Green” started when more customers became aware of the growing effects of global warming and began to show interest in helping the environment by recycling, reusing, and reducing their products. Two companies, McDonalds and Apple, sought to join the Green Movement. They make the company look “Green” by eliminating their waste products that mostly end up in landfills and by saving energy through renewable sources. However, their claims may be questioned because of the way their products are made and the transportation involved in shipping them. In the book, Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in a Time of Climate Crisis, Vandana Shiva expresses how companies play a big role in global warming due to deforestation and chemical emissions being released by the burning of fossil

Greening of Work Places; McDonald's also engages their employees to get involved in "green" sustainability practices at the company and at home, making offices and facilities as green as McDonald's restaurants.

Starbucks Corporation is an American global coffee company and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 20,366 stores in 61 countries, including 13,123 in the United States, 1,299 in Canada, 977 in Japan, 793 in the United Kingdom, 732 in China, 473 in South Korea, 363 in Mexico, 282 in Taiwan, 204 in the Philippines, and 164 in Thailand.

The company that I am writing about is Starbucks, the international coffee shop chain. The company's financial statements for this analysis are from the FY2011 Annual Report and 10-K. The company has 10787 stores in the United States, of which 38% are franchised and the remainder are company-owned. The franchise model is more common when the company operates internationally. There are 6216 Starbucks stores internationally and of these 63% are franchises, with just 37% company-owned. The franchise model for international expansion has been utilized to help Starbucks expand quickly in foreign countries and to mitigate foreign political risk and to ensure that the product/service offering is tailored to local tastes (Thompson, 2012). The company is now in the process of buying back some overseas franchise stores in order to retain more profits for itself (Franchise Press, 2011). This paper will take a look at the company's most recent annual report to analyze the financial statements.

Nothing like the fresh scent of brewed coffee in the morning – “Starbucks” a well-known coffee house that is still growing and expanding their operations today is considered the number one specialty coffee retailer around the world and abroad. Therefore, the supply and demand for coffee is on the incline and is regarded as one of the most rapid growing organizations in the world. According to the National Coffee Association, adults between the ages of 18 and 39 are more likely to purchase coffee out-of-home, then older consumers (2016). Even coffee statistics conducted in 2016 indicates “50% of the population, equivalent to 150 million Americans, drink espresso, cappuccino, latte, iced/cold coffee” (E-Imports, 2016). Other statistics numbers show that an estimated of total Americans consuming coffee would be up by 1.5% and specialty coffee up from 20% in this year alone. Even the global consumption will increase by 12% over the next years. Therefore, a key question is how will the “law of demand” predict how the consumers will behave (Lorenzetti, 2016)? Namely, will the higher demand for coffee beans impact what the consumer at Starbucks will pay for a cup of coffee? Therefore, companies such as Starbucks should analyze and understand the microeconomic model to get a clear picture of the price elasticity, cost to produce, and the overall market to make the most effective business decisions and recommendations that will have an

Question 1:When Howard Schultz launched Starbucks, who was the target market and how was Starbucks positioned to appeal to this target market?

1. What factors in the global environment provide opportunities or threats for Starbucks? How do Starbuck’s strengths and weaknesses match up to its opportunities and threats?