Introduction
General background information of Starbucks coffee
Word’s first Starbuck Coffee was opened in Seattle in 1971 by two teachers and one writer and they are Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegel and Gordon Bowker. Starbuck Corporation was officially formed in 1985 and it had become the world’s leading roaster and retailer of specialty coffee now. Starbucks company only purchases and roasts high-quality whole bean coffees and sells them, along with fresh, rich-brewed coffees, Italian-style espresso beverages, cold blended beverages, a range of complementary food items, different varieties of premium teas and coffee-related accessories and equipment, primarily through company-operated retail stores. Starbucks also sells coffee and tea
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Nature of the product
Coffee beans begin at the farm on coffee trees. After trees are planted, it takes between one and three years for the trees to bear coffee “cherries,” which typically contain two beans. Each tree produces 2,000 to 4,000 beans a year—approximately one pound of roasted coffee. However, yields alternate with a good crop one year and a poor crop the next. Farm sizes range from 5 acres (traditional farms) to large plantations covering thousands of acres. Farming and harvesting methods differ greatly between traditional and large coffee farms. Between50% to 70% of the global coffee supply came from small-scale farms from 2001. Coffee must be processed, and it was common for small farmers to accept a considerably lower price to be able to get their coffee to market. Often, these small producers had difficulties financing their operations throughout the year and would sell their crop to Starbuck prior to harvest to receive a cash advance.
Methods of investigation
We used secondary data to research information on Starbucks coffee, mainly from the internet. Not only that, we also went to different Starbucks coffee’s outlets in Singapore to observe the stores as well as the customers who came in. At the same time, we use the Starbucks’s application software for smart phones to check on its current promotions and other useful information.
From the New York Times the article: “Coffee’s Economics, Rewritten by Farmers”, illustrates how Kenneth Lander, a lawyer in Monroe, moved with his family to a coffee farm in San Rafael de Abangares, Costa Rica. Mr. Lander was looking for a more balanced life between work and his lifestyle. Mr. Lander started growing his own coffee from 12 acres of land that yielded 6,000 pounds of specialty-grade coffee beans a year. But in 2008, his financials started to dwindle, and he quickly struggled to support his family. Farmers in his similar financial situation usually turned to organizations like Fairtrade International who typically bailed them out, but for Mr. Lander, he sought out innovative ideas. He began to roast his own beans and sell them
By 2003, the number of retail specialty coffee shops, cafes, kiosks, coffee carts, and roasters in the United States reached over 17,000, equating to nearly $9 billion in sales. According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America, 16 percent of adults in the United States drink coffee from one of these specialty outlets daily. (“Organo Gold”, 2008).
It’s all about the coffee for Starbucks. Starbuck’s core competence is in its ability to effectively leverage its coffee product to entice customers to be repeat customers. There are several ways that they have achieved this successfully.
Coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world and therefore is a popular commodity. More than 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed every day. Over 90% of coffee is produced in developing countries, and millions of small producers’ income comes from growing coffee. Coffee is produced and exported mostly from South American countries, while mainly industrialized countries are the ones importing the most coffee. Worldwide, 25 million small producers rely on coffee for a living, and in Brazil, over 5 million people are employed by the commodity. Brazil is the top country in exporting coffee and is where almost a third of the whole world’s production of coffee is. Coffee is a more labor-intensive work culture than other commodities like sugar cane or cattle because it is not automated work and requires attention.
Ethical Sourcing – Starbucks believes that their growth is strongly dependent on success of farmers. Addressing environmental impact of coffee they adopted a approach to sourcing that also ensured fair pay and working conditions, economic transparency and sound resource management. Starbucks launched C.A.F.E (Coffee and Farmer program) in 2004 encouraging comprehensive sustainable coffee growing techniques certified through third party partners. Thereby they continue to work with Fairtrade and other organizations to purchase certified coffee that helps to protect the environment and enhance livelihood of farmers. This program was started by them in the year 2004 with 14.5 % of their total purchase as green certified coffee and kept increasing year by year. They have target to source 100% coffee by the year 2015 from their program C.A.F.E. In the year 2014, 96% of total coffee purchased was through such farms and mills evaluated by Starbuck’s C.A.F.E programs and certified by third party organizations like SCS Global
Around one hundred and twenty five million people are dependent on coffee, making coffee the most valuable and widely traded tropical agricultural product. It is also one of the highest earners in the market with a worth of $70.86 billion dollars, therefore it is highly tradeable but it is largely investing into global poverty due to the rural coffee farmers earning such a small percentage of the overall profit. (Foundation, F. (n.d.). Fairtrade International. 2015) There are over seventy countries producing coffee but over eighty percent of the worlds coffee is only being produced in four main states which are Brazil, Colombia, Vietnam and Indonesia. With
According to statiscticbrain.com fifty four percent of Americans over the age of eighteen drink coffee every day. Also four billion dollars are spent importing coffee to the U.S. each year. As we can see America has a deep love for coffee. Coffee is a brewed beverage that is made by roasted or baked seeds of several spices of a plant called Coffea (coffee bean plant). Coffea Arabica and Coffea Canephora are the two most common sources of coffee beans. Coffee is usually served during breakfast or at the end of a meal with or after a dessert. Coffeehouses or cafes are very common now a days to just sit and have a cup of coffee. Cafes have existed for over five hundred
Starbucks Company was established in 1971 with their first store in Western Avenue from that same year to 1976. They started as retailers of ground coffee tea and spices with a single in Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market. Starbucks is named after the first mate in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and their logo is inspired by the sea-featuring a twin-tailed siren from Greek mythology. Starbucks had always wanted to inspire the human spirit. They believe in serving the best coffee by growing the coffee under quality standards. Starbucks believes rendering good services to customers is very significant to the success of the company. From just a narrow storefront, Starbucks now has more than 20,000 stores in over 60 countries and
The first "Starbucks Coffee, Tea and Spice" store was opened in 1971 in Pikes Place Market in Seattle by three academics; History teacher, English teacher and writer Zev Siegel, Jerry Baldwin and Gordon Bowker respectively. Apparently the name Starbucks came from Moby Dick, an American classic novel about the whaling industry in the nineteenth century, by Herman Melville. Instead of selling the drink that they are famous for today, Sarbucks initially only sold coffee making equipment and coffee beans. The rather brilliant idea and decision to sell drinks rather than just machines and beans was brought up by Howard Schultz who was then the Director of Retail Operations for the company after 10 years of operation. However, his idea wasn't in favour of the company entrepreneur as he wasn't successful in convincing them about the "crazy" idea. Hence in 1986, he started a chain of coffee bars which he called II Giornale as he went his own way. Just over a year after that, Siegel and the other two sold Starbucks to Howard Schultz who then renamed his coffee bar chain to Starbucks and swiftly started expanding. The Coffeehouse chain started spreading across the United States of America after conqueting Seattle and then internationally. Tokyo, Japan was the first destination outside North America that Starbucks had ventured internationally (Coffee.org, 2014).
Starbucks was founded in 1971 on March 30, by three partners. All three partners met while students in University; English Teacher Jerry Baldwin, History teacher Zev Siegl, and writer Gordon Bowker. All three were inspired by Business man and entrepreneur, Alfred Peet, who had been in the roasting business some time and was known for high Quality roasts at affordable prices. Originally the company was to be named Pequod, after the ship mentioned in the children’s classic book, Moby Dick, however the name was later rejected by some of the co-founders. The name Starbuck was agreed on by taking the name of Chief Mate Starbuck from The story Moby Dick. The first Starbucks Café was opened Seattle, 2000 Western Avenue. During the time of opening
Each company has what sets it apart from other companies in the same industry. This ideology excludes not Starbuck. Starbuck has a history and right from its inception, the founders wanted something that would offer fine coffee to the society that settled in Seattle. This has all along been the case. To accentuate this phenomenon, there was a time Howard Schultz had to travel to Italy to explore more of the Italian coffee tastes offered in Italy coffee bars and come back to customize the same in America. Unfortunately, upon his return he resigned from Starbuck and formed his own company. However, a few years after he formed his company, Starbuck went on sale and this led Howard Schultz and other investors to mobilize
Starbucks is an international coffee company that was established in Seattle, Washington DC, USA. The world's largest coffee company was founded on 30 March, 1971 by three partners that went to University of San Francisco. They are a writer named Gordon Bowker, Zev Siegl as history teacher, and Jerry Baldwin as English teacher, with the tavern has 20 336 in 61 countries. Alfred Peet was the one inspiring them selling high-quality coffee beans and equipment after he taught them his style of roasting beans. At first, they were about naming Starbucks with Pequod but that was refused by some of the co-founders so they changed it onto Pequod Starbuck.
In 1971, a coffee bean retailing store named Starbucks was opened by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker in order to sell specialty whole-bean coffee in Seattle. And the name "Starbucks" was from mate Starbuck in the novel Moby Dick. In the decade, Starbucks had five stores and a small roasting facility in Seattle till
A historical perspective of Starbucks revealed that the company began in 1971 with three individuals having like passion for fine coffees and exotic teas. English teacher Jerry Baldwin, History teacher Zev Siegel, and writer Gordon Bowker collectively combined their thoughts and resources and opened a store called Starbucks Coffee, Tea, and Spice in a marketplace in Seattle. They selected the name Starbucks in honor of Starbuck, a character in Herman Melville’s book, “Moby Dick”. A two-tailed mermaid, encircled by the words Starbucks, is used as the company’s logo.
A coffeehouse, coffee shop or café (French/Spanish/ Portuguese: café; Italian: café) shares some of the characteristics of a bar and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on providing coffee and tea as well as light snacks. Food choices range from pastries and muffins to soups and sandwiches. From a cultural standpoint, coffeehouses largely serve as centers of social interaction: that provides social members with a place to congregate, talk, write, read, entertain one another, or pass time, whether individually or in small groups.