Introduction and Product for Starbucks Coffe

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

Starbucks opened up in 1971 in Seattle as the first Italian company in United States to have a coffee house for customers. The idea was to have a setting of Italian elegance, a personal treat and a social gathering spot.(Keller & Kotler,2012). Starbuck has worked tremendously hard to store an image that it has become the most frequently visited retailer in United States with an average of 18 times a month (Kotler & Keller,2012).

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

In 1971, Seattle Washington, three men joined together and founded the Starbucks Coffee Company. The three men responsible are Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegel, and Gordon Bower. Starbucks was launched with the idea that coffee was brewed at home. Therefore, Starbucks only sold gourmet coffee beans and brewing/roasting necessities. Ten years later, Howard Shultz became interested in the company and in 1982 he was hired. Howard Shultz is responsible for bringing the idea of coffeehouse café to Starbucks. What began as one small coffee shop in Seattle has grown to over “8,000 stores in over 30 countries and annual revenues in excess of $7.5 billion” (Wilson, 2005).

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).

The first Starbucks location opened in 1971 with the original location in Seattle Washington, the heart of Pike Place Market. Starting as a single shop specializing in high quality coffee and brewing products, the company grew to be the largest roaster in Washington with multiple locations until the early 1980’s. CEO Howard Schultz, recognized a great opportunity and began working with the founder Jerry Baldwin. After a trip to Italy to find new products, Schultz realized an opportunity to bring the café community environment he found in Italy to the United States and the Starbuck’s brand we all know today began to take form.

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.