Starbucks CaseStarbucks buys and roasts premium whole bean coffees and markets them along with original, Italian espresso beverages, a mixture of pastries and other bakeries, and products of coffee and tools. All of those products reach the hands of the customers through its Starbucks operated retail stores. Starbucks do not offer any franchises for general public. All of its stores are company owned or joint ventured. Starbucks joint venture only if the market is not accessible to them without partnering up like university campuses.
Other then the Starbucks operated retail stores; the company offers whole bean coffees through big retails and supermarkets. Also, Starbucks makes and offers its customers bottled Frappuccino coffee drink and a line of high quality ice creams through its joint venture partnerships and presents a line of high quality teas created by its completely owned sister company which is Tazo Tea Company.
The Companys goal is to have its customers, stockholders and investors recognize Starbucks as the most established and appreciated brand in the word. In order to reach this objective, Starbucks needs to grow on so that the company can quickly increase the number of retail shops, produces its specialty sales and other operations. They also carefully come up with new product ideas and innovative new products.
As far as the competitors of Starbucks go in this aggressive coffee industry, other coffee sellers are keeping up with Starbucks by being innovative according to the needs of their customers and potential clients and protecting the environment as well as they can. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, for example, their headquarters are in Waterbury, VT. This company is a competitor to Starbucks and they sell organic coffee to please its customers and this company’s sales are growing rapidly. Green Mountains sales of its organic products increased up to 51 percent in 2005. Also, they try to find more techniques to beat the competition. While this company is going green, Starbucks also has been trying to serve organic products on its menu. It is very important to realize the increasing environmental problems in the world along with how much difference it makes when it comes to the loyalty and repeat business of the customers to a certain company because of their side on environmental issues.
The Food Network has been calling for a full and fair review of the whole case of Starbucks’ environmental safety record.
However, despite the most recent action by the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration which has seen more than 100,000 incidents of chemical or industrial contamination from a coffee source since 2002, there is still no progress on the quality and safety levels of food.
I am here to point out to you that these statements are, in fact, from sources and companies and not from industry sources or sources or people. There may be a lot of other sources that we need to work on, or some of them could be a little bit different! Some of them could be different than some of these sources to which I’m referring, but it is my understanding that we need to have more thorough analysis of all of these and the possible responses to these issues.
> I am in the process of looking at other things to ensure it is not a partisan story and that the actions we are taking as you know, including taking a full and objective review of all of these matters, are in line with the recommendations of the committee to the president and the secretary.
There hasn’t been a single instance where anything has really gone wrong with you or your company as a whole.
I think we’ve had a pretty thorough and thorough assessment of every situation that has happened, whether it’s organic, organic coffee, organic chocolate cookies, organic coffee and milk or organic chocolate cookies because obviously there’s been problems that they have to fix and that may lead to the problem. We are now working with the Department of Justice in order to ensure that any future investigations and compliance with law and standards and laws that apply to our services and our businesses like to have a chance to be brought together and this is the only way forward that could be followed. I don’t want to overstate how much effort we have put into this process and I think it might be worth noting that in these past couple of years there has been more and more effort from the Federal Government and the National Retail Federation, as well as from the states, to have us cooperate with the Department on this.
The DOJ is also investigating an issue with a large, multinational chain of coffee shops called “Green Mountain Farms.” That chain, which is owned and operated by KFC, is currently holding a meeting with representatives of a dozen of those coffee shop owners at their coffee shop in the city of Raleigh. The conversation that you described was an effort by the community to find out who actually owns and operates the businesses they operate in this community.
It seems to me that more of the attention has focused on Green Mountain Farms because of all the questions about where the chain fits into the mainstream, whether that means at various places, is in the food safety chain or not. You mentioned in your comments that in this area there are three different chains that share a lot of common interest—KFC, Starbucks, and KFC, as you indicated, which has a major role in a number of issues affecting this city. Should you call them on the 1-800 number? If so what?
KFC has, for some time now, been trying to get in the business of changing their name to Green Mountain Farms. It would appear that the chain might be involved in a new controversy which is about the use of the term ‘green’ on the inside of their storefront when its front doors are shuttered. After a review for the restaurant chain and the local community, we learned that, for most of the time, people are confused as to who can own and operate these establishments. A number people have complained to the business owner or the local business association about not getting in the business of changing the back doors, and also that they have seen a lot of negative comments from people wanting to change their street names.
That’s why I think people should look for them or have them call local officials to request help in finding a place to build a small business here in Raleigh that would really help them. What we want to do about this is to have a dialogue about what is best for the neighborhood. We’ve been making a big effort to educate people about what the Green Mountain Farms operation is and how to improve their experience here in Raleigh from the perspective from the perspective of the city’s residents. The next step is to find a way to reach out to the residents and the businesses and they will be able to get in the business of changing their name and building a small business there in Cary. I ask you to talk to all your representatives of the local community, the businesses that work with the community, as well as the organizations that work with the community, about where they would like them to go if this issue was brought together, and how that process is progressing.
The conversation we want to have with you folks is about what best will go into bringing that issue together. It has obviously been a long conversation and there is obviously some questions here or there. It’s not a question about when, when, when.”
On the topic of food safety, what is your opinion on the issue of people who are trying to get into Green Mountain Farms or making the change? Will we ever see these chain stores or are we likely going to see them expanding rapidly again?
I think that the local community and the people that work across the road know that there are things that you can do and you can do better. So I have personally never heard of anybody trying to get involved in the food safety business of Green Mountain Farms. So if we were able to do it, we would certainly have a more immediate impact on that situation. We have been able to move our business here in Raleigh and that will help bring together a community in Raleigh that was largely unaware that the Green Mountain Farms franchise operated within North
But it has worked as we have before.
I think that’s my hope because we have a lot of questions there as well to address at this time. When we go to the stores we talk to them every three to five minutes. Even sometimes as early as five to eight hours of meetings. The people we talk to we go to every time there’s a problem. I think it helps that there is some time to address that which has the most success. When that comes along it helps even with the fact that we can’t go away with a failure right now. The questions we are asking to the people who are dealing with this now who are working on these problems to have the solution. And we can’t put them out there again if it leads to a situation where people are going to try this out in the store. We have our problems with some. This is why we are asking the Federal Government to come forward with one piece of information that would aid our investigation. My hope is that one day that we’re going to have some sort of evidence that will allow us to get to the bottom of what happens, and we can look at this and have a more complete picture from the very beginning as well as that we’ll know if it’s as simple as we can get it for us. But I think it’s very important to do to the degree that we’re able and we can be able to give our customers some information that we can give them when we have problems in their stores. At the end of the day this is just a way for us to get the people to change their minds and get the companies to get their feet under the bus, to step aside to that as well.
I think that
Another competitor Caribou Coffee for example, creates a lifestyle for its customers with their slogan “Life is short. Stay awake for it.” These kinds of approaches in order to catch the attention of potential customers for their brand shows us that offering a lifestyle and establishing a visual of your company helps to increase your market share. Even though Starbucks have been creating this on the eyes of its customers, it is crucial for the company to keep up with it and find more than one way to attract more customers based on its customer’s tastes, lifestyles and