In 1971, three friends with a passion for coffee opened a gourmet shop ? Starbucks was born. The coffee shop's name comes from Herman Melville's 19th century novel about the whaling industry, Moby Dick. The seafaring name seemed appropriate for the small shop, which imports the finest coffee. The cold weather and thirsty Seattle community seemed to be a perfect match for this endeavor. Starbucks caught on and, in less than a decade, became Washington's largest coffee roaster.
In 1982, Starbucks coffee changed forever. While traveling in Milan, Italy, head of marketing Howard Schultz was intrigued by the coffee shop atmosphere ? patrons sitting, relaxing and chatting over café latte. Wanting to incorporate what he had experienced into Starbucks, Schultz brought the idea home. Starbucks owners balked at the change, so Schultz opened his own coffee shop, IL Giornale ? nearly an overnight success. In 1987, Schultz purchased Starbucks for $3.8 million.
Today, Starbucks has approximately 12,440 locations, consisting of 8,836 stores in the U.S. and 3,604 internationally located in 37 different countries. The future of the corporation looks bright for the 2007 fiscal year; Starbucks plans to add 2,400 new stores in calendar year 2007 this is based on a global basis. The company goal of 30,000 stores has been modified to 40,000 stores worldwide. The plan is to have half the stores in the U.S and the other half internationally. With record net earning of $564 million for fiscal 2006 is this an obtainable goal?
Customers
When you charge top price, customer satisfaction is key to maintaining success. Starbucks customer base is very loyal, even to the point of obsession. Originally, Starbucks targeted young
