Word: schultze
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...doing everything we can to differentiate Starbucks from everyone else that is attempting to be in the coffee business," Schultz said at the company's annual meeting in March, alluding to McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts and several convenience-store chains that have been making a run at Starbucks' customers. Starbucks will once again grind beans in its stores for drip coffee. It will give free drip refills, offer latte upgrades and provide two hours of wi-fi to anyone with a registered Starbucks stored-value card. Soon the company will roll out its new armor: a sleek, low-rise espresso...
...very difficult year. Traffic at U.S. stores dropped for the first time in its history, and then comparable-store sales--a key measure of a retailer's health--turned negative too. Its stock has slid some 40% in the past 12 months, shaving more than $400 million from Schultz's personal bean pile...
...perhaps most hurtful have been the mounting complaints from customers, employees and even Schultz himself that in its pursuit of growth, the company has strayed too far from its roots. As Schultz memorably wrote to the company's top execs on Valentine's Day, 2007, "We have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have led to the watering down of the Starbucks experience and what some might call the commoditization of our brand." The company that taught us that coffee is not a commodity has itself become...
...Schultz is taking it upon himself to restore the cult of caffeine. On Jan. 7, the passionate entrepreneur--whom employees call Uncle Howie--again became CEO, a position he ceded in 2000 for a seat on the board. He has lured back some apostles from the start-up years, and they've designed a plan to yank Starbucks' focus from gaining efficiency and appeasing Wall Street back to selling exemplary coffee with the kind of service and ambiance that makes a $4 latte worth the price...
...says it with the zeal of an empire builder. And that's precisely the issue: having built one, Schultz is trying to alter the momentum of a company with $10 billion in yearly sales and 16,000 stores in 44 countries. But creating intimacy and authenticity on that scale may be beyond expectation. "They have come about as close as you possibly can to being big yet still retaining some uniqueness," says John Moore, who was a marketing manager at Starbucks until 2003 and now runs the blog Brand Autopsy. "I can't think of a company that's done...