<photo: Bloomberg News>
Without over-stepping my bounds as a Starbucks partner who is not entitled to make public statements regarding our Company, I would nonetheless like readers of this Blog to know that since Howard Schultz has returned to the CEO position of our Company, everything I have seen our Company try and express interest in changing has given me a renewed confidence in our Direction and our Practices. Mr. Schultz is a brilliant visionary, and for a Company with such an intangible "product" as ours, a Visionary at the helm seems like the ideal circumstance.
Confidence in Mr. Schultz is not limited to the internal–only hours after the announcement of his return, our stock value saw a promising upturn. We have a long road ahead of us to bring us back to the monetary success that we were so used to enjoying, but we can begin immediately enjoying a better sense of success in our stores with every initiative Mr. Schultz’ leadership team enacts to make a sincerely pleasant experience more accessible to both customers and partners. The most highly-publicized of these initiatives have been: slowing the U.S. growth rate of store openings from 1,600 to 1,175 (including closing approx. 100 underperforming stores), looking ahead to 2009–when for the first time we will open more non-U.S. stores than U.S. stores in a fiscal year, and the discontinuation of the Warming Breakfast Sandwich program beyond fiscal 2008. The store closings and slowing of our growth rate domestically makes perfect sense–how many time have you heard some "comedian" riff on the over-saturation of Starbucks’ stores in the landscape? A spokesperson for Mr. Schultz has also indicated that almost none of the store closings are in the Northwest, which probably doesn’t surprise anybody.
Customers and partners alike have mixed feelings about the Warming Breakfast program disassembling. Mr. Schultz’ statement cites the distracting aroma of the sandwiches in our stores, and the amount of time we have to commit to the sandwiches at all periods of the day that we ought to be committing to things closer to the core of our business: people & coffee. The profitability of the sandwiches makes folks question the decision, but what we lose in that revenue we plan on making up for in disenfranchised customers returning to the Starbucks they loved, new quality food items that weill replace the sandwiches, and ultimately, a better experience for the customers that will keep them coming back for their coffee & conversation.
Like I say, I have a renewed confidence in our Company. I have seen all ends of the scale–completely cynical & unsupportive, all the way to hyper-enthused over our existence. Experiencing both of those feelings has broadened my fluency in being able to understand what Mr. Schultz tells us, how customers feel about our changes, and how partners will cope with a Company in transition. I see Mr. Schultz as a formidable leader, the One you want on your side if you have the option. Mr. Schultz is proving himself as loyal to his Customers, his partners, his Company, all the way from his seat in the CEO office.
All that said, I would like to invite any and all of you who have been beside me when I have seen both extremes of emotion regarding our Company’s decisions to join in my personal investment in Starbucks and our ability to facilitate parts of people’s real lives, without contributing to the already disgusting corporate landscape we are bombarded with and conditioned by. Come in to a store (my store!) and talk to us about our changes and hear about how we practice Purchasing our coffee, Roasting it, Distributing it, and finally, Preparing & Serving it. We are really moving a good direction! Join us!
THE STONES WILL CRY OUT 