Starbucks has announced that the next annual meeting of shareholders will be March 24, 2010, to be held in McCaw Hall, in Seattle. I will be there. For those that do not know, the first part of the event is Howard Schultz delivering a prepared announcement about the health of the business and what’s happening at Starbucks, and the last segment is a question and answer period. Usually there is some live entertainment also. The Q & A segment is great fun because anyone can get into the line and ask the executive team a question. Some of the questions have been quite interesting!
During the 2009 annual meeting of shareholders, my question was about the success of My Starbucks Idea which had been launched at the 2008 annual meeting. Howard Schultz directed the question to Chris Bruzzo, VP of Brand Content and Online, who stated that it had been a success, launching an average of about two ideas per month. When talking about the volume of posts on MSI, he joked that “40,000 of the posts are from you Melody!“. That, of course, gave me a slight heart attack, but it was clear he was joking.
I have not yet decided what my 2010 question will be to the leadership, or even if I will ask one at all.
In years past, shareholders received in the mail an annual shareholder report, and in a number of years, included a special shareholders’ edition Starbucks card. I’ve uploaded 3 of those to this post because they’re so great to look at. I have a confession to make though. These are not my cards displayed in this post. They belong to my best friend who has been a shareholder since the IPO. We’ve been visiting Starbucks together since the very early 1990s. Some of you might think of a little less of me knowing this, but mostly, StarbucksMelody has spent most of her life very broke living off very little income. Okay I’m a little embarrassed now. It wasn’t until after law school that I had the means to become a shareholder, thus my own participation at the annual meetings is fairly recent.
At some point in the future, I will be writing a blog post just on collecting Starbucks cards because so many do collect these cards. In the meantime, please enjoy these really beautiful shareholder cards.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
oh dear, i wish i knew you wanted pictures, i have been a stock holder since high school (traded in my babysitting money for 10 shares at 13$) and had all sorts of stock holder cards, but have never been to a meeting (east coast and all). hmm, maybe dad should transfer the stock to me now that i am over 18. anyway i threw them all out when i moved into my tiny apartment
Those shareholder cards are awesome! Do you need to go the shareholder meeting to get them?
Those are cool cards! You’ll have to take pics from the meeting.
SBUX should do a huge promotion for gift cards like the Willy Wonka “Golden Ticket” — make a few giftcards randomly have “super powers” like when they are used for the first time it gives everyone currently in the store a free VIA or free coffee or something. Or when the “golden ticket” card is used for the 25th time, everyone in the location gets a $25 gift card. It would generate huge buzz and probably make the national media every time it happened.
I JUST saw the 2006 shareholder card yesterday for the first time! Interesting! The baristas look so happy in the picture! LOL!
What CamSpi means to say is that if you took a picture of barista’s attitutes in 2010 it wouldn’t be suitable for a Starbucks card….
about to fall off the FORTUNE 500 best companies list and all…
I have the 2005 Shareholders Card with the coffee beans on them. My assistant gave it to me because she was a shareholder, and just a few weeks after that she died from an aneurysm from an undiagnosed brain tumor.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/karldotcom/4208934589/in/set-72157606462354769/
I also received an email about the Shareholders Meeting…I honestly didnt know I had SBUX stock anymore! Not sure if I will venture up for it.
@BAYAREABUX LOL! I didn’t NECESSARILY mean that. I do think that morale is down mega low, but I still think good times are had! Its all about our attitude!
But your comment did make me chuckle!
Hi Melody: great thread, as usual. Re: your question at the meeting (if you get to ask one): what about the whole concept of sooooo many people UNhappy with PPR-only (forget the b.o.d. policy and why should we EVEN HAVE TO ASK???? for our coffee), and that Sbux seems to have just totally blown all these hundreds of thousands of voices of???? Of course I assume you’ll have your own thoughtful question, but…seems like a good idea to me. I would certainly like to ask…… since it’s really been essentially ignored on msi.
D.
why in the world would you be embarassed by not having a lot of $ for a while? Silliness
I’ve never gotten the annual report, which I find a bit strange. I would like to have the card, but I think I’m one of the few people who actually reads those things. Every time I get one, I read it cover to cover.
Hope to see you at the meeting this year. And I think Howard & Chris would be disappointed if the best Sbux themed blogger didn’t share her two cents.
I just voted my shares. Better get that recycle program working Howard! (hahaha)
How do you get this advance information Melody? I didn’t get my stuff in the mail. What I’d like to find out is how much the annual meeting with all those pastries and the show cost? I wonder if the show is really necessary. I really enjoyed Tony Bennett and, even though he doesn’t need the money I’m sure he charged a lot.
(Reply to Steve and ClarkKent) – Pretty funny Clark Kent! I haven’t run into HS in ages. We’ll see if he even remembers me. How can he keep track of little fans in Seattle when he’s off doing his rockstar tour of Europe, UK, and the US?
(That was entirely a joke! Don’t take too seriously).
@Steve – Nothing magical or secret about this information in this blog entry. Just google “Starbucks” with “Investor Relations” together, and you’ll get the Starbucks Investor Relations page which has all kinds of good information on it, just like this.
I did that Melody and I got a plethora of information but not what I was after which is how much the annual meeting, rental of McCaw Hall and salaries of their personnel, all those pastries, and the show cost and is the show really necessary. Just curious.
I wonder if I’ll get my annual and ticket.
(Reply to Steve) – Your reply makes me think that you did not attend last year’s or the 2008 meetings. First off, I don’t think you’re going to get an annual report. I think starting last year, Starbucks tried very hard to phase out hard-copy automatic mailings of the annual report so as not to waste paper. That’s a lot of paper mailed out. There was no separate ticket last year. You just showed the the proxy type documents you got mailed as a ticket.
A one time annual event, which is absolutely necessary to have a publicly traded corporation is not the kind of expense that makes any difference in the big P & L in the sky. I would bet a lot of money that the store design of one beautiful new LEED certified store, or “repurposed style store” like U. Village, Conduit Street, or 15th Ave Coffee and Tea is far more expensive than a one time REQUIRED event.
No I did not attend last year’s meeting and remember you told me how to see it on the web. I did attend their 2008 meeting however and would like to attend this year’s meeting but so far I haven’t gotten anything in the mail and wondered how you found out the date. Hopefully I’ll get something in the next few days.
Well, I found out about the meetings, etc from an email from Schwab. There were links to view the annual report and vote on the shareholder’s proposals.
Most publicly traded companies are going this way, with electronic delivery of materials…I have seen a noticeable decline in materials arriving for our company’s profit sharing plan (which I manage)
Well I guess that answers part of my question why I’m not going to get an annual report. That makes good sence since putting out annual reports means quit a humongous amount of paper will evenually be recycled or go into land fills. I still want to know if I’ll get a ticket or not. Also I know that companies have to have annual meetings and budget for that but I’d like to know how much extra does it cost for all the frills like the mountains of pastries and the enterainment which I am sure is not free. After all it is an annual meeting and not a party.