Big Special Events in Seattle

The 2012 Starbucks Shareholders’ Meeting Roundup: Refreshers to launch in July.

by Melody on March 21, 2012

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As is tradition, I am writing a roundup from the annual Starbucks Shareholders’ Meeting held today, March 21, 2012.

Before I talk about the presentation by the Starbucks executive team, I would like to mention the slide show before the meeting began.  As I sat waiting for the meeting to start, I enjoyed the slide show presentation.  I had only my phone with me, and didn’t have a totally unobstructed view of the slides, but this gives you an idea of what the audience watched, awaiting the beginning of the meeting:

There were a number of presentations throughout the meeting. Here are just a few snippets:

  • Jeff Hansberry, the President of Starbucks Channel Development,talked about the launch of Refreshers in the CPG category.  ((I previously wrote about them here.))  Refreshers freshly-made in Starbucks stores launches July of 2012.
  • Jeff Hansberry also demonstrated the new Verismo automatic home-use espresso machine.  He described the Verismo as a “game changer,” and said that the premium single cup area is a fast-growing, 8 billion dollar market opportunity.
  • Also from Jeff’s presentation, he stated that Via Ready Brew has become a 250 million dollar business over the past two years, and is now available in  12 markets.
  • Jeff talked a little about the growth of Seattle’s Best Coffee and the new drive-thru concept SBC stores.  He mentioned that at SBC one can order a caramel pretzal mocha latte, which certainly sounds like an interesting drink idea.  ((I would have liked to have heard more about Seattle’s Best growth.  One thing that makes Starbucks part of the cultural wallpaper of the U.S. is the “universal experience” which is driven by having so many stores and a high degree of consistency.  Seattle’s Best Coffee lacks that.  Most folks in the U.S. (likely) have never been to an SBC store, and do not have one near them.  Even worse, Seattle’s Best has fewer stores now than previously, largely due to the closure of all the Border’s Books stores.  Just as a reminder, my Seattle’s Best fan blog is here.))
  • Arthur Rubinfeld talked at length about Evolution Fresh.  Since I just wrote about Evolution Fresh yesterday, I won’t repeat that again.  Arthur managed to say the city name “Bellevue” numerous times within his short presentation.  It was very much as if he was subliminally saying, “What are you doing here? Get yourself to Evolution Fresh in Bellevue!“  ((By the way, as many folks know, this blog generates a lot of email.  One of my readers is already looking for collectible Evolution Fresh cards!  I thought that was great!))
  • There was an announcement about a new “Vote. Give. Grow.” Starbucks Card which will allow registered card holders to vote on how 4 million dollars will be invested in a select number of non-profit organizations.  The new card starts on April 1, 2012.  ((Sorry, I don’t recall which executive made that announcement.))
  • During the Q & A session, Howard Schultz revealed that Starbucks has been looking intently for high quality mug manufacturers in the United States to partner with.  It seems as though there are very few options because most mug manufacturing has been shipped overseas.  Starbucks found a partner in Ohio, and hopefully sometime during summer 2012, “made-in-the-USA” ceramic mugs should appear on Starbucks’ shelves.
  • Michelle Gass, President of Starbucks Europe and Middle East,  rocked the stage with high energy about the “renaissance” of the Starbucks European experience.  She talked about the change to the UK standard recipe for a tall latte, which now automatically comes with two shots in the U.K.  She also announced that in France, Starbucks is offering two different espresso options.  From what I understand, in France, a customer can order a “lighter” espresso roast shot.  I haven’t seen much about this in the news, but it is briefly mentioned in this article here.
  • Michelle talked a bit about the new Amsterdam concept store.  It has a Clover, and from the photos shown, it appears that the baristas are using some kind of manual espresso machine.  The store’s design is stunning.  ((I would give my right arm for a trip to Amsterdam to go visit this store, but it’s not in my budget.))
  • My phone’s battery died not too long into the meeting, but I did get this photo of Michelle.  (Move over Howard.  Michelle rocked. ;) )

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you enjoyed this window into the annual meeting!  What are your thoughts?

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Putting a call out for volunteers to help clean up Gas Works Park with Starbucks, July 5, 2011

by Melody on June 26, 2011

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This year (on July 5, 2011) will be the second annual Starbucks volunteer event to clean up Gas Works Park in Seattle. As most Seattleites know, every July 4th, thousands of people crowd into Gas Works Park in Seattle for a good a view of fireworks over Lake Union. And on July 5th, they’ve left a bit of a mess. Starbucks is looking for help for the clean up day. Go to the official Starbucks link about this event here:

http://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/community/community-service/seattle-july-5

They sent an email which looked like this:

As is tradition, there should be a t-shirt for the event too. Last year, the t-shirt was heather gray and looked like this:

 

By the way, I didn’t go volunteer last year in the clean up, but I wish that I had.  I am trying to take some time off  so that I can help out, but it’s a Tuesday, and I don’t know yet if I can attend.  The t-shirt in this blog post was a gift from a partner at the Holman Road Starbucks in Seattle.  I don’t visit that store very often, and I have no idea the name of the partner who gave it to me.  I was just dropping by, and I was standing at the drink pick up area and started to make small talk with the barista at the Mastrena, as I waited for my beverage.  It was fairly late in the day, and I recall that it was quiet.  I told the barista that I had a blog about Starbucks, and he seemed genuinely interested.  He asked me what sort of things I write about.  The visit to Holman Road Starbucks was shortly after this blog article here:

Fourteen T-shirts Tell Their Stories

And so I mentioned that I had just written a blog post about Starbucks t-shirts.  This barista at the Mastrena said, ‘Oh I have an extra t-shirt in the back you might like.’  He was so amazing! In a flash he came back with this 2010 Gas Works clean up t-shirt, and he gave it to me!  I was so flattered.  Thank you Holman Road Starbucks.

So I wish everyone lots of fun and good weather for the clean up on July 5, 2011.  Come volunteer!

 

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Starbucks ceo Howard Schultz answers customer questions

by Melody on May 17, 2011

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On April 21, 2011, Starbucks ceo Howard Schultz participated in a webcast where customers could send in questions, and hear and see Howard answer them.  This event was produced as part of a promotion for the book Onward.  Many Gold Card customers received an email in March this year indicating that if they pre-ordered the book Onward, they could join in this webcast.  Here was the confirmation email:

Thank you for purchasing Onward by Howard Schultz. Because you pre-ordered Onward, you are invited to participate in an exclusive, live online event this Thursday, April 21 from 9:00 – 10:00am PDT with Howard Schultz. You can join this event by using the instructions below:

Date: Thursday, April 21st
Time: 9:00 – 10:00am PDT
Location: http://www.onwardbook.com/event
Access Code: YYBM0M3WH3

The actual event ended up lasting only about 30 minutes, which was a little disappointing that it was shortened down.  I didn’t plan ahead how I would record it, so I ended up just recording most of it in short segments by holding my phone up to my computer.  The audio files are poor quality because of that.  You can even hear me typing at one point, and sniffle at another point!  My apologies!

The first five minutes or so were Howard talking about the Starbucks turnaround and the book.  The remaining 25 minutes were the q & a, with the Starbucks vp of Global Communications fielding questions.  I don’t think I recorded everything.

So here’s Melody’s “best of” the Howard Schultz questions.  Two audio files are attached with a total of four questions that were asked to Howard.  I hope you enjoy them too!

4-21-11 Howard Schultz “best of” questions and answers:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Question:  Howard, where do you see Starbucks in 20 years?

Howard:  Raymond!  20 years! C’mon! (laughter in the background)   We will always be the leading purveyor of specialty coffee in the world; I can’t see that changing.  But I think the retail experience, the adjacencies of products, the leveraging technology … I have no idea where we’ll be in 20 years.  I can’t imagine we would be too far afield from our coffee position.  I do believe that we will be creating other food and beverage products that you will see in the grocery channel in a big way, and I wouldn’t rule out that fact that at some point we will have a different retail concept that leverages the competencies of what we do at a Starbucks.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Question:  (unintelligible, my poor recording didn’t catch the name of the customer who asked the question) of San Diego… Hi Howard, I’d like to know when you had the most locations open and when you decided that you needed to start closing locations as you talked about in the book, how did you decided which stores to close?  And were the areas that were left  perhaps less populated with Starbucks stores  that you might now open some additional stores in the future?

Howard: Yeah,  that was a very thoughtful, disciplined process.  But I will say the majority of the stores that were closed were directly linked to the sub-prime mortgage crisis …mostly in Flor.. the majority was in Florida and California.  And I think the sub-prime mortgage crisis was a significant catalyst for those neighborhoods and areas under such financial pressure that the stores that we opened in advance had no chance of success.  And I think we are now back opening between 100 and 200 new stores a year in the U.S.  And I will say that the stores that we have performed in the last year have performed extremely well … we’re more bullish than ever about making sure that we accelerate the growth of the company but do it in a thoughtful way.

Question:  The next question is from Ray in Sioux City, Iowa.  Howard, what tools do you use to train the baristas to not only make consistently good beverages but also to serve customers?  I’ve noticed that employees go out of their way to make me feel welcome and appreciated.  Some of these traits may be inherent, but some of them must, by necessity, be trained, right?

Howard:  Well, uh, I think it’s very difficult to prescribe being happy or prescribe being a people person.  I think we work very hard to hire the kind of people who enjoy the social aspect of what it is we do.  The training that we provide is on the technical side of coffee, and we certainly provide people an understanding of what we expect in terms of the kind of customer service.  But I give an enormous amount of credit to the individuals of Starbucks who have created in their own way, a way of being.  And I think everyone has a different style and we can’t prescribe that.  I think we’ve done a very good job of putting people in a position to win, and also I think measuring and rewarding the right things.  And again, it’s not so much the speed of service that we want -  it’s we really want to enhance someone’s day and I think we can do that it in many different ways.  And our people do a fantastic job of being themselves.  Sounds trite but it’s true.

Question:  Okay here’s an interesting question from Sandra.  Howard, your brand is an explosion of ideas and its boundaries are continuously being stretched and expanded with the introduction of new items that are considerable distance from Starbucks initial offerings.  I trust that some these faced a lot of objections and even rejection by you and your team before they were introduced by the brand.  What filters does Starbucks use to determine whether a new idea or product is a part of the brand or does it make sense for the brand?

Howard: That’s a great question.   Even though Starbucks has become a big company – and I think especially  since when I came back – I wanted to kind of reignite the entrepreneurial DNA of the company. And great entrepreneurs have to have the curiosity to see around corners.  And then the organization must have the courage to kind of go after it.  I think we don’t want to bet the company on a new idea but we want to stretch the envelope a bit.  This is not a science; it’s more of  an art.  Some of  it is intuitive.  We do use some forms of research sometimes.  We want to be able to test things and surprise and delight our customers.   So… but the majority of ideas that get generated don’t make it to the store.  There is just so much we can do.  But every now and then I think you gotta take a very big swing, like we did with Via.  And demonstrate that you could take the road less traveled and bring quality  and execution to a category that has not had it.   And I think great companies, whether it’s Apple or Nike or other consumer brands, provide the market place with products and services that perhaps the customer didn’t think they needed.  And all of a sudden they say “God, I can’t live without this.”  And those things are hard to research.  A lot of it is intuitive.

*********

Hope you enjoyed hearing from Howard!  By the way, I think it’s fun to hear Howard Schultz be a bit off the cuff!  His answer to Raymond’s question definitely has a touch of that in the beginning.

If you like this kind of thing, I have a whole category featuring Howard Schultz audio, images, or blog articles in some way closely tied to him.  Click here to browse other Howard Schultz-related content.  I’m also fond of the Via category, and I recommend that you browse through it too.

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Starbucks marquee community service event in Seattle: The photos and highlights

by Melody on April 30, 2011

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What happens when around 600 Starbucks partners and numerous customers work together? Community service.  Today (April 30, 2011) was the big marquee community service event in Seattle.  As part of Starbucks dedication to community service, this month there have been large marquee events all over the world.  Of course I signed up for the one in Seattle.  These events have been open to both customers and partners.

Today’s event began with registration at John Muir Elementary School at 3301 South Horton Street, in Seattle.  Registration was from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m.  Initially I was going to be carpooling with one other person, but unfortunately my friend awoke feeling under the weather, so arrived alone, though scheduled to meet up with several other people.  I ran on time, and on the way into the event I dropped by a Starbucks on Rainier Avenue South for a smoothie.  This store (Starbucks store #3302) has the most unique exterior signage and it seemed really appropriate to share a photo of it with you – the message captures the spirit of today’s community service:

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘What are you doing for others?‘” – Martin Luther King Jr.

I arrived at the event on time, and easily found the registration area.  I immediately ran into a partner named Taigan.   I’ve known Taigan for five years.  He’s been a store manager in downtown Seattle at two different stores, both close to my work, and he’s someone that I’ve always respected, liked, and really connected with.  He was a group leader for one of the community service projects, and carrying a sign that identified that he was with project “14.”  I decided then and there that I was going to sign up for project 14, no matter what it involved doing.  Later I learned that groups 14, 15, and 16 were all one big project involving painting panels, and other painting in the playground at John Muir Elementary.

Before the event, I ran into many familiar faces from the downtown Seattle corridor, including the store manager of the First and Pike Starbucks (Josh), a partner named Kris, and an ASM named Katie.  And I ran into Chad, the store manager of the first Starbucks at 1912 Pike Place.  I easily found the group of partners from Texas and Canada whom I was scheduled to meet with.  It’s always wonderful to catch up with friendly people.

After registration, the large group of more than 600 people piled into an auditorium.  There were presentations by Cliff Burrows (President of Starbucks North America), the mayor of Seattle (Mayor McGinn), and a representative from Hands On Network.  There was also a really cool wall where you could show your enthusiasm and spirit for community service by putting your hand print on the wall.

Project 14 was a painting project (as I mentioned), and coincidentally the friends whom I was meeting up with wanted also to do the painting projects.  Meanwhile, large numbers of others went off to cut back blackberry bushes from nearby Mount Baker park, and lots of community improvement projects.  Since I was with the painting group, that’s all I’ll really be writing about here.

Josh (the store manager of First and Pike), a barista named Meghan, and two customers had a task to paint a mural to improve one of the walls in the John Muir Elementary playground.  Take a look at the before and after!

There were a very large number of thick wood panels that needed to be painted with creative designs on them.  My understanding is that later the panels will be mounted on display at Fairmount Park Elementary School in West Seattle as part of improving their playground.  I didn’t know that this project required some creativity!  I painted a wood panel today!  It’s amazing all the beautiful painting done by partners and customers today.  Lucky for us, the weather cooperated and it was clear and sunny and a perfect spring day!  I ended up with a little purple paint on my jeans but it was well worth it.  I saw lots of people with little spots of paints on their clothes, on their hands, and even in the hair.  Here is an array of photos of the panels being painted and partners showing off their talents:

One small group had the task of painting the United States on the playground (it was pre-stenciled in).  I love what they did!  Take a look!’

If you’re following the Five Awesome Baristas Youtube channel, you can see that they’ve already uploaded a short video clip from this event!

Starbucks is encouraging all kinds of community service with their partnership with Hands on Network, and these big events have been all over the world!  This event in Seattle was the end of the big events, but hopefully I have a few readers who attended some of the other large events who can tell me what it was like.  As always, I can’t wait for all your great comments! :)

Edit on May 8, 2011 – I added some more photos I had, just for fun:

 

 

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Audio clip of Starbucks ceo Howard Schultz

April 15, 2011

Here’s another chance to listen to an audio clip of  Howard Schultz (ceo of Starbucks) speaking.  I recorded this segment on March 8, 2011, here in Seattle, at an event on the parking lot just outside the Starbucks headquarters.  Here’s my transcription: The last three years we’ve done something historic.  We have transformed the entire [...]

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The Starbucks Shareholder Meeting: March 23, 2011 – Melody’s Roundup

March 24, 2011

Today was the annual meeting of Starbucks shareholders, held in Seattle, Washington, at McCaw Hall.  I got there early and stood in line for almost an hour, wanting to get a good seat.  I was not the first person in line! It was beautiful spring day.  It was clear, and there was some sun and blue [...]

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Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz rings the NASDAQ bell, kicking off 40th Anniversary festivities on March 8, 2011

March 8, 2011

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz kicked off the company’s 40th Anniversary festivities by ringing the NASDAQ opening bell this morning from Seattle’s Pike Place Market.  This was staged immediately outside the first Starbucks store at 1912 Pike Place, on this rainy morning.  I got up early and headed down to the market to check out the [...]

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Howard Schultz: The future of Starbucks has significant promise

January 7, 2011

On January 5, 2011, Starbucks revealed their new logo in celebration of their 40th anniversary, and the growth of the brand.  There was an event at the headquarters, and I was in attendance.  I have a previous blog post from that event with a few photos and a description of what happened.  Howard Schultz , [...]

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The Tweet Up Event At the Starbucks Headquarters on April 28, 2010

April 28, 2010

Last Friday, the Starbucks Twitter profile tweeted about a tweet-up, at the SSC, with limited space available.  This was the tweet: “We’re hosting a tweetup next week in Seattle! Free next Wed morning? Limited tickets available: http://starbucksapriltweetup.eventbrite.com/” When that tweet was tweeted, I completely missed it. It never crossed my radar. I did not get [...]

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