Day 15: Starbucked II
Friday, May 10, 2013
7:20 am
Book Report: the explosion of gourmet coffees and the coffeehouse culture.
Video Summary:
“Official” halfway point, roughly 100 mg or one cup of caffeine.
Next two weeks should be most interesting in terms of headaches or mood swings.
Still drinking Koolaid to stop cravings.
“Starbucked” book report:
Howard Schultz bought company in 1987, Starbucks originally founded in 1971.
He tried to mimic the Italian expresso, after a fateful trip to Italy in which he saw potential in the way they consumed coffee.
Started the explosion of coffeehouse culture in America.
Much different than the original coffeehouses of the 1600s in Europe, however. Coffeehouses are now more a part of the establishment, rather than places to foment plots or discuss countercultural ideas.
Author of the book gave a fair treatment, but he himself doesn’t go to Starbucks and is against the cultural homogeneity Starbucks represents.
Starbucks got people to pay more for coffee, providing a “third place” between home and work to hang out, drink coffee and be comfortable.
$7.8B in revenue in 2007 has grown to $13.3B in 2012.
They now have roughly 20,000 stores and their goal is to have 40,000 stores.
Average customer comes in 18 (or is it 6) times a month, making it the most frequented retailer in the world. Lots of brand loyalty.
Each store averages over a million dollars in revenue.
Their drip coffee has more caffeine than any other major brand.
Trendiness and caffeine strength gets more people addicted.
Coffee story is much bigger than Starbucks, however, they only buy 2% of world’s coffee.
Four big conglomerates purchase 60% of America’s coffee supply: Nestles, Proctor & Gamble, Phillip Morris, and Massimo Zanetti.