Swinton 1
PRODUCTS, SERVICE, AND PRICES IN THE FREE MARKET
University of Phoenix
MBA 501
May 7, 2007
The company or organization I chose to focus on is Starbucks Corporation. I will begin with a few little known facts about this mega corporation. Starbucks Corporation is a coffeehouse chain based in the United States (Schultz p.56). Starbucks was named after the character in the novel Moby Dick. Also, this is the largest coffee house company in the world which consists of 7521 self-operated and 5647 licensed stores in 3 countries. Starbuck serves a multitude of beverages such as drip brewed coffee, espresso- and non-espresso-based hot beverages, tea, and ice-blended drinks. This company also offers pastries, salads, and sandwiches. Through its Starbucks Entertainment division and Hear Music brand, the company has ventured beyond refreshments into books, music, and film (Market line). Beginning with 17 stores, Starbucks went through a rapid expansion that began in the 1990's and continued in to the 2000s.
Swinton 2
The chairman of Starbucks Howard Schultz aim was eventually to operate more than 40,000 retail stores around the world. Howard wanted the company to act like a small business company (Schultz 78). According to the company fact sheet, as of February 2007, Starbucks had 7,521 company-operated outlets worldwide: 6,010 of them in the United States and 1,511 in other countries and U.S. territories. In addition, the company has 5,647 joint-venture and licensed outlets, 3,391 of them in the United States and 2,256 in other countries and U.S. territories. This brings the total locations (as of February 2007) to 13,168 worldwide. Starbucks are even beginning to pop up in popular grocery chains in the US, and in some ci ...