Baturay Özden Case study starbucks

1. Case Study – Starbucks
Introduction
Starbucks is the world's largest multinational chain of coffee shops, with corporate
headquarters in Seattle, Washington, United States. Its coffee shops in the U.S. and
Canada are especially popular among students and young urban professionals. Stores
are now found in China and England & other countries.
According to the company fact sheet, as of May 2006, Starbucks had 6,495 company-
operated outlets worldwide: 5,028 of them in the United States and 1,188 in other
countries and U.S. territories. In addition, the company has 4,585 joint-venture and
licensed outlets, 2,633 of them in the United States and 1,952 in other countries and
U.S. territories.
Inside Starbucks
Starbucks stores serve a variety of freshly brewed coffees, which change on a weekly
basis in order to provide customers with an easy way to sample a variety of coffees and
blends. However, most of its revenue does not come from coffee, but from blended
products that combine coffee or other flavors with large amounts of milk, sugar, and/or
granulated ice.
Starbucks' whole-bean coffee is roasted in one of four roasting plants, located in Kent,
Washington; York, Pennsylvania; Carson Valley, Nevada; and Amsterdam, Netherlands.
These whole beans are available for purchase at all Starbucks store locations and in
many grocery stores.
Starbucks is known for the novel slang of its menu, substituting "tall," "grande," and
"venti" (Italian for "twenty") for the more traditional "small," "medium," and "large."
(There is also a "short," the smallest Starbucks coffee size at 8 oz., but it's not listed on
the menu in North America—it is, however, listed in other countries such as Japan and
Hong Kong, and furthermore can be ordered, even though it is unlisted.) Additionally,
most coffee drinks can be customized in some way, for example using skim milk instead
of whole milk for a "nonfat" option, or mixing regular and decaffeinated coffee to make
a "half-caf." Flavored syrups and whipped cream can be added; cappuccinos can be
made with more foam ("dry") or less foam ("wet"). Some of this argot is used at many
espresso shops, though Starbucks is largely responsible for popularizing it. Other options
include "extra hot" and "soy."
Hear Music
Hear Music is the brand name of Starbucks' retail music concept. Hear Music began as a
catalog company in 1990 and was purchased by Starbucks in 1999.

2. The Hear Music brand currently has three components: the music that each location
plays and the accompanying XM radio channel (XM 75); in-store CD sales, including
Starbucks exclusives; and specially branded retail stores.
The first Starbucks Hear Music Coffeehouse is in Santa Monica, California on the Third
Street Promenade, and two more locations recently opened, one opened December
2005 on the River Walk in San Antonio and another opened in February 2006 in Miami,
Florida's South Beach. There is also a Hear Music Store in Berkeley, California. Ten
Starbucks locations in Seattle and Austin, Texas also have Hear Music "media bars,"
kiosks that lets customers create their own mix CDs using tablet-based PCs.
Company Management
It was policy in the past for a partner to be a shift supervisor or store manager to
become a Coffee Master. Starbucks recently has changed this stance and now allows all
partners the opportunity to become a Coffee Master.
Most stores are internally divided into the backline, where the baristas (or "partners," as
Starbucks employees are called) work and serve customers, and the back, which
consists of the storeroom, bathrooms, and so on. Unless it is very small, the store also
has a café section where the customers can sit down to consume their drinks.
Behind the counter, the floor is divided into three distinct sections. These are:
1. The POS (Point of Sale or cash register): This is where orders are placed,
called, and paid for. Pastries are served from here as well as brewed coffees and
teas.
2. The Beverage Station: This area is usually broken down into two sections, the
Espresso Bar and the Cold Beverage Station. The Espresso Bar is where most hot
beverages are made, even if they don't require espresso shots, except for the
Coffee of the Week and brewed tea. The Cold Beverage Station is where
Frappuccino drinks and iced teas and coffees are made and served. If there is a
high demand for cold drinks there may be a barista specifically for the Cold
Beverage Station, otherwise a single barista handles the whole Beverage Station,
with help from the Floater barista if necessary.
3. The Digital Brewer and Pastry Case: These are usually placed close to each
other on the opposite side of the register from the Espresso Bar. The Digital
Brewer is where all the Coffees of the Week are brewed and served. This is
never a primary position, unlike the others, since it is a low-demand, low-
difficulty station, and is usually handled by the barista operating the register or
by the Floater.
The three primary roles that baristas take on (and swap off on during a shift) are thus
POS (register), beverages (making and serving drinks), and floater (miscellaneous duties
including making Frappuccino beverages and "café", the duty of cleaning tables and
otherwise taking care of the customer area).

3. Some stores might also have a barista at the Frappuccino bar or an inventory barista at
the back of the store. Busy stores might even have two baristas at one station,
especially at the espresso bar on busy days or at the Frappuccino station during the
summer. If the Starbucks has a drive-through, it may have one to three baristas
assigned solely to serve customers in cars.
A regular shift's workers include the baristas and the shift supervisor, often a more
experienced barista promoted to the position. The shift supervisor (just "shift" for short)
is in charge of running the store when the manager is not working. The "shift" also will
take on the role of floater as necessary to resolve bottlenecks.
Starbucks' marketing strategy involves positioning the local Starbucks outlet as people's
"third place" (besides home and work) to spend time and the stores are designed to
make this easy and comfortable. The café section of the store is often outfitted with
comfortable stuffed chairs and tables with hard-backed chairs. There are ample
electrical outlets providing free electricity for patrons using or charging their portable
music devices or laptop computers. Most stores in the U.S. and also in some other
markets also have wireless Internet access (although this access is not free, as it is in
some independent coffee shops). It is not uncommon to see people working in a
Starbucks for hours at a time.
The company is noted for its non-smoking policy at all its outlets, despite predictions
that this would never succeed in markets such as Germany, where there otherwise are
few restrictions on smoking. A single outlet in Vienna, which has a smoking room
separated by double doors from the coffee shop itself, is the closest the company has
come to making an exception. However, Starbucks generally does not prohibit smoking
in outside seating areas. According to the company, the smoking ban is to ensure that
the coffee aroma is not adulterated. The company also asks its employees to refrain
from wearing strong perfumes for similar reasons.

4. Notes: