Starbucks is an American coffee company that operates in many countries around the world including America, China, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Germany, and Thailand. Coffee is a commodity that has high volume of global trading. However, its market is highly fragmented hence need for extensive exposure. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of the markets of Starbuck’s coffee and coffee products. UAE’s fragmented coffee market has forced the company to consolidate distribution processes to cut distribution costs (Mangold, 2010). The process involves participation of farmers, millers, exporters, brokers, roasters, and producers. Each of these groups has a role to play depending on its position in the distribution channel. Starbucks purchases, roasts, and sells coffee and coffee products. It sells products primarily through its retail stores. To boost distribution efforts, the company collaborates with other stakeholders that include suppliers, business partners, and specialty operators (Mangold, 2010). In the UAE, Starbucks requires great market exposure because of stiff competition from other coffee shops (Mangold, 2010). In addition, the UAE is located in the desert, which makes it difficult for coffee companies to market and distribute coffee products. The climate of the UAE is mainly hot for most part of the year. Therefore, Starbucks needs to conduct extensive marketing and advertisement in order to endear its products to customers. Another reason for extensive market exposure is the company’s country of origin (Mangold, 2010). Many UAE countries are populated by Muslims. Muslims are conservative and firmly hold on to traditional values and beliefs. Starbucks needs a lot of market exposure in order to enhance its goodwill role in the UAE. Western countries are usually considered bad influence because of their culture that erodes ideals, beliefs, and cultural values of the Muslim countries. Starbucks’s distribution strategy involves a mixture of various distribution channels (Upadhyay, 2011). This implies that the company applies multiple channels that involve different participants at different market levels. First, the company uses a direct retail system to sell its products in stores under its management. Starbucks purchases, processes, and sells coffee in its stores without involvement of business partners. Second, Starbucks sells products in supermarkets and shopping malls across the UAE (Upadhyay, 2011). It supplies products to supermarkets and shopping centers depending on demand. Proceeds from sale of products are divided between involved partners according to their business agreement. Third, Starbucks sells its products through airlines, hotels, restaurants, and suppliers of office coffee (Upadhyay, 2011). One of the benefits of adopting a multiple distribution channel is that Starbucks serves a wide market in the UAE. However, the multiple channel distribution strategy is risky because of potential channel conflicts that might arise from using multiple channels concurrently. Starbucks also distributes its products via mail and on the internet (Upadhyay, 2011). The company produces a mail order catalog and sells products on its websites. Customers can place orders through