Starbucks

**Starbucks Corporation** is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. As the world's largest coffeehouse chain, Starbucks is seen to be the main representation of the United States' second wave of coffee culture. As of early 2020, the company operates over 30,000 locations worldwide in more than 70 countries. Starbucks locations serve hot and cold drinks, whole-bean coffee, microground instant coffee known as VIA, espresso, caffe latte, full- and loose-leaf teas including Teavana tea products, Evolution Fresh juices, Frappuccino beverages, La Boulange pastries, and snacks including items such as chips and crackers; some offerings (including their annual fall launch of the Pumpkin Spice Latte) are seasonal or specific to the locality of the store.

Headquartered in the Starbucks Center, the company was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker at Seattle's Pike Place Market. During the early 1980s, they sold the company to Howard Schultz who – after a business trip to Milan, Italy – decided to make the coffee bean store a coffeeshop serving espresso-based drinks. Schultz's first tenure as chief executive, from 1986 to 2000, led to an aggressive expansion of the franchise, first in Seattle, then across the U.S. West Coast. Despite an initial economic downturn with its expansion into the Midwest and British Columbia, the company experienced revitalized prosperity with its entry into California in the early 1990s through a series of highly publicized coffee wars. Schultz was succeeded by Orin Smith who ran the company for five years, positioning Starbucks as a large player in fair trade coffee and increasing sales to $5 billion. Jim Donald served as chief executive from 2005 to 2008, orchestrating a large-scale earnings expansion. Schultz returned as CEO in the middle of the 2008 financial crisis and spent the succeeding decade growing its market share, expanding its offerings, and reorienting itself around corporate social responsibility. Kevin Johnson took over from Schultz in 2017, and continues to serve as the firm's chief executive.

Many stores sell pre-packaged food items, pastries, hot and cold sandwiches, and drinkware including mugs and tumblers. There are also several select "Starbucks Evenings" locations which offer beer, wine, and appetizers. Starbucks-brand coffee, ice cream, and bottled cold coffee drinks are also sold at grocery stores in the United States and other countries. In 2010, the company began its Starbucks Reserve program for single-origin coffees and high-end coffee shops. It planned to open 1,000 Reserve coffee shops by the end of 2017. Starbucks operates six roasteries with tasting rooms and 43 coffee bars as part of the program. The latest roastery location opened on Chicago's Magnificent Mile in November 2019, and is the world's largest Starbucks. The company has received significant and sustained criticism about its business practices, corporate affairs, and role in society. Conversely, its franchise has commanded substantial brand loyalty, market share, and company value.

## History

### Founding

The first Starbucks was opened in Seattle, Washington, on March 31, 1971, by three partners who met while they were students at the University of San Francisco: English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegl, and writer Gordon Bowker were inspired to sell high-quality coffee beans and equipment by coffee roasting entrepreneur Alfred Peet after he taught them his style of roasting beans. Bowker recalls that Terry Heckler, with whom Bowker owned an advertising agency, thought words beginning with "st" were powerful. The founders brainstormed a list of words beginning with "st," and eventually landed on "Starbo," a mining town in the Cascade Range. From there, the group remembered "Starbuck," the name of the chief mate in the book *Moby-Dick.* Bowker said, "*Moby-Dick* didn't have anything to do with Starbucks directly; it was only coincidental that the sound seemed to make sense."

The first Starbucks store was located in Seattle at 2000 Western Avenue from 1971–1976. This cafe was later moved to 1912 Pike Place. During this time, the company only sold roasted whole coffee beans and did not yet brew coffee to sell. During their first year of operation, they purchased green coffee beans from Peet's, then began buying directly from growers.[*citation needed*]

### Sale and expansion

In 1984, the original owners of Starbucks, led by Jerry Baldwin, purchased Peet's Coffee. By 1986, the company operated six stores in Seattle and had only just begun to sell espresso coffee. In 1987, the original owners sold the Starbucks chain to former manager Howard Schultz, who rebranded his Il Giornale coffee outlets as Starbucks and quickly began to expand the company. That same year, Starbucks opened its first locations outside of Seattle in Waterfront Station in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Chicago, Illinois. By 1989, 46 Starbucks stores existed across the Northwest and Midwest, and the company was roasting more than 2,000,000 pounds (907,185 kg) of coffee annually. At the time of its initial public offering (IPO) on the stock market in June 1992, Starbucks had 140 outlets, with revenue of US$73.5 million, up from US$1.3 million in 1987. The company's market value was US$271 million by this time. The 12% portion of the company that was sold raised around US$25 million for the company, which enabled it to double its number of stores over the next two years. By September 1992, Starbucks's share price had risen by 70% to more than 100 times the earnings per share of the previous year. In July 2013, more than 10% of in-store purchases were made on customers' mobile devices via the Starbucks app.

The company once again utilized the mobile platform when it launched the "Tweet-a-Coffee" promotion in October 2013. On this occasion, the promotion also involved Twitter and customers were able to purchase a US$5 gift card for a friend by entering both "@tweetacoffee" and the friend's handle in a tweet. Research firm Keyhole monitored the progress of the campaign; a December 2013 media article reported that 27,000 people had participated and US$180,000 of purchases had been made to date. As of 2018, Starbucks is ranked 132nd on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue. In July 2019, Starbucks reported "fiscal third-quarter net income of $1.37 billion, or $1.12 per share, up from $852.5 million, or 61 cents per share, a year earlier." The company's market value of $110.2 billion increased by 41% in mid-2019. The earnings per share in quarter three were recorded at 78 cents, much more than the forecast of 72 cents.

### Expansion to new markets and products

The first Starbucks location to open outside of North America opened in Tokyo, Japan, in July 1996. On December 4, 1997, the Philippines became the third market to open outside of North America. Starbucks entered the U.K. market in 1998 with the US$83 million acquisition of the then 56-outlet, UK-based Seattle Coffee Company, re-branding all those stores as Starbucks. In 1999, Starbucks experimented with eateries in the San Francisco Bay area through a restaurant chain called Circadia. After people learned that these restaurants were owned by Starbucks, Starbucks converted the restaurants to Starbucks cafes. Australia's first Starbucks store opened in July 2000 in Sydney. After a massive downturn in 2008, the remaining Australian Starbucks stores were purchased in 2014, with the company planning a more restrained expansion. In September 2002, Starbucks opened its first store in Latin America, in Mexico City. Currently, there are more than 500 locations in Mexico. In October 2002, Starbucks established a coffee trading company in Lausanne, Switzerland to handle purchases of green coffee. All other coffee-related business continued to be managed from Seattle.

In April 2003, Starbucks completed the purchase of Seattle's Best Coffee and Torrefazione Italia from AFC Enterprises for $72m. The deal only gained 150 stores for Starbucks, but according to the *Seattle Post-Intelligencer,* the wholesale business was more significant. In September 2006, rival Diedrich Coffee announced that it would sell most of its company-owned retail stores to Starbucks, escalating a regional coffee war. This sale included the company-owned locations of the Oregon-based Coffee People chain. Starbucks converted the Diedrich Coffee and Coffee People locations to Starbucks, although the Portland International Airport Coffee People locations were excluded from the sale.

In August 2003, Starbucks opened its first store in South America in Lima, Peru. The company opened its first store in Russia in 2007, ten years after first registering a trademark there. In 2008, Starbucks purchased the manufacturer of the Clover Brewing System. They began testing the "fresh-pressed" coffee system at several Starbucks locations in Seattle, California, New York, and Boston.

In early 2008, Starbucks started a community website, My Starbucks Idea, designed to collect suggestions and feedback from customers. Other users comment and vote on suggestions. Journalist Jack Schofield noted that "My Starbucks seems to be all sweetness and light at the moment, which I don't think is possible without quite a lot of censorship." In May 2008, a loyalty program was introduced for registered users of the Starbucks Card (previously simply a gift card) offering perks such as free Wi-Fi Internet access, no charge for soy milk and flavored syrups, and free refills on brewed drip coffee, iced coffee, or tea. In 2009, Starbucks began beta testing its mobile app for the Starbucks card, a stored value system in which consumers access pre-paid funds to purchase products at Starbucks. Starbucks released its complete mobile platform on January 11, 2011.

On November 14, 2012, Starbucks announced the purchase of Teavana for US$620 million in cash; the deal was formally closed on December 31, 2012.

On February 1, 2013, Starbucks opened its first store in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and this was followed by an announcement in late August 2013 that the retailer would be opening its inaugural store in Colombia. The Colombian announcement was delivered at a press conference in Bogota, where the company's CEO explained, "Starbucks has always admired and respected Colombia's distinguished coffee tradition." In May 2014, the Starbucks operations in South Korea launched a mobile ordering system named Siren Order, which is accessible through a local version of Starbucks smartphone application. In the U.S. Starbucks later launched a similar system named Mobile Order & Pay, which launched in Portland, Oregon in December 2015. The service has since expanded nationwide, and in late March 2018, the company opened the system (previously available to Starbucks Rewards members only) to all customers. In August 2014, Starbucks opened their first store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, one of 30 Starbucks stores to offer beer and wine.

In September 2014, it was revealed that Starbucks would acquire the remaining 60.5 percent stake in Starbuck Coffee Japan that it does not already own, at a price of $913.5 million. In August 2015, Starbucks announced its intention to enter Cambodia, its 16th market in the China/Asia Pacific region. The first location was scheduled to open in the capital city of Phnom Penh by the end of 2015.

In February 2016, Starbucks announced that it would enter Italy, its 24th market in Europe, with the first location to open in Milan by 2018. In August, startup company FluxPort introduced Qi inductive charging pads at select locations in Germany. In September 2016, Starbucks announced a debut of its first-ever original content series called "Upstanders," which aimed to inspire Americans with stories of compassion, citizenship, and civility. The series featured podcasts, written word, and video, and was distributed via the Starbucks mobile app, online, and through the company's in-store digital network. On July 27, 2017, Starbucks acquired the remaining 50% stake in its Chinese venture from long-term joint venture partners Uni-President Enterprises Corporation (UPEC) and President Chain Store Corporation (PCSC).

On March 21, 2018, Starbucks announced that it was considering the use of blockchain technology with an idea to connect coffee drinkers with coffee farmers who eventually can take advantage of new financial opportunities. The pilot program was planned to start with farmers in Costa Rica, Colombia and Rwanda, in order to develop a new way to track the bean to cup journey. On June 19, 2018, Starbucks announced the closing of 150 locations in 2019; three times the number the corporation typically closes in a single year. The closings were to happen in urban areas that already have dense clusters of stores. In 2018, Starbucks expanded its partnership with Uber Eats to bring its beverages to U.S. customers' doorsteps, as it had already done for some time in China. In November 2019, Starbucks opened its largest store ever on Michigan Avenue, Chicago. The store is open seven days a week and has 200 employees.

## Products

In 1994, Starbucks bought The Coffee Connection, gaining the rights to use, make, market, and sell the "Frappuccino" beverage. The beverage was introduced under the Starbucks name in 1995 and as of 2012, Starbucks had annual Frappuccinos sales of over $2 billion. The company began a "skinny" line of drinks in 2008, offering lower-calorie and sugar-free versions of the company's offered drinks that use skim milk, and can be sweetened by a choice of natural sweeteners (such as raw sugar, agave syrup, or honey), artificial sweeteners (such as Sweet'N Low, Splenda, Equal), or one of the company's sugar-free syrup flavors. Starbucks stopped using milk originating from rBGH-treated cows in 2007. In June 2009, the company overhauled its menu and began to sell salads and baked goods without high fructose corn syrup or artificial ingredients. This move was expected to attract health- and cost-conscious consumers and will not affect prices.

Starbucks introduced a new line of instant coffee packets, called VIA "Ready Brew," in March 2009. It was first unveiled in New York City with subsequent testing of the product also in Seattle, Chicago, and London. The first two VIA flavors include Italian Roast and Colombia, which were then rolled out in October 2009, across the U.S. and Canada with Starbucks stores promoting the product with a blind "taste challenge" of the instant versus fresh roast, in which many people could not tell the difference between the instant and freshly brewed coffee. Financial analysts speculated that by introducing instant coffee, Starbucks would devalue its own brand. Starbucks began selling beer and wine at some US stores in 2010. In 2011, Starbucks introduced its largest cup size, the Trenta, which can hold 31 US fluid ounces (920 ml). In September 2012, Starbucks announced the Verismo, a consumer-grade single-serve coffee machine that uses sealed plastic cups of coffee grounds, and a "milk pod" for lattes. On November 10, 2011, Starbucks Corporation announced that it had bought juice company Evolution Fresh for $30 million in cash and planned to start a chain of juice bars starting in around the middle of 2012, venturing into territory staked out by Jamba Inc. Its first store released in San Bernardino, California and plans for a store in San Francisco were to be launched in early 2013.

In 2012, Starbucks began selling a line of iced Starbucks Refresher beverages that contain an extract from green arabica coffee beans. The beverages are fruit flavored and contain caffeine but advertised as having no coffee flavor. Starbucks's green coffee extraction process involves soaking the beans in water. On June 25, 2013, Starbucks began to post calorie counts on menus for drinks and pastries in all of their U.S. stores. In 2014, Starbucks began producing their own line of sodas, dubbed "Fizzio." In 2015, Starbucks began serving coconut milk as an alternative to dairy and soy. In March 2017, Starbucks announced the launch of two new limited-edition specialty drinks made from beans aged in whiskey barrels at its Seattle roastery. Starbucks's barrel-aged coffee will be sold with a small batch of unroasted Starbucks Reserve Sulawesi beans, which are then hand-scooped into whiskey barrels from Washington state.

 Tall
 Grande
 Venti
26 US fl oz (770 mL) - Iced
 Trenta

### Tea

Starbucks entered the tea business in 1999 when it acquired the Tazo brand for US$8,100,000. In late 2012, Starbucks paid US$620 million to buy Teavana. Starbucks does not market Teavana products in its stores, though the acquisition allowed the expansion of Teavana beyond its current main footprint in shopping malls. In January 2015, Starbucks began to roll out Teavana teas into Starbucks stores, both in to-go beverage and retail formats.

### Coffee quality

Kevin Knox, who was in charge of doughnuts quality at Starbucks from 1987 to 1993, recalled on his blog in 2010 how George Howell, coffee veteran and founder of the Cup of Excellence, had been appalled at the dark roasted beans that Starbucks was selling in 1990. Talking to the *New York Times* in 2008, Howell stated his opinion that the dark roast used by Starbucks does not deepen the flavor of coffee, but instead can destroy purported nuances of flavor. The March 2007 issue of *Consumer Reports* compared American fast-food chain coffees and ranked Starbucks behind McDonald's Premium Roast in the middle of a coffee war. The magazine called Starbucks coffee "strong, but burnt and bitter enough to make your eyes water instead of open." As reported by *TIME* in 2010, third wave coffee proponents generally criticize Starbucks for over-roasting beans. As a result, Starbucks retrained its baristas and changed their roasting methods in 2010 in order to "standardize quality over quantity." *The Atlantic* reported that this push for higher-quality coffee slowed down orders, but stated "[they] move their product pretty quickly, and with surprising accuracy." *Forbes* corroborated this trade off between efficiency and quality at Starbucks. Eight years later, in 2018, *Business Insider* conducted a test of their coffee judged by 100 coffee experts. They concluded that although staples of the menu were "too sugary", coffee quality materially improved with particularly strong showings in the firm's iced coffee and nitro cold brew offerings. *Insider* experts, however, did note that the coffee quality in Starbucks Reserves far surpassed that of the typical retail store.

### Starbucks Verismo

In 2012, Starbucks introduced Starbucks Verismo, a line of coffee makers that brew espresso and regular chocolate from coffee capsules, a type of pre-apportioned single-use container of ground coffee and flavorings utilizing the K-Fee pod system. In a brief review of the 580 model, Consumer Reports described the results of a comparative test of the Verismo 580 against two competitive brands: "Because you have to conduct a rinse cycle between each cup, the Verismo wasn't among the most convenient of single-serve machines in our coffeemaker tests. Other machines we've tested have more flexibility in adjusting brew-strength—the Verismo has buttons for coffee, espresso, and latte with no strength variation for any type. And since Starbucks has limited its coffee selection to its own brand, there are only eight varieties so far plus a milk pod for the latte."

### Other products

In July 2019, Starbucks announced that it would no longer be selling newspapers in its cafes. It was also announced that kiosks for grab-and-go snacks and bags of whole-bean coffee would be removed from stores beginning in September 2019.

## Locations

The company's headquarters is located in Seattle, Washington, United States, where 3,501 people worked as of January 2015. The main building in the Starbucks complex was previously a Sears distribution center.

### Current

As of May 2020, Starbucks has around 31,256 locations spanning 79 countries and territories on six continents:

* South Africa: 11
* Morocco: 9
* Tunisia: 1

Asia* China: 3,600
* Japan: 1,415
* South Korea: 1,080
* Taiwan: 430
* Thailand: 410
* Turkey: 408
* Philippines: 300
* Indonesia: 249
* Malaysia: 220
* India: 157
* Hong Kong: 147
* United Arab Emirates: 138
* Singapore: 125
* Saudi Arabia: 92
* Kuwait: 89
* Vietnam: 64
* Lebanon: 41
* Cambodia: 21
* Bahrain: 19
* Qatar: 18
* Kazakhstan: 16
* Jordan: 14
* Cyprus: 11
* Oman: 11
* Azerbaijan: 4
* Brunei: 4
* Germany: 161
* France: 121
* Russia: 112
* Spain: 107
* Poland: 72
* Ireland: 67
* Switzerland: 63
* Netherlands: 59
* Romania: 48
* Greece: 31
* Czech Republic: 26
* Denmark: 21
* Austria: 20
* Belgium: 19
* Norway: 17
* Sweden: 17
* Hungary: 16
* Bulgaria: 14
* Portugal: 11
* Italy: 10
* Finland: 9
* Slovakia: 7
* Luxembourg: 3
* Serbia: 3
* Andorra: 1
* Malta: 1
* Monaco: 1
* Canada: 2,359
* Mexico: 531
* The Bahamas: 12
* Costa Rica: 12
* El Salvador: 11
* Trinidad and Tobago: 9
* Guatemala: 7
* Jamaica: 7
* Panama: 5
* Aruba: 3
* Curaçao: 3
* Cayman Islands: 1
* Dominican Republic: 1

Oceania* Australia: 35
* New Zealand: 22

South America* Brazil: 104
* Argentina: 100
* Chile: 91
* Peru: 81
* Colombia: 24
* Uruguay: 9
* Bolivia: 4

### Retail expansion

In 2008, Starbucks continued its expansion, settling in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Portugal. European and Scandinavian expansion continued in 2009 with Poland (April), Utrecht, Netherlands (August), and Sweden at Arlanda Airport outside Stockholm (October). In 2010, growth in new markets continued. In May 2010, Southern Sun Hotels South Africa announced that they had signed an agreement with Starbucks to brew Starbucks coffees in select Southern Sun and Tsonga Sun hotels in South Africa. The agreement was partially reached so Starbucks coffees could be served in the country in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup hosted by South Africa. In June 2010, Starbucks opened its first store in Budapest, Hungary and in November, the company opened the first Central American store in El Salvador's capital, San Salvador.

In December 2010, Starbucks debuted their first-ever Starbucks at sea, wherewith a partnership with Royal Caribbean International; Starbucks opened a shop aboard their Allure of the Seas Royal Caribbean's second-largest ship, and also the second-largest ship in the world. A partnership with Algerian food company Cevital will see Starbucks open its first Algerian store in Algiers. In January 2011, Starbucks and Tata Coffee, Asia's largest coffee plantation company, announced plans for a strategic alliance to bring Starbucks to India and also to source and roast coffee beans at Tata Coffee's Kodagu facility. Despite a false start in 2007, in January 2012, Starbucks created a 50:50 joint venture with Tata Global Beverages called Tata Starbucks. Tata Starbucks owned and operated Starbucks outlets in India as *Starbucks Coffee "A Tata Alliance."* Starbucks opened its first store in India in Mumbai on October 19, 2012.

In February 2011, Starbucks started selling its coffee in Norway by supplying Norwegian food shops with their roasts. The first Starbucks-branded Norwegian shop opened on February 8, 2012, at Oslo Airport, Gardermoen. In October 2011, Starbucks opened another location in Beijing, China, at the Beijing Capital International Airport's Terminal 3, international departures hall; making the company's 500th store in China. The store is the 7th location at the airport. The company planned to expand to 1,500 stores in China by 2015. In May 2012, Starbucks opened its first coffeehouse in Finland, with the location being Helsinki-Vantaa Airport in Vantaa. In June 2012, Starbucks opened a store in San Jose, Costa Rica. In October 2012, Starbucks announced plans to open 1,000 stores in the United States in the next five years. The same month, the largest Starbucks in the US opened at the University of Alabama's Ferguson Center.

In 2013, Starbucks met with Dansk Supermarked, which is the biggest retail company in Denmark. The first Starbucks inside Dansk Supermarked opened in August 2013 in the department stores Salling in Aalborg and Aarhus. Starbucks has announced its first café in Bolivia would open in 2014 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra and the first in Panama in 2015. On June 19, 2015, a Starbucks opened at Disney's Animal Kingdom on Discovery Island. Since the park does not allow plastic straws due to the animals, this location features special green eco-friendly straws with their cold drinks. This was the sixth Starbucks to open in Walt Disney World, following locations in the Magic Kingdom (Main Street, U.S.A.), Epcot (Future World), Disney's Hollywood Studios (Hollywood Boulevard), and two in Disney Springs (Marketplace and West Side). In addition to these six, there are locations in Disneyland (Main Street, U.S.A.), Disney California Adventure (Buena Vista Street), Anaheim's Downtown Disney, and Disney Village at Disneyland Paris. The Downtown Disney and Disney Springs locations are Starbucks-operated, while the locations inside of the theme parks are Disney-operated.

Bill Sleeth, Starbucks's vice president of global design, has overseen efforts to make a neighborhood feel for new stores, saying "What you don't want is a customer walking into a store in downtown Seattle, walking into a store in the suburbs of Seattle and then going into a store in San Jose, and seeing the same store." Sleeth said "The customers were saying, 'Everywhere I go, there you are,' and not in a good way. We were pretty ubiquitous." As part of a change in compact direction, Starbucks management wanted to transition from the singular brand worldwide to focusing on locally relevant design for each store. Starbucks's first Channel Island store was opened in early 2015, in the primary business area of St Peter Port in Guernsey. In 2014 Starbucks was scheduled to open a store in Azerbaijan, in the Port Baku Mall.

In August 2013, Starbucks's CEO, Howard Schultz, personally announced the opening of Starbucks stores in Colombia. The first café was set to open in 2014 in Bogotá and add 50 more stores throughout Colombia's main cities in a 5-year limit. Schultz also stated that Starbucks will work with both the Colombian Government and USAID to continue "empowering local coffee growers and sharing the value, heritage and tradition of its coffee with the world." Starbucks noted that the aggressive expansion into Colombia was a joint venture with Starbucks's Latin partners, Alsea and Colombia's Grupo Nutresa that has previously worked with Starbucks by providing coffee through Colcafe. This announcement comes after Starbucks's Farmer Support Center was established in Manizales, Colombia the previous year making Colombia an already established country by the corporation.

On April 21, 2015, Kesko, the second largest retailer in Finland, announced its partnership with Starbucks, with stores opened next to K-Citymarket hypermarkets. As of June 2017, 3 stores had been opened next to K-Citymarkets: In Sello in Espoo and in Myyrmanni and Jumbo in Vantaa. On December 18, 2015, Starbucks opened in Almaty, Kazakhstan. On the next day, 1 more coffee shop was opened. The first Starbucks store in Slovakia opened in Aupark Shopping Center in Bratislava on May 31, 2016, with two more stores confirmed to open in Bratislava by the end of 2016. In February 2016, Howard Schultz announced the opening of stores in Italy. The first Italian Starbucks store was inaugurated in Milan on September 6, 2018. After Taste Holdings acquired outlet licensing for South African stores, Starbucks opened its first store in South Africa in Rosebank, Johannesburg on Thursday, April 21, 2016, and it is second in the country at the end of April in Mall of Africa.

In May 2017, Starbucks announced it was commencing operations in Jamaica, where the first store is to open in the resort city of Montego Bay. The company announced that its first store would be on located on the shores of the world-famous Doctor's Cave Beach, offering views of the Caribbean Sea. Starbucks Jamaica expects thereafter to roll out a further 14 locations across the island by the year 2020. The company also reaffirmed its commitment to working with local coffee farmers to "implement systems to increase productivity and yields, while also increasing compliance to international standards." Starbucks Jamaica officially opened its first store on November 21, 2017, with plans to open 15 locations islandwide over a 5-year period. Starbucks Jamaica, recently opened its 3 stores at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay and one at the Historic Falmouth Pier, in Falmouth, Jamaica. Starbucks Jamaica announced its intention to open 2 stores in Jamaica's capital city, Kingston in 2018, with plans for up to 6 stores by 2019. The first of the Kingston stores opened on June 21, 2018. The second store is located in the heart of Kingston's central business district, New Kingston. Starbucks is also opening its first in-store location in the new flagship location for Jamaica's largest Pharmacy chain, Fontana Pharmacy, also located in Kingston; making it Starbucks's third confirmed location. This location will open in July 2019.

Caribbean Coffee Baristas, franchise-holders for Starbucks's Jamaican operations are set to open new stores in the Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands; up to three stores are planned for the Caymans and a yet undisclosed number for the Turks & Caicos. The first of these stores will be opened by year-end of 2018. At the end of December 2017, the world's biggest Starbucks store opened at HKRI Taikoo Hui in Shanghai, China. Starbucks announced the opening of stores in Serbia in late 2018. The first store was opened in April 2019 at Rajićeva Mall. On June 1, 2019, Starbucks opened its first coffee store in Malta at Valletta. This will be the 80th country that will have a Starbucks outlet.

### Former stores

After losing $6 million on the six Starbucks opened between 2001 and 2003, and having struggled with fierce local competition, Starbucks, along with its partner Delek Group of Israel, closed all six of its locations in Israel, citing "on-going operational challenges" and a "difficult business environment." The Starbucks location in the former imperial palace in Beijing closed in July 2007. The coffee shop had been a source of ongoing controversy since its opening in 2000 with protesters objecting that the presence of the American chain in this location "was trampling on Chinese culture." In July 2008, the company announced it was closing 600 underperforming company-owned stores and cutting U.S. expansion plans amid growing economic uncertainty. On July 29, 2008, Starbucks also cut almost 1,000 non-retail jobs as part of its bid to re-energize the brand and boost its profit. Of the new cuts, 550 of the positions were layoffs and the rest were unfilled jobs. These closings and layoffs effectively ended the company's period of growth and expansion that began in the mid-1990s.

Starbucks also announced in July 2008 that it would close 61 of its 84 stores in Australia in the following month. Nick Wailes, an expert in strategic management of the University of Sydney, commented that "Starbucks failed to truly understand Australia's cafe culture." In May 2014, Starbucks announced ongoing losses in the Australian market, which resulted in the remaining stores being sold to the Withers Group. In January 2009, Starbucks announced the closure of an additional 300 underperforming stores and the elimination of 7,000 positions. CEO Howard Schultz also announced that he had received board approval to reduce his salary. Altogether, from February 2008 to January 2009, Starbucks terminated an estimated 18,400 U.S. jobs and began closing 977 stores worldwide. In August 2009, Ahold announced closures and rebranding for 43 of their licensed store Starbucks kiosks for their US based Stop & Shop and Giant supermarkets. In July 2012, the company announced that they may begin closing unprofitable European stores immediately.

### Unbranded stores

In 2009, at least three stores in Seattle were de-branded to remove the logo and brand name, and remodel the stores as local coffee houses "inspired by Starbucks." CEO Howard Schultz called the unbranded stores a "laboratory for Starbucks". The first, 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea, opened in July 2009 on Capitol Hill. It served wine and beer and hosted live music and poetry readings. It has since been remodeled and reopened as a Starbucks-branded store. Another is Roy Street Coffee and Tea at 700 Broadway E., also on Capitol Hill. Although the stores have been called "stealth Starbucks" and criticized as "local-washing," Schultz says that "It wasn't so much that we were trying to hide the brand, but trying to do things in those stores that we did not feel were appropriate for Starbucks."

### Licensed and franchise operations

Independently operated Starbucks locations exist. Stores that independently operate locations include Ahold Delhaize, Barnes & Noble, Target, Albertsons and, more recently, Publix stores. As of 2015, 4,962 licensed locations exist. In the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) markets, Starbucks operates a franchising program. Different from the licensing program in which existing corporations may apply to operate a Starbucks kiosk within an existing store, franchises can enable new, freestanding stores.

### Automated locations

Starbucks has automated systems in some areas. These machines have 280 possible drink combinations to choose from. They have touchscreens and customers can play games while they wait for their order.

### Facilities

Free Wi-Fi Internet access varies in different regions. In Germany, customers get unlimited free Wi-Fi through BT Openzone, and in Switzerland and Austria, customers can get 30 minutes with a voucher card (through T-Mobile). Since 2003, Starbucks in the UK rolled out a paid Wi-Fi based on one-time, hourly or daily payment. Then, in September 2009, it was changed to 100% free Wi-Fi at most of its outlets. Customers with a Starbucks Card are able to log-on to the Wi-Fi in-store for free with their card details, thereby bringing the benefits of the loyalty program in line with the United States. Since July 2010, Starbucks has offered free Wi-Fi in all of its US stores via AT&T and information through a partnership with Yahoo!. This is an effort to be more competitive against local chains, which have long offered free Wi-Fi, and against McDonald's, which began offering free wireless internet access in 2010. On June 30, 2010, Starbucks announced it would begin to offer unlimited and free Internet access via Wi-Fi to customers in all company-owned locations across Canada starting on July 1, 2010.

In October 2012, Starbucks and Duracell Powermat announced a pilot program to install Powermat charging surfaces in the tabletops in selected Starbucks stores in the Boston area. Furthermore, Starbucks announced its support in the Power Matters Alliance (PMA) and its membership in the PMA board, along with Google and AT&T, in an effort to create "a real-world ecosystem of wireless power" through a universal wireless charging standard that customers could use to recharge smartphones.