Opinion
Schultz: Coffee in Italy is no longer as good as it once was
“The by and large coffee in Italy is not as good as it once was. There are certain coffee companies that have maintained the standard, but by and large, the coffee is not as good.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schultz: An Il Giornale investor tried to hijack the 1987 Starbucks acquisition
“Jerry gave me about, I think he gave me 90 days to raise 3.8 million dollars. Around the second month, he just came to me and said, where are you with all this? And I think I had about half of it raised. I might have fibbed a bit and said I had a little bit mo…”
Opinion
Schultz: Mobile Order & Pay is Starbucks' biggest Achilles' heel
“It is the biggest Achilles heel for Starbucks. And it's not even a close second.”
Opinion
Schultz: Starbucks developed hubris and shifted to playing defense over time
“The worst thing that could happen to a company is believing that you are incapable of doing anything but succeeding, and you deserve the success. But if you start playing defense and don't have the offensive mind, it's not going to go well. And I think over ti…”
Disclosure
Schultz: No desire or intent to return as Starbucks CEO
“The first thing I want to say is I've made it clear to the Starbucks board, Howard Schultz, and I've made it clear to Loxman, Howard Schultz has no desire or intent to return as CEO of Starbucks.”
Assertion Partly supported
Schultz: Starbucks introduced the caffè latte to America without trademarking it
“The other thing I didn't do is we introduced cafe latte to the, to America. We didn't trademark it. You know, we trademarked Frappuccino later on, but we didn't trademark cafe latte.”
Opinion
Schultz: Starbucks Pricing Has Become a Problem Amid Recent Inflation
“There certainly was a fair amount of discussion all the time about the sensitivity of the price points, and I think in later years, maybe in the last couple years, given the consumer inflationary time, I think it's become a bit of a problem.”
Assertion Supported
Schultz: Starbucks was seven months from insolvency in 2008
“I went up there, and I laid it out. Chapter and verse. I think we have seven months left. We are going to be insolvent.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schultz: Previous Starbucks leadership diluted coffee quality to maximize yield
“Because the previous administration had done things that diluted the integrity of coffee to maximize yield.”
Opinion
Schultz: Starbucks Asia delivers higher brand experience than US stores
“The interesting thing to me today is that the Asian business is operating at a much higher level
Of the soft side of Starbucks than we are in the U S”
Assertion Partly supported
Schultz: Starbucks Replaced Entire Executive Team Except General Counsel
“He was right, except for one, the general counsel. They were all gone.”
What-if
Schultz: Starbucks should not have launched 24/7 on-demand mobile ordering
“I don't think I would have allowed the mobile app to be on demand, 24 hours a day. I would have slow rolled the availability of it, and then understood how it was being used, and whether or not it was going to disrupt the experience.”
What-if
Schultz: Starbucks would not have succeeded under a franchise model
“I never believed that we could build, maintain, and elevate the culture of the company, which I viewed as the thing in a franchise system, where we had individual franchisees who had their own subculture. And so even though there was pressure early on because …”
Opinion
Schultz: Starbucks underestimated the public groundswell for unionization after COVID missteps
“And I think the company made some early mistakes. Some of which were COVID related. Again, no textbook had to deal with COVID issues, health issues, safety issues. And then I think underestimated the groundswell of public sentiment for this movement in America…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schultz: Straight espresso is Starbucks' number one selling beverage in Italy
“Two, three years later, what do you think the number one beverage is? It's espresso. For Starbucks. Straight espresso. Espresso is the number one beverage.”
Insight
Schultz: Post-founder companies lose entrepreneurial DNA and play defense out of fear
“Founder leaves, I'm not talking about me, it's you, historically, and companies lose not only the extent of the entrepreneurial DNA, but they lose the ability to be on offense. And the worst thing that a company can do, like a sports team, is start playing def…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schultz: Faema and Lavazza both rejected investing in Il Giornale
“One is the espresso company, Faima. And one is the large Italian coffee company Lavazza. And I asked them both to invest in my idea. And both of them turned me down.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schultz: Selling in Costco Directly Increased Starbucks Retail Store Sales
“In fact, putting Starbucks in Costco, we were able to measure directly
The increase in volume in the stores on the east side as a result of the proximity to the Costco store.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schultz: Coca-Cola dismissed Starbucks ready-to-drink pitch in under 30 minutes
“The Coke meeting was a meeting lasted less than 30 minutes. I can't remember who I met with. They dismissed me didn't view Starbucks or, didn't understand what I was trying to do and didn't give me much time to even explain it.”
Assertion Partly supported
Schultz: Starbucks suspended buybacks to invest over $2B into partners
“The day I came back, and I knew what the market would do, is I announced that we were suspending the stock buybacks, and stock went down. I expected it, and I announced that we were going to take basically the money we were using to stock buybacks for the year…”
Assertion Supported
Schultz: Starbucks originally resold Peet's Coffee in Starbucks bags in 1971
“Now what is not known is that when Starbucks opened in the Pike Place Market in 1971, they were using Pete's Coffee. No one knows that. That's new. Because they were not roasting coffee. So they were bringing coffee from San Francisco to Seattle. They were not…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schultz: World War II GI rations drove post-war low-quality coffee adoption
“World War II and the GIs were kind of the impetus for that kind of quality coffee, or not quality coffee, to exist and have any kind of run after the war.”
Assertion Supported
Schultz: Starbucks ran into financial trouble after acquiring Peet's Coffee
“Now between 83 and 85, Jerry Baldwin, because of his love of Pete's and his relation with Alfred Pete, had an opportunity for Starbucks to acquire Pete's Coffee Company. And they did. Unfortunately, Starbucks buys Pete's, and they get into financial trouble.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schultz: Bill Gates did not know his father saved the Starbucks acquisition
“Bill did not know the whole story. He didn't know any of it. He didn't know what his father had done for me. He's hearing it for the first time.”
Howard Schultz