The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
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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.”
Schultz: Starbucks Replaced Entire Executive Team Except General Counsel
“He was right, except for one, the general counsel. They were all gone.”
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.”
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…”
Gilbert: Starbucks gift card deposits rival top 10% of US banks
“If Starbucks were a bank, and you treated the gift cards as deposits, it would be in the top 10% by deposits of banks in the United States.”
Schultz: Starbucks and Pepsi launched bottled Frappuccino via 50/50 JV
“Subsequently, Craig Weatherup and I, on a napkin, I swear, shook hands and created a multi-billion dollar business For Pepsi and Starbucks and a fifty-fifty JV and bottle Frappuccino.”
Gilbert: Starbucks' 1991 Employee Stock Option Grants Have Appreciated 800x
“So those initial grants, the strike price was six dollars per share. Today, as we speak, the share price is 77 dollars, but there have been six splits since then, which comes out to a 64 X. So that initial grant has 800 X'd since even the part-time employees a…”
Schultz: Starbucks spent zero dollars on marketing in its early days
“We didn't spend any money on marketing. Zero. It was no money for market in the cup. The iconic cup became a badge of honor because people were doing something that was new and novel and walking in the street with it”
Gilbert: Starbucks holds roughly $1.8B in customer gift card float
“Right now, at any given time, there's about 1.8 billion dollars of cash that Starbucks has gotten in the form effectively of as an advance from customers that Starbucks can use to operate.”
Schultz: Starbucks store model targeted 2:1 sales-to-investment and 20% operating profit
“The model basically was a sales to investment ratio of two to one. And a operating profit of 20%.”
Schultz: Starbucks Granted 14% of Base Pay in Stock Options Pre-IPO
“Ultimately we gave 14% of everyone's base pay in the form of stock options at the end of the year based on the strike price. And I had to do it the year before the IPO.”
Gilbert: Starbucks Offered Healthcare to Part-Time Workers and Same-Sex Partners in 1988
“So in 1988, the health benefits roll out even to Part-time employees, including gay couples in domestic partnerships. I believe the first of its kind. That was a 33 store company at that point.”
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.”
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…”
Gilbert: Customers load roughly $14B annually onto Starbucks gift cards
“In terms of velocity, about fourteen billion dollars a year gets loaded onto gift cards.”
Schultz: Starbucks secured China approval to insure employees' parents and grandparents
“Belinda decided that she could go to the government and go to an insurance company and come back to Starbucks and get government approval for Starbucks to do the first, do something had never been done before and provide health insurance to the parents and gra…”
Schultz: Starbucks beverage retail achieved roughly 80% gross margins early on
“The ability to source and roast coffee And put that through the supply chain of a beverage gave us probably at the time an 80% gross margin.”
Schultz: Costco Co-Founder Jeff Brotman Invested in Starbucks' 1987 Buyout
“First, Jeff Brotman invested in Starbucks in the round to buy Starbucks.”
Schultz: Starbucks never had a negative comp month before 2008
“Never had a negative comp month in my history of the company.”
Schultz: Gloria Jean's Once Had More Stores Than Starbucks via Franchising
“That was Gloria Jeans out of Chicago. And at one point, I think they had more stores than we did because of the franchising opportunity.”
Schultz: Starbucks never paid for product placement in movies
“First of all, Starbucks never paid for placement.”
Gilbert: 33% of Starbucks orders come from Mobile Order & Pay
“I think today, 33% of Starbucks orders are done with mobile order and pay.”
Schultz: Starbucks sold no prepared coffee beverages until around 1985-1986
“Starbucks coffee company from 1971 until around 8586, only sold pounds of coffee. There was no beverage.”
Schultz: Starbucks JV Partners Run Operations While Starbucks Controls Roasting and Design
“Starbucks is responsible for roasting the coffee, for all the recipes which are consistent with Starbucks worldwide, A co design of the store where we're designing the store with the JV or the licensed partner, and they control all the operations.”
Schultz: Starbucks had 11 stores and 100 employees at end of 1987
“August of 87. We bought the six Starbucks stores. We had the three old Eldranales, and there were two stores under construction. So at the end of the calendar year, we had 11 stores And a hundred employees in 1987.”
Schultz: Starbucks Never Issues Individual Retail Franchises
“There are not, no individual licensed franchises of any kind, unless it's certain real estate that we can't get, that we want access to. Like, a roadway on a highway in Switzerland, or something odd.”
Gilbert: Approximately 70% of Starbucks drink sales are now iced beverages
“What is it, 70% of drinks are now iced beverages, and it was when you started, zero percent.”
Rosenthal: Jeff Bezos and Jim Sinegal first met at a Bellevue Starbucks
“Do you know where Jeff Bezos and Jim Senegal met for the first time? Not in a Costco, in the Starbucks, in the Barnes and Noble, in Bellevue.”
Gilbert: Starbucks had zero publicly traded coffee comps at its 1992 IPO
“I was looking up, I was trying to figure out, you know, your public comps at the time. I think there were zero publicly traded coffee companies, not bean companies, not retailers, not coffee house chains.”
Gilbert: Frappuccinos Generated 7% of Starbucks Revenue in 1996
“The year after it launched, in 1996, Frappuccinos were seven percent of revenue.”
Schultz: Starbucks struggled and lost money in China for nearly a decade
“We struggled in China for almost a decade. Lost money. There was tremendous pressure inside the company of close China.”