While We Are A Coffee Company At

My Biggest Concern Is That America Is Drifting Towards Mediocrity And That People Don't Recognize - And By People I'm Meaning Washington - Don't Recognize The Sense Of Urgency And The Fact That I Don't Think This Is A Crisis Anymore. I Think It's An Emergency.

When I First Discovered In The Early 1980s The Italian Espresso Bars In My Trip To Italy, The Vision Was To Re-create That For America - A Third Place That Had Not Existed Before. Starbucks Re-created That In America In Our Own Image; A Place To Go Other Than Home Or Work. We Also Created An Industry That Did Not Exist: Specialty Coffee.

Many Companies Today Are Reducing Hours Of Full-time People To Get Under The Minimum So They Don't Have To Pay Health Care Costs. I Just Shake My Head Because That's Not Going To Build Long-term Value And Trust With Your People.

If You Look At Coffee, Tea, Food And Juice, We Think There Are Inherent Opportunities. If You Look At Health Bars Or Grab-and-go Products That Are In Our Stores, We Think We Can Significantly Enhance Them And Make Them More Widely Available.

Work Should Be Personal. For All Of Us. Not Just For The Artist And Entrepreneur. Work Should Have Meaning For The Accountant, The Construction Worker, The Technologist, The Manager And The Clerk.